Tuesday evening practice at TipoTango Eindhoven (and how I got to go there in the first place)

By Pieter :

"The best way to learn this dance is just to go to social events and do it", she said to me, and after that invited me to dance as a follower...

A few month ago I went to the tuinhuis milonga in Utrecht [review] on a whim. I had heard it was very informal, and so I figured there must be someone there who could teach me the basics. And although that may have been a bit of a naive thought, it worked out quite well. After first talking a bit to two guys who ensured me I should take lessons first but could ofcourse just sit and watch, and a chat with the organiser who was surprised I came all the way from Eindhoven, there was a kind lady (all the way from Scottland!) who would walk around the floor with me, provided she would lead...

After being a true follower for the first time, I knew this would be a very enlightning way to learn a new dance. I followed before, but only when I "knew the steps", and never seriously. When I had ballroom lessons as a teenager, we (a group of boys) sometimes switched to tease the teacher. But now, all of a sudden, I was not thinking about steps anymore, and when switching roles cautiously quite a bit later, I was very conscious of my partner more than of myself. Of course, leading has to be done confidently at all times, and my new awareness made me shaky. Then again: it was my first time.

But now I had a problem. As I often do, I had gotten myself into a niche-of-a-niche. Not only had I gotten to like Tango, I had gotten into learning it as a follower... which means I would have to find leaders who would not mind a man following. For sure, this is not the standard at any school. So, all I could do is wait for an opportunity to go to some informal event again and try my luck.

The opportunity came in December, when I found time and courage to go to a practice evening of TipoTango in Eindhoven. Being new, I immediately got some attention from the people already there, and even though most came with their partner to practice rather than socialize, I danced with Thea (as a leader, but got some good tips), got advice and enthousiasm from Michael, and at the end of the evening was very lucky to find Marianne, a local teacher, kind enough to lead me and have me lead alternatingly, so I could feel what effect certains small movements have. Connection, ballance, clearly moving your weight, and (very difficult for a musician) moving slightly ahead of the music to give your partner time to respond. Keeping my heels together is also going to be a thing... 

So, it is possible to dive into a practice evening unprepared, alone, and without expectations, and have a good time, and learn someting! Chatting with the people present at this practice evening also made me aware that you really have to pick your evenings carefully however. There are also many 'closed scenes' where the reaction "get some lessons first" is rule rather than exception. Still it will be fun, exploring new worlds and new civilizations, and boldly go somewhere with an open mind. For sure, TipoTango was a very nice second step in this adventure. The practice evening turned out to be a welcoming scene for newbies like me.

Warmth

I dropped into the Edinburgh jazz bar on Sunday almost by chance. I was hungry and remembered as I walked past that there was some people from the Queer Tango scene who go there at that time to dance blues. In the Ladies someone said a warm hello. It was a new tango dancer from the QT group who danced amazingly, naturally well after only a month. That’s the nice thing about that group. Their teacher goes with them to the local milonga and dances with them. 

The new tango dancer told me where she was sitting with her friends. The seating was cabaret style at small tables, some of them pushed together. I got a drink but didn't want to gatecrash her large table of dancers so sat at the back to watch for a while. But she came to find me, chatted to me, sat down, and then persuaded me over to her table where she introduced me to everyone. It was simply the warmest, most sensitive gesture of welcome I've seen in ages. It isn’t that she has decades of social and hosting experience. She is young so it must simply be that she was brought up to be like that or is just that way naturally.. 

A guy from the milongas was there. He knows many dances. We only danced once two or three years ago, I’m not sure why. I suppose I assumed he didn’t want to invite or he assumed I didn’t want to be invited and then gradually - partly through choice, partly to protect my dodgy knee - I danced less and less with guys conventionally.  But he welcomed me too. And then when I was about to leave after half an hour or so to go to the milonga he said persuasively that I shouldn’t leave without dancing. I wasn’t ready and pled my outdoor shoes but I expect I will go back. 

