Hotel for world’s dance tourists

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

At this Buenos Aires hotel, there’s more to lodging than a soft bed and a breakfast buffet. Travelers can sleep, eat and dance tangoall under one roof.

Welcome to the Abasto Plaza Hotel, which bills itself as the only five-star tango theme hotel in Buenos Aires. Here, corporate travelers are the main business, but tourists from as far away as Europe and Asia also are finding a place to kick up their heels and enjoy the ultimate tango experience — without leaving their home away from home.

Guests sleep in rooms decorated with tango motifs, eat in a hotel restaurant with a nightly show by two tango champions and shop for dance shoes in the hotel’s tango boutique.

Even the concierge is a “tango guest relations” manager whose uniform looks like a black tango dress and whose job it is to set up guests for nightly dance lessons on the hotel mezzanine and arrange tango tour packages downtown.

The marketers are intent on capturing a growing group of tourists drawn to Buenos Aires by the moody, melancholic dance that began on the waterfront a century ago and has gained admirers the world over.

After Argentina’s deep economic crisis of 2002, the tango industry is doing its part to help fuel a tourist boom as more than 1 million tourists arrive each year to what is an affordable South American destination in the wake of a searing devaluation.

Today, tango also is being taken up by young Argentines and infused with elements of hip-hop and other dance styles. Broadway-style reviews and Hollywood films with tango plots keep international interest high, and many tango schools offer inexpensive lessons all around Buenos Aires.

“They say if you come to Buenos Aires and you haven’t danced tango, then you haven’t been to Buenos Aires,” says 19-year-old Brazilian tourist Emilene Faria, a hotel guest taking her nightly tango lesson.

She giggles as an Argentine tango instructor leads her through her paces, proud to pull off the eight basic steps that are the foundation for the tango dance.

She and 12 other Brazilians and a sprinkling of European guests partake of the nightly classes on the hotel’s marble floor, dancing before a sepia-colored mural of an old Buenos Aires marketplace.

“Come tango with the World Champions. An unforgettable experience” reads a poster set up in the hotel lobby, beckoning would-be customers to step inside for lodging and lessons.

Sandra Silva, the tango guest manager, shows off two luxury suites, each with its own oak dance floor for private in-house lessons. Large mirrors and a large-screen TV are positioned nearby to enable students to check their moves against the recorded lessons on DVDs.

Pooped after training? There’s also the Tango Cafe bar in the suites and a whirlpool bath on the balcony, perfect for soaking tired feet while taking in the skyline.

“Tango really does bring the people in,” Miss Silva says. “Just watching someone dance tango makes you want to dance. It’s just so sensual, but it also has its technique.”

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