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Photographed by Ignacio Colo.

Martin Bellier, 45, and Leiza Ferrari Luna, 33



Martin Bellier was crowned Drag Queen during last year’s International Queer Tango Festival. At this year’s festival, he was accompanied by his new dance partner, Leiza Ferrari Luna.



“I started coming to queer milongas 10 years ago, when it was still prohibited to take photos of the milonga so that people dancing with others from the same gender wouldn’t be compromised if the photos were made public,” Bellier told Refinery29.



“The policies of gender inclusion that have been promoted in Argentina over the last few years helped install queer tango as part of the whole tango movement in Buenos Aires… These milongas not only welcome queer dancers, but also orthodox dancers who want to join the dance the way we would like to participate in all milongas. It’s not an issue of sexuality to dance with someone from the same gender.”



Like Bellier, Luna has been dancing tango for several years. She took up the dance as a hobby when she was a teenager, and eventually became a professional dancer. While queer tango has become a constant in the Buenos Aires scene, Luna believes there is still progress to be made, especially in other parts of the country.



“It’s interesting to see how this movement catches up in the interior of the country. So much is happening in Buenos Aires because we’re a cosmopolitan city, but this process is only just starting in other provinces,” Luna told Refinery29. “We came to this milonga dressed up like this on the subway, and it was totally normal. That could never happen in other provinces.”