In my experience in the milongas this sort of welcome from habitues is amazingly, sadly rare even - especially - among the well-heeled, well-educated middle classes of the south of England which should indicate that those sorts of things have nothing to do with warmth. It is because of this friendly group of Queer Tango dancers that I have started going back to the regular milonga in Edinburgh which I'd effectively left for the best part of two years. The blues dancer had evidently been warned off entering the milonga scene by people who do other dances along the lines of “tango is such a cold/snobby/unfriendly scene”. 

We in the milongas have in general an appalling reputation for welcoming new people and visitors and welcoming them not mechanically but genuinely, warmly with the same sensitivity shown by my new friend. I once saw a host crash - metapahorically - in supposed welcome into a group of new people a regular had brought to the milonga.  The same host has a tendency to crash, bulldozer-like into conversations between other people. This isn’t welcome, it’s assertion of dominance.

Look around your local milonga and see how very few beginners come into the milonga from class. So those we bring with us, visitors, the curious who drop in are as precious to the milonga as newborns to life. And yet mostly they are treated like Spartans: survive or die. The attitude reminds me of one recounted by the former local from a small island off the west coast of Scotland towards new residents:  It was quite a tough approach: we’ll ignore you for now and see if you’re around/still alive in a year.

Do you like the milonga? I asked the blues/tango dancer. I like our corner of it she said cautiously. When they weren’t there on Sunday I missed them.

Dancing after Christmas: other options

The logistics of going away at this time are for me - even if like last year it involves a round trip of over a thousand miles by car and multiple accommodation bookings - relatively straightforward. Even with three years experience it is plucking up courage to ask for the time which accounts for 95% of my delay. 

With school events more or less over and now at least a plan in place to get us to 25th I decided that for booking a trip it was well into the red section of now or never. I did not even consider marathons, hearing that they nearly always require registration and are more for a younger set happy to sleep on a floor. 

After writing off Tenerife and still desperate for sun, I looked at the Sol de Invierno tango meeting near Málaga. Twenty degrees in December, sun, sea, and an opportunity to practise my Spanish. I sent off an enquiry and in an afterthought asked how many people were going. 

No sooner had I done so I found myself thinking, inexplicably about Tango Train 3 in Amsterdam. It is a series of afternoon and evening milongas run in Amsterdam from 24th December - 1 January even while other (non-participating) milongas run also in the city and nearby. The event is a collaboration among existing milonga organisers. There is no need to register or pre-book. You can just turn up.

Why consider this when sun is the main reason I wanted to go away? Yet within hours of sending off my enquiry to Spain I almost knew if I was going anywhere it would be Amsterdam. Nearly as cold as Scotland, knowing I would find myself negotiating a hired bike on possibly icy, certainly dark streets without a helmet, not knowing where I was going and to milongas where I knew it could be famously difficult to get dances - Amsterdam having a quite dreadful reputation as a “closed” dance scene. 

That is perhaps why there is an alternative option at the same time - the Taboe camp in Austerlitz organised by Tango Atelier. It is a very different culture, offering 50 workshops over 6 days, a forest setting, “gatherings”, massage, yoga and dancing in a lake (presumably summer version only). You have to sign up for the six days of the camp and participate in the housekeeping. On the other hand it is child-friendly and serves vegetarian food. It is a totally different concept.

Whereas accommodation in the camp is provided, I know from experience that finding accommodation, never mind affordable accommodation in Amsterdam is fraught. Airbnb rooms after Christmas were well over £100/night. I would have to stay further out in somewhere like Utrecht (which I’d loved in September), but that was a pain. So why go to all this trouble instead of relaxing in the sun?: The answer: milonga culture. 

Sol de Invierno brands itself as a Tango Meeting, not an encuentro (even in the Spanish version). Its website has a “Registration” section but it is more about prices and packages than “tell us who you are and if we think you're suitable we'll make enquiries”. It doesn’t give off the controlling “You will be vetted and there is a closing date” vibe of encuentro and marathon sites. It mentions, dates, times, has good accommodation & dance pass deals and optional excursions. It sounded relaxing and non-prescriptive. Perhaps that is because these organisers say they have between them twenty years experience of event organisation. Or perhaps it is just because they are more relaxed in Spain. There is not a whiff of do’s, don’ts and rules that dog many other European encuentro or marathon style events - I don't call them milongas because a milonga to me is something else. 

