Welcome to...

Club Milonga

Albeit virtually.

Club Milonga CLOSED on March 17, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and REMAINS CLOSED until further notice. We have no idea when it will be possible for us to reopen safely, but we hope conditions will be better by sometime in 2022.

Some Tango venues here in Toronto have been trying to re-open as government restrictions permit, with such safety restrictions in place as enforced social distancing, and bringing and sticking with your own partner. Club Milonga has long been known for our welcoming atmosphere, and many of our members and other patrons do not have partners to bring. We are also run by volunteers, many of whom are older and at higher risk should they become infected. So unfortunately, it is not possible (or wise) for us to re-open until the situation gets much better than it currently is.

We all miss our Tango terribly at this point. For many, it is getting to be an increasingly distant memory. So we have put up this temporary site as a way to at least help keep some of your memories alive.

We hope you like it, and look forward to inviting you to the Club again as soon as we can.

Stay safe.

On this site:

The story of how Club Milonga was founded, as written by our founder.
A series of group photos of the attendees at various points in our history. Maybe you will recognize some faces you haven't seen for a while!

Related resources which may be of interest:

While we don't have a physical presence at the moment, we can still be contacted by email!
Club Milonga has an email newsletter, which in better times was letting our members and other friends know what was happening at the Club. It has been dormant for a while, for lack of good news to publish. However, if and when we are able to re-open, we will be sending the word out by newsletter. We may also put out occasional newsletters anyway, as we come up with ideas for gainful things to say in it. If you would like to be on the list to receive it, you can sign up for it here.
We also have a Club Milonga page on Facebook, which also has not seen a lot of action during the shutdowns but should perk up again when we are finally able to reopen, if not before.
Many Tango instructors, musicians and other related artists have been doing their best to stay active and connected by providing various forms of online lessons or presentations. Club Milonga's current President, Douglas Gilbertson, has made some videos of Tango-based line dances you can follow along with on your own at home, as well as some lesson videos, based on what he has picked up during his 27 years of dancing Tango. These are currently available to watch for free on his YouTube channel.

About Club Milonga:

Club Milonga is dedicated to the promotion, practice and cultural awareness of Argentine Tango. We are the oldest Tango establishment currently operating in Toronto, Canada, having held weekly activities aimed at learning and dancing Tango since we first opened our doors in 1992, and have become known for our warm, friendly, relaxed atmosphere. We have been incorporated as a Not-for-Profit company in the province of Ontario since 1995.

We have been meeting, from not long after our inception right up until the COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020, every Tuesday evening at Danforth Baptist Church, at the corner of Bowden Street and Danforth Avenue in Toronto. Members prepaid their admissions for yearly or quarter-year periods. But drop-ins have always been welcome, and have included many Tango-loving visitors from across Canada and around the world.

A number of past members of the Club went on to found milongas, classes and similar offerings of their own, more or less based on what they had experienced during their time at Club Milonga. Not a few Tango instructors who have since become well-known fixtures in the Toronto area also began their rise to success with the encouragement and promotion they received at the Club during their early years. Each of these has added, bit by bit, to the Tango scene here in Toronto which for a while had consisted almost exclusively of us, eventually building it into the expansive and vibrant community it has become in recent years.

Sadly, the current COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a thoroughly indiscriminate problem that refuses to let up easily. Most of the Tango establishments here and around the world have been forced to either shut down, or else improvise with online or limited offerings as best they can, in order to maintain their presence and, in some cases, livelihoods. Club Milonga has been no exception.

We look forward to the opportunity to help recreate a strong, vibrant and growing Tango community here again in the future.