Confiteria Ideal was the first place we went to dance. It's exactly as it appears in video - grandiose and dilapidated. The night we first went there J's orchestra was playing, so it was the first (and only so far) chance to dance to live music here.

After we'd danced a couple of tandas, and Argentine came up and went on about how beautiful our dancing was, how we really understood tango, where did we come from, who was our teacher, etc. I was flattered, but A told me not to get an ego about it, which I was pretty deflated about - our first milonga, strangers in a strange land and not sure of ourselves (or at least me not sure of myself) - I could do with any ego boost I could get!

But it was true that it wasn't difficult to stand out - there seems to be lots of 'look at me' dancing there. It's also where we've seen tourists in the greatest numbers (which is not necessarily a bad thing - I've found it easier to get dances with tourists than with locals).

One night we went there to see Carlos Gavito and Maria Plazaola dance, which was beatiful (although it was also exactly the same dance to exactly the same music that I've seen on two videos). Gavito appeared to be very revered by many of the people there, and I still can't shake the impression that he's a dirty old man. A and I had a fight that night because she thought I was eyeing up a young dancer who'd done a performance earlier in the evening. It's true that she was cute, but also clearly tied up in the 'fame' of dancing at Ideal - she spent all night standing up at her table, looking around to see who could see her. It was the first time A has ever been jealous at a milonga; BAires will do strange things to you...
We also went to a class there during the day - turned out to be Diego who we'd met at the Melbourne tango festival. A very friendly man with a calm, non-invasive approach to teaching - he doesn't tell you what to do, he suggests what you might like to try. Seeing as I've got such a problem with authority, this works very well for me. His English is excellent too, which makes the class less hard work for me. Might go to more of his classes, until I feel a bit more comfortable about the language. A wants to go to everything every day, but I can't quite cope with that.

Anyway, I think perhaps Ideal is the tango-tourist Mecca here - you won't see the best dancing, but it has an aged elegance about it...