At Gran Canaria’s first tango festival in 2014 I had liked the grave, inscrutable formality and the sudden, surprising smiles of the Spanish men of which I was all reminded a couple of years later in Buenos Aires, although Argentinian men I found decidedly more wolfish. I had liked the Spanish embraces, very different from the nordic version.  Sol de Invierno anticipates 60% Spanish, 40% international visitors.  But I knew I would be seeing the same mostly unvarying group of people at the same milongas for several days. I think this is not really a problem for a few days but in a small village I did not want to risk being a solo among couples which to some extent had been the case in the (much larger) Las Palmas. Occasionally I had felt uncharacteristically lonely over the five days I was there. I missed my children badly and wasn’t sure I wanted to risk that again.

The meeting in Nerja is something created in that place for that time. I can see why many people would like that - the sun, the relaxation, the dancing, especially if you are in a couple or with friends. Tango Train is also an artificial creation to an extent - the juxtaposition of so many milongas does not happen quite like this normally in Amsterdam, but its organisers do run milongas in Amsterdam which already has a thriving milonga scene. Within the anonymity of a city and with so much to explore a giraffe I felt could blend in with other giraffes. Another factor was that the Sol de Invierno milongas are in the village of Maro, near Nerja but they have now sold out of accommodation there so the nearest accommodation would be 2.5 km away, requiring 2-4 taxis/day at 10-15 euros each. That sounded like a bore. Still, in response to my enquiry I received a very courteous reply from the organisers who are expecting I think around 200 people.  Could I but secure accommodation within walking distance and especially if I went accompanied I would look into it again for next year.

"Amsterdam..." said the insistent, internal voice and suddenly everything fell into place. Yesterday morning my husband who with yearly, deeper shakes of the head, calls me a teenager though I’ve known him close on twenty years said: cheerily “Yes, of course you can go”, though I am not altogether sure he knew whether I meant Nerja or the Netherlands. November in Scotland hadn't been fun: dark mornings well below zero and everyone ill and for ages. Mull of Kintyre in the supermarkets and Christmas songs on a loop which must drive their sainted employees up the wall. How much wiser to ask early, book early and have something to look forward to. I tell myself this each time I eventually do make a travel booking.

I found flights easily and instead of traipsing about looking for affordable spare rooms in people’s houses, a local dancer in the Tango Train - where to stay facebook group had a room for rent at a fraction of the Airbnb prices. But my patient husband offered me the hotel points he racks up but never uses. 

Wonderfully, the Oranjerie salon in Arnhem on 2nd January is selling tickets online (for reasons of space). It is not hand-picking people though and while it wants a role balance, at least it is not a gender balance, which makes some of us who don't see life that way go whoosh! with indignation. So I am going to that too. You had to pick a role. I was confused and said 'Follower' though I seldom do dance that role and loathe both the term and the stricture since I never do know which role I’ll dance til I get to a milonga, usually deciding only upon who's there and even upon the track.  I think I picked 'Follower' in the hope of better guy dancing than I usually see.  But, things never being straightforward in the milongas, just because there probably will be better guy dancing in no way means I'll get any, certainly not if Amsterdam's apparently top flight but quite soul-destroying milonga La Bruja was anything to go by.

I have a feeling of dread in case Tango Train all goes wrong for me - and excitement, in case it’s wonderful.  It's that feeling of both at the same time, like the feeling you get before journeys.

Long milongas

Lunan Bay

Our favourite beaches are the long expanses Lunan Bay in Angus and St Andrews West Sands and Tentsmuir in Fife, backed by its pine woods.  Of course there are gem-like tiny beaches but there is a promise of something wonderful in those those long, majestic expanses, something maybe about an extended free day of pleasure represented by that lengthy exapnse.

