A milonguero is a person who frequents the milongas (tango social dances) of Buenos Aires, Argentina, often on a nightly basis. Lately, the term milonguera have come into use to describe female milongueros.
The milongueros personify, incarnate that hidden treasure of the tanguera dance, the representation of a Buenosairean- porteño imaginary which belongs to another time, the conservation of codes in extinction, a source of inexhaustible knowledge, wisdom and the delicacy, subtility of an unique dance.
Milonguero style is danced in a close embrace that is not altered during the dance.
In the forties the word milonguero was not all that flattering, as it referred to one who was addicted to the night life, never worked, and was often begging for a loan.
This style originated as the 'petitero' or 'caquero' style in the 1940s and 50s in closely packed dance halls and "confiterias", so it is danced in close embrace, chest-to chest, with the partners leaning - or appearing to lean - slightly towards each other to allow space for the feet to move.
There are not many embellishments or firuletes or complicated figures for the lack of space in the original milonguero style but now also those figures are danced, which only at first glance seem impossible in close embrace.
Although the rhythmic, close-embrace style of dancing has existed for decades, the term "Milonguero Style" only surfaced in the mid- '90s when the name was created by Susana Miller, who had been the assistant to Pedro 'Tete' Rusconi.
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