Margareta

The Discovery of Argentine Tango
”It’s so beautiful, so sensual. You have to go there.” These were the words of my son Stefan, who the previous evening had seen couples dancing Argentine tango on a quay by the Seine in Paris. This was in July 1995. When I a week later visited the quay I sat totally transfixed for three hours. I wanted to learn this dance. But it took a year and a half before I found the tango I was looking for. During my search, I tried a variety of tango courses, including one danced to German tango music with marching rhythms, in which you turned away from your partner with brusque movements, completely different from the dance I had witnessed in Paris. Since September 2002 when I retired from my work as a Secretary General of Barnfonden, the Swedish branch of Child Fund International, I spend a major part of my time on tango. I dance several evenings a week. Up to 2017 I have been teaching, organized practicas, milongas and workshops. I have translated and writtten books about tango and I have given lectures on the history of Argentine tango and other tango-related topics.
An important part of my tango life is my visits to Buenos Aires where I have spent 1-3 months every year. The first visit was in 2000. My book Tango Passion and the Rules of the Game is based on a decade of experiences at the milongas in Buenos Aires.

Before the Discovery of Tango
After studies at the University of Lund (Bachelor of Arts, 1963, in sociology, statistics, economics and pedagogy and after that further studies of Sociology 1964-65 and 1972). I worked as a researcher at the Institute for Social Research in Copenhagen (1964-1967) and at the Department of Sociology of the University of Dar es Salaam (1967-1972). On my return from Tanzania I worked at the Scandinavian Institutes for Administrative Research in Copenhagen and Lund with administration and research (1973-1978). A supplementary education and training in human resources prepared me for my next position, at the personnel department of the Volvo dealer Verdexa AB in Malmö, starting in 1978. I left my job as a personnel manager in 1990 when I was appointed a Secretary General of Barnfonden in Malmö, a Swedish branch of  ChildFund International. This was my final employment before my early retirement, in 2002.

Non-Tango writings
In 1982, a few months after I was widowed, I started writing. Since 1984 I belong to a creative writing group who meets monthly. My poetry and short stories have been published in different anthologies.

Träffpunkt Balzác (1990), Skåne tur och retur (1993), Timmar i Köpenhamn och Malmö (2009) och Juniljus och Frostlycka (2014).

In 1990 my translation from Danish of a book by Bent Ranning, Senior Management. Myter och verklighet om den äldre chefen, was published by Konsultförlaget in Uppsala.