A: How many people danced those last two tandas out of interest?

B: Everyone there, which was about five couples since some had left after 3 hours (esp. classgoers) and many after 4.

A: That's a real shame. If I don't know the place I often like to settle in for an hour or two and then get going with the dancing. I loved that about Buenos Aires, how much dancing time there was. Long milongas as standard. You can really relax when there's no time pressure. At the Cambridge New Year milonga - that there was only an hour to watch, an hour to try to pick up any guy dances I fancied and an hour with the women. It felt hurried.

B: Quite amazing to the see that milonga duration at three hours. Sadly I think that's to cater for the classeros who want to be 'batched up'.

What's nice is that this year's edition of that milonga will be five hours long. I don't know that I'm going though because I and others found over two days recently the good music by that DJ was played far too loud.

Hoy Milonga shows that many milongas in Buenos Aires run for six or seven hours.   El Arranque and Nuevo Chique were both running for seven hours on the Thursday that I drafted this piece. Milonga de Buenos Aires in the Obelisco venue on a Friday was running for nine hours. We in Britain are only in the last few years dragging ourselves out of the kindergarten/classero three hour milonga. Many milongas in the UK now are lasting at least four hours, sometime five or more.

These are the regular five hour + milongas in the UK that I know of. As you can see it has little to do with location.  If you hear of any others, please do say.  The ones I have been to have my summary memories in italics.

Beeston Bank holiday milongas by Lisa Cherry-Downes by Nottingham (five hours) , the next one being Monday Jan 2nd.  Lots of food! Prefixed by classes.  Needs better guy dancing. Review

Cafe Domingo, a monthly five hour tea dance in Bristol by Andrew Oldroyd & Michele Tedder. Genuine, warm hosting from Andrew.  For venue, dancing, music and atmosphere this was my favourite place in 2015.  Review

El Quinto, five hour milonga, quarterly in Nottingham by Mick & Susan Morgan.  Nice venue. Cold, rule-bound, self-conscious milonga.  Needs better guy dancing and from experience and reports, needs better DJs  Review

La Milonga de Exeter, five hour milonga by Fernando Guidi.  I keep hearing how nice the host is.

Manchester pop up milonga. 5 hour milonga roughly every two months run by a group of friends - John, Stephanie, Helen and Paris.  Check Facebook group. Great welcome, lovely decor, mostly standing room, good for socialising, quite dark, very small dance floor for the numbers. Review

Menuda Milonga, Cranborne, Dorset by Richard Slade (5.5 hours).  Lovely venue, accommodating host, famously hard to break into if unknown.  Attracts people from far away.  Plays Guardia Vieja.

Tango Stafford’s five hour tea dances run by Geoff and Pauline.

Tea and tapas  was a five and a half hour event in Cardiff .  This was a £15 ticket inclusive of food.  It was organised by a group of friends but unfortunately there seems to be no group to keep an eye on what might happen next.

El Arrabal, 5 hour mothly milonga in Oxford by Miriam Orcutt & Dante Culcuy. Oxford Tango Academyl.  Quite dark.  Tabled seating but not per BA where solos are seated with others by the host, so lonely for unknown solo dancers. Pretty good music - some drama.  Review

Their Barn milogna is four hours long and it says on the website that it is sometimes preceded by a class.  This is useful for those who wish to avoid those weekends to avoid the inevitable influx of class-based dancers which usually means worse dancing compared to social dancers and often a poorer ronda.

Tango Light Temple, 5.5 hour weekly milonga in Shoreditch, London by Pablo Rodriguez and Naomi West Tango Space 

The short-lived milonga by Manchester-based Tormenta Tango was also five hours.

What is interesting is that the majority of these are not, to my knowledge, run by teachers and do not have classes beforehand, demonstrating that social dancers know what social dancers like. In this list the only non-teaching organiser I am aware of who bring in teachers before milongas is Lisa - and the dance standard was correspondingly poor, also with many leaving before the end having already spent a long time in class.

