Updated April 3, 2024

While sitting comfortably at the kitchen table in the home of Zoraida Fontclara, I remembered how this meeting and subsequent conversations came to be.

Ah yes. It’s really a simple answer.

I wanted to know more about these two wonderful people who created El Abrazo Tango Club. At the  time of our meetings, Zoraida’s life partner and co-organizer in the milonga, Diego Alvaro, was working and teaching in Europe, so he did not participate in our coffee conversations.

The story begins…while I am living in BsAs and going to many milongas and dancing tango frequently, one of my favorite Milongas is the El Abrazo Tango Club at El Beso on Fridays from 2.30 to 8.

I think I have danced at El Beso, every friday afternoon since we finished the pandemia years ago. That’s a lot of dancing in one place.

Over the years, I found myself enjoying the space that Zoraida and Diego have created. The hosts are very welcoming, the floor and the music are excellent, and the milonga is usually packed with locals and tango tourists because it is one of the friendliest in the city.

This milonga started 28 years ago.

This Friday, March 8th, the El Abrazo Tango Club celebrates their 28th anniversary. This milonga was the first afternoon Milonga in the city and  started at the old La Confitería Ideal on Suipacha near Avenida Corrientes in March 1996.

One week after celebrating their 20-year anniversary at La Confitería Ideal, the milonga moved to it’s present location at El Beso, Riobamba, and Corrientes.

Here, at this milonga, it’s not about your level of dancing or the clothing you are wearing. It’s about being in your comfort zone, of enjoying the place, whether you are dancing or sitting. It’s possible to just enjoy watching the dancers while always being kind and not causing discomfort to others.

I asked Zoraida over a coffee.”How did this milonga begin ?”

These conversations would continue over  successive coffees, as we got to know one another better.

To write the story, I had to discover the essence of the person. One must get to know that person.

From these conversations with Zoraida, I learned that she grew up knowing she wanted to be a contemporary dancer. She attended many different dance schools, from ballet to contemporary dance,  while living in Buenos Aires with her parents. They both worked at regular jobs and danced tango as did most Portenyos in those days.

This passion for dance led her to learn and then later teach many different styles of dance along with the structure of dance and choreography.

But within the framework of her dancing, she was always searching for something more, something that would ignite her passion for the dance.

Studying and working with many local dance and theater companies was a dream come true, but the stress of working 7 days finally caught up with her. Zoraida was 23 years old. She was overworked and over stressed, and as a dancer, she was not fulfilled.

What was missing?

In this spirit of discovery, she left Buenos Aires  and traveled to France, Italy, and Germany.

Her talents allowed her to become a temporary member of various companies. She tried all these companies on, yet she was still searching for her gift, her place, her style in the dance world.

The 1980s in Paris was an amazingly productive and rich artistic period for her and her dancing. Here in Paris, she met Pina Bausch, a German expressionist dance choreographer.

Meeting Pina and seeing her dance work touched Zoraida’s soul in a way that no dance had done so before.

As with any artform, it is common practice to search for your soul in your work and to discover your particular style and manner. Zoraida did this for many months in Europe. She was still a very young woman.

Upon meeting Pina, she was invited to watch the company practice. At these practices, she experienced many emotions and much creativity. At that time, she was invited back to Germany and was even offered a place to live at one of the other dancers’ homes.

What an honor it was to be invited. Yet it was a difficult decision to make as her family in Argentina was financially supporting her and this was becoming increasingly difficult.

Zoraida remembers this moment as she knew that the decision she made would forever change her path of dance.

Zoraida made her decision, and she chose to return to Argentina.

Besides this, another dear dancer friend wanted to go to Argentina. Daniel Trenner was a teacher of  contact improvisation and wanted to teach this subject in BsAs.

After living in BsAs for a while, Daniel asked, “Why are we not dancing Tango?”

Zoraida considered this idea as she remembered she had danced Tango with her father when she was young. She learned this expression from him.

“Tango is always waiting for you!”
! El Tango todavía siempre esperando¡

When she started dancing Tango, Zoraida found all the connections she had been searching for in dance.

Her friend, Daniel wanted them to become the next Fed Astaire and Ginger Rodriguez but in Tango.


Her love of connection, her love of knowing the body as honest as a way of knowing  another’s soul.

But, even as she danced Tango in BsAs, Zoraida was still studying different dance techniques. She was invited to take classes at the Omega Institute in Northern Massachusetts. 

For a while, she lived there, teaching classes and driving to school daily.  Then, one day, while driving to class, she was involved in a horrific car accident that left her in a coma for 10 days, but somehow, she had many serious.

While in her coma,  Zoraida recalls that she kept having the same reoccurring conversations in both her subconscious and her dreams.

This statement kept repeating itself.

What is my purpose?

The answer to the question was Tango!

She chose Tango, and Tango chose her.

Ultimately, she is a tango teacher but not of steps…

Zoraida believes that to be more integrated into your body, tango teaches me what I think I need to teach to you.

Tango teaches me to teach you the tools to dance for yourself and what is going to be good for you and your body.

El Abrazo Tango Club Milonga, the place, is a space to be giving the tango embrace and to be meeting with others.

Tango is a language without words.

Because I propose a space that I want for the people to be themselves.”

As Zoraida continues telling her story about meeting Diego when she was 24 years old, and they became good friends. He was an actor in the theater. Then, after remaining friends with Diego for 6 years, they fell in love and got married. They are the proud parents of two grown children.

El Abrazo Tango Club started in 1996 and continues to this day on Friday afternoons at El Beso club on Riobamba near Callao.

And on most Friday nights while I live in Buenos Aires, you will find me there, dancing with my heart at El Abrazo Tango Club

On March 8th, they will celebrate their 28th year.
Abrazo y beso