Milonga (dance)

Milonga dance incorporates the same basic elements as Argentine tango but permits a greater relaxation of legs and body.

It is usually a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a more humorous and rustic style in contrast with the serious and dramatic tango.

"The milonga is so universal in the environs of the city that it is an obligatory piece at all the lower-class dances (bailecitos de medio pelo), and it is now heard on guitars, on paper-combs, and from the itinerant musicians with their flutes, harps and violins.

[2] Distinctive elements added from candombe were "quebradas", improvised, jerky, semi-athletic contortions, the more dramatic the better, ironical elements like walking around the partner with exaggerated tiny steps or humorous jumps, and cortes, a suggestive pause, or sudden break in the figures of the dance.

This Africanized milonga-tango, as well as the habanera and mazurka, was frowned upon, and found wholly unacceptable by some sections of Argentine high society.

Tango started black, and milonga, the dance preceding it, even more so.Milonga is 'a purely African word meaning "argument" or "issue" in Kimbundu and "lines of dancers" in Ki-Kongo.

At that time Portuguese officials on the coast of Angola were complaining to Lisbon that Queen Nzinga, an indigenous leader of the interior, was sending out messages - milonga - to persuade local populations to join her.

[5] During the early twentieth century it was common for wealthy Argentine families to send their sons to Europe to take a Grand Tour when they were coming of age.

Many of the young men went to Paris where they would interact with the Parisian high society and attend dances at dinner clubs.

[6] According to many accounts, many of the hosts of the young Argentine men found the new styles of tango and milonga to be very risque and intriguing.

Additionally in Atlantic city beachgoers would dance tango and milonga on the beach board walk.