At multi-day milonga weekends I prefer one longer milonga over two shorter ones. I hear about buyers less inclined to pay for two four hour milongas in one day when they would rather have e.g. one six hour milonga.  Besides being less overtly exploitative it is more relaxing with less pressure to try to cram in all of one's dancing into a shorter time.

On the grapevine

I heard a few things lately - they seem to have a Nordic slant whereas I am looking south this time of year! Reportedly:

Harrogate tango festival had a good turn-out of about 100 people on the main night. They were mostly people who attended the classes. The DJs were unadvertised, the request on Facebook about who the DJs were was ignored. The DJs were actually the teachers.  Things were reportedly traditional including invitation, as was music with a few alternative tracks.

The Great Yarmouth milonga weekend looked nice pic but completely different to the room size that was advertised pic. Be sure to check the hotel's TripAdvisor reviews. Graham Harrad and Rob Barba reportedly played nice sets.

The Ramsbottom milonga weekend was to my knowledge the first milonga weekend in the north. Good foodie destination! Numbers were tops about 30 on the Saturday night, and disappointingly low for the other milongas despite good turn out for a class-heavy festival by the same organisers using the same venue the previous year. Moral and sad hypothesis (?): dancers in the north currently prefer classes to milongas. Northern dancers who don’t might do well to get some decent class and show-free milongas going up there.

Leamington spa festival weekend had a poor room layout and a difficult ronda with a big mix of ages and abilities.

As for the marathons and encuentros, reportedly:

Krakow was not good - poor venue, layout and not great dancing.

Lodz  - a guy who went said it was great.  A girl who went said there were too many girls!

I asked someone who travels why there are so few milonga weekends in UK. The person said people can go abroad for them and was not alone in remarking how cheap Poland is. It is a question of value for money: Poland: £150 for 5 day in a flat in the city centre. 12 DJs, good breakfast on site, soup in the evening, 90 euros for 3 days + inexpensive travel to get there with far better dancers than the general UK standard. Compare to Bristol: a more expensive encuentro, no food, and no change on £150 for three nights accommodation. I could see the compelling side but also the conflation of milonga weekends with marathons.

Mallorca was great. 

It has to be said that when you're stuck in some local UK tango scenes where classes tend to rule, you don't necesarily tend to quibble about the things you go to outside it.

Bergen tango marathon was very good. Disastrous and very confused registration process for couples - you can register as a couple, you can’t, you might be able to, we don’t know, we’re not saying, OK then (no apology). But once through all that there were no do's and don'ts list but good etiquette, very good dancing and relaxed atmosphere.

Oslo’s Thursday night regular milonga is very nice in a gorgeous venue. The night can change to Fri/Sat which is deliberate to allow people with fixed weekly commitments the chance to come, but it is always in the same venue. Very pleasant people. Tall men :)

La Mirada encuentro in Tenerife was one I looked into for the space between Christmas and over the New Year, the chance of sun and warmer temperatures weakening my customary fussiness about DJs and resolve against events requiring pre-registration. Last week there was a website note saying - typical of these things - you have to book as a couple or a single guy because they want to gender balance and they’d run out of single women places. My irritation at these things inclines me at these moments to claim a gender-blurred identity. I think it’s a real thing but I forget the proper name. I’d claim minority rights and wrongful discrimination only I think they might push me off to a Queer Tango group where I might not feel queer enough to fit in but I’m pretty sure they’d be more welcoming. On the strength of that, maybe I really am gender-confused. Any chance of an encuentro for that?

Roll on the day when they do show-free, class-free, no pre-registration milongas in different venues between Christmas and New Year on one of the Canary islands. Sun, sea, good seafood and, good music & venue permitting - maybe even some dancing too. What’s not to like? Best of all, no need to beg single guys who don’t need single girls to get in with. I don’t think I’d like to go with the kind of single guy that was happy to register with a girl as a security blanket - which is probably why I don’t know any.. 

