Argentina’s top stars are aged 82 and 90 but this doesn’t stop them from dancing

They are in their ninth decade of life, but the rhythm of tango still thrills in the legs of Oscar and Nina.

Even their competitors at last week's tango world championship conceded that this couple danced the most authentic tango of all.

Having learned tango during its golden age in 1940s Buenos Aires, Oscar Brusco and Nina Chudoba are some of the longest-surviving proponents of the art.

"We are the essence of tango," says Brusco, still straight-backed at 90 and ready to dance.

Chudoba, 82, is the daughter of Polish immigrants who settled in one of Buenos Aires' top tango areas, Valentin Alsina.

She is glad to see young people still dancing tango -- but also nostalgic for its heyday.

"We breathed tango, we fell in love with tango and we laughed with tango," she says. "They all dance the same nowadays. Before, each dancer had their own style."

Chudoba turned to dancing in her 50s after her husband died. That was how she met Brusco, also a widower.

They go four times a week to "milongas," tango parties.

Faced with younger competition, the couple did not win the championship in Buenos Aires -- but they got a standing ovation as they stepped on stage.

Backstage, finalists Juan Manuel Rosales and his wife Liza greet Brusco and Chudoba before going on stage to compete.

"When I look at them, I think that they are part of tango," says Rosales.

"They lived through the real age of tango, in the 1940s, when the whole country was dancing it."

Nearby, younger male dancers in suits gelled their hair, sporting moustaches like the stars of a past age.

"The legacy has been passed on," says Liza. "We will try to keep the essence from being lost."AFP

Tango i originated in the 1880s along the River Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay, and soon spread to the rest of the world.

On August 31, 2009, UNESCO approved a joint proposal by Argentina and Uruguay to include the tango in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.