Tango stars dazzle as Buenos Aires crowns world champions

Thirteen years after finishing as runners-up, dancers Nair Schinca and Nicolás Schell were on Wednesday crowned Tango Escenario champions at the 2026 edition of the Tango Buenos Aires Festival and World Championship.

The duo won the prize with a tender performance that celebrated the embrace at the heart of the dance before a packed theatre in Buenos Aires.

Dressed in black with silver detailing and partnered by Schell in a dinner suit and bow tie, Schinca delivered a delicate and elegant performance that drew applause from the audience even while they danced.

“This year we decided to focus on that place, on a deep embrace. But also to reclaim, in a small way, romance and tenderness,” 39-year-old Schell told reporters after receiving the award.

Among those leaving the Gran Rex theatre, 35-year-old Ayelén Hassel praised the champions’ ability to translate the music into complementary movements.

“Beautiful. They did a very musical choreography,” she said. “I saw her dancing one instrument and him dancing another. It was incredible.”

Schinca and Schell prevailed over 20 couples in the competition’s more acrobatic category, which allows dancers to break out of the embrace and incorporate jumps, spins and elements from other disciplines.

It was the Argentine duo's fifth appearance at the Tango Mundial. In 2013 they finished runners-up.

“We’ve been entering for quite a long, long time,” admitted 40-year-old Schinca afterwards.

Both danceres described tango as the centre of their professional and family lives.

“We live for tango and by tango. It’s culture, it’s like football,” Schell said.

“It’s my son, it’s my mum, it’s family, it’s everything,” Schinca added.

The previous evening, Argentine Lucas Gauto and Greek dancer Naima Gerasopoulou won the Tango de Pista world title at the same theatre.

Based in Athens, where they dance and teach professionally, Gauto and Gerasopoulou met a decade ago during the Tango world championship. They finished fourth in 2024 and runners-up in 2025, before claiming the top spot this year.

Tango de Pista recreates the way tango is danced in Buenos Aires' many milongas. Unlike the Escenario category, couples cannot break the embrace or perform acrobatic figures. Instead, judges assess their connection, musicality and measured, rhythmic walking.

The finals brought the curtain down on the 2026 Tango BA Festival y Mundial, organised by the Buenos Aires City government, which drew more than 2,000 artists to around 50 venues across the capital.

Over two weeks, around 150 concerts, performances, exhibitions, dance classes, milongas and other activities linked to the genre, which was born in the late 19th century in the Río de la Plata region, were staged.

Around 800 couples from 47 countries took part in the opening rounds of the world championship. Only 60 made it through to the finals: 40 in Tango de Pista and 20 in Tango Escenario.

– TIMES/AFP