Apparently, most encuentros seem to want you to open up your friends section on Facebook (if locked down) so they can poke about your friends. I even heard one guy had to get a (presumably friendless) facebook account to apply for an encuentro. 

La Colmena in Denmark even wants you to say who your top 5 milongueros are, Milongueros on Youtube? Oh no, ones you’ve danced with apparently...

These sorts of places vet you with such flagrant indignity that it reminds me of the intrusive medical checks to which an elderly female Italian friend told me she was subjected to upon application for a job here, post-war. And then although they vet you, they still list their rules, as if to say “we well and truly checked you out, only our process of sniffing round your friends isn't really enough or we're not very good at doing it so you’re only here on sufferance...." 

It's important to keep calm and recall like attracts like, in dance, life, thought process and this is a helpful thing:

"In case in your general "tanguero" life you somehow missed that encuentros are Not For Everyone and you missed it also in the application an vetting process.... let us remind you There Are Rules” (usually on the website)  

The Embrace photos from Riga were nice. Standard gender balanced stuff, encuentro standard creepy “we investigate who you are to keep out the riff raff”. The funny thing about these sorts of events is that even if you register as a couple, there can be rules to keep you apart.. 

A: When will one of these things resist the rules section? Too bad about "don't dance several tandas in a row with one person".

B: Wow. Never seen that as a prohibition.

A: Oh I've seen it before, more than once.

B: I'm tempted to write a spoof tragedy comic strip in which a guy and girl meet, dance, fall in love... only to be torn apart by encuentro rules.

Finally, from Stockholm based The DecaVitas, I saw this video today and thought too fun not to share!

Technique: A false friend

Technique is a real bugbear of mine. It comes up all the time. Perhaps I should carry this post about in hard copy form for whenever someone brings up the T word.  It might have a new title:  Don't Talk To Me About Technique!  People do talk about it though: in the milongas, in practicas, in forums - presumably non-stop in classes.  Even when they have forsworn learning figures and movements they still have faith in this vague but apparently so necessary...what? What is exactly is technique supposed to be? 

'False friend', to recall:

False friends are words in two languages (or letters in two alphabets)[1] that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. An example is the English embarrassed and the Spanish embarazada (which means pregnant) - Wikipedia

You can see the misunderstanding can be substantial.

So it is with the false friend: technique. In the language of tango dance class, technique is part of “the basics”, "the building blocks", “the toolkit”, “the ABC” that will let you become competent, fluent, advanced in your tango dancing.  It is nothing but a con. A true confidence trick because people who believe they have (by paying for it in time and money) technique or “the basics” have simply tried to buy confidence - worse, confidence that is rarely underpinned by anything of real substance.

"Girls like the one described here I try to stay away from. Despite what she says such a girl is so mentally alert, so self-aware, how could it be 'about us'? Such a girl is actually so conscious of all the 'oughts' - her own, and his, that she is unable to just be.  She is talking about incompatible things. How could you 'dance from the heart' when you are thinking about: "perfect balance, solid connection and flawless timing (have patience; it is a work in progress). I want to inspire him with my musicality and entertain him with beautiful, creative styling"?

I suppose she'd say all that technique is practiced with hours of work so it's second nature. And that's the point: second nature, not natural."

Good Lord, I don't want  - per that article - to be "inspired" and "entertained" by a girl and most guys I know don't look for that either. They are about the the last things I would look for or that would even occur to me. I want to dance with partners. With them. I don't want them to dance at me, which is what inspiring or entertaining is about. This isn't a show.  The reason I avoid such girls is because  - contrary to what she says - such things are actually about her, not about us. 

Technique is not thinking about your posture, your walk, your musicality, your centre of gravity, your axis, the position of your feet or your chest or your arms or your legs or your head or what you do with any of these things. It is not about the engagement of the core, or the degree of pressure in your hand, or the "connection with the floor".    

It is not thinking about your embrace and most of all it is not about teaching someone to embrace someone else. If someone needs classes on how to embrace another comfortably, with mutual enjoyment and that amazing sensation of another personality, that exchange of energy, then they probably are not ready for this dance. 

