[2][3] Milonguero-style tango, also known as estilo milonguero (in Buenos Aires, known by name Estilo del centro because it originates from downtown milongas where dance floors were crowded) or apilado (piled up, stacked), is a close-embrace style of social tango dancing in which the focus is inward and the leg and arm movements are kept small.

[7][9] Barbara Garvey, the co-founder of the Bay Area Tango Association based in San Francisco, said that she and her husband Al saw in 1987 that "a very simple form of close embrace was prevalent in the center of [Buenos Aires], but not in other barrios.

[10] From the late 1980s, a sense of tango community had been growing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and after '94 it adopted an emphasis on milonguero style, along with other forms of close embrace.

However, from around 1996 when Madonna was in Buenos Aires making the film Evita, women's dress at milongas grew more sheer and revealing.

[13] On the other hand, milonguero-style dancers may regard with suspicion the nuevo-style introduction of electronic and other non-traditional music to the dance floor.