Julio Dupláa was born in Villa Urquiza. Both his parents danced and his many aunts and uncles were superb dancers, singers and above all actors. When he was nine years old an uncle started up a theatrical company and Julio would go out with the troop on Saturday nights to help decorate the sets, and eventually also to act. When the play finished, the chairs would be moved to the walls, where the women took their seats again, while the men took up position in the centre of the room in order to cabecear their intended dance partner with an inquiring look to her mother... and the milonga began. Julio was too young to dance; he sat with his very popular aunts and over time developed a passion for this lifestyle milongueando – so that he didn’t know which he liked better: the tango or the theatre: “They both lifted my soul.” Soon he put aside his dreams of acting and dedicated himself to tango, learning from the great dancers who frequented milongas like his local, Sin Rumbo – Portale, el Nene Fo, Cacho Pistola, Milonguita (“the very best,” he says), el Negro Lavandina, Alberto Villarazzo, Tito Galarza, Finito and many more. “They taught me to dance with my feet on the ground, elegantly, honestly. When I had an overdose of ego they brought me back to earth with ‘tango is serious, it’s not for clowns’, and it was back to the embrace, the lead with the arm, with the body, without rushing, with cadencia, refinement.”

Julio has spent his life dancing tango in milongas all over Buenos Aires, often giving classes over the years, nearly always in conjunction with talks “so that people would truly understand this marvel: to be a milonguero, to feel the tango, to dance not just for the sake of it, what it is to embrace an unknown woman, the pleasure when they play Di Sarli, the great Troilo, Pugliese, Tanturi, D’Arienzo, and to feel that the singer, whoever it may be, you can listen to and die of love for a couple of minutes as he tells this story that for sure once happened to you yourself.” Organiser of the Friday night milonga at Sin Rumbo, Julio is well known throughout the traditional milonga scene in Buenos Aires.


Class content:
2 classes for Level B, Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12, 12.30pm working with Susana Miller: the archetypal milonguero for his concept of rhythm, for his use of compact space and for the marvellous simplicity of his tango ‘language’.