Technique is not about stretching your leg back. Those girls - like runaway trains - are a curse on the social floor and a pain to dance with especially when it is busy. I remember a teacher telling me in one of two private lessons I ever had that the girls he most enjoyed dancing with were those who could really walk properly with extended leg.  Sure, if you're a show dancer and how I wish those girls would divert into the show-tango performance track and keep out of the milongas or join milongas for people like them. Clue: they tend to wear short skirts and real eye-catching clothes. Similarly, the girls who think that technique is how your feet and legs look are nothing but a nuisance distraction to the guy or girl dancing behind them - pulling him or her out of absorption in the music and their own partner by their taps, flicks and the affectations of their lower halfs.  Next time your friend considers signing up for a class in "Adornments" do remind her that affectation in someone's feet can be so strong as to make one almost ill though it is a great indication of personality.  Guys often say they will look at a girl's feet before deciding whether to invite her.  They aren't just checking the height of her heel or whether she has practice shoes.

There is no standard technique, no “one size fits all”. This is why the notion of teaching technique is absurd but of course, teaching that stuff sells.

It is famously true that if you don't teach steps your class empties.  So it is with not teaching technique.  So they teach and those few who get from class to the milonga are by then are in such a poor state of 'sub-beginner' that not many who can dance then want to go near them - unless perhaps  they have non-dance advantages.  In fact, girls seldom get dances because of their technique.  They get them for other things.  But a lot of girls get rightly cross that they have spent hundreds, thousands on the classes and workshops (that have affected them adversely if only they knew it) and still pick up few dances. They become sadly resentful of men and the unfairness of life and it is a downward spiral from there.  That is quite serious, affecting a person's life considerably.  What has happened there is in large part down to dance class teachers but how many dancers join those dots?

Real technique is the wordless sensing of what movement is possible between two different individuals with their respective experiences not to mention all the many differences between them physically and psychologically. 

Good technique is the accommodation of the partner and the finding of how you best fit with them in all senses. How this happens is unseen to an onlooker. It is a close coming-to-understanding of another person. It is the confidence to do this, subtly and carefully. Technique is actually the wrong word for this. Technique sounds reducible, scientific, "buildable" replicable in a standard way and it is none of these things. It is wholly personal, wholly unique to each couple.

Technique is nothing more than the habit, gained from time and experience on the dance floor of making dance comfortable, easy and enjoyable for your partner and hence for the couple.

Technique: Interference

A: It's a hard thing to embrace a stranger. You have to let go of everything, abandon yourself to the unknown. I imagine it's a totally alien idea to most people, it certainly was for me. Terrifying and thrilling I think is how I remember it, and still sometimes find it that way. And besides that you have to remain yourself, keep that balance of abandonment and still being yourself. How could you teach any of that, right at the start? 

B: You can't. 

A: How can you even bring it up? The fact is, no one would. 

B: Absolutely. A 'professional' telling two regular people how to feel about each other is actually perverted. And so leads to the perverted dance that is class tango.

Tango technique 101: “How to embrace”

Yes, you’d be pretty weird to buy a class on this. People do though. Really suspect people do. Or people who are told spurious things like "Tango is a technique driven dance".   And boy does that false idea get touted so much it becomes like one of those empty, faith based notions that the credulous believe in the face of all evidence to the contrary.

To get round that “Woah, weird” issue which is the natural, common-sense reaction to seeing a class on "How to embrace", these things are more often called “How to Connect”, “The Connection” or it’s hidden in part of a “Basics” course, or a "Technique and connection” course or, a real-life example: ‘Posture, connection and the 'tango walk' . It kind of normalises it for people and makes them think actually, it’s OK to pay to get someone to teach you how to embrace someone else. They’ll even provide some people for you to practice with because, um, they don’t necessarily want to teach you how to embrace (I mean connect) by, like, actually doing it with you themselves.  So, provided you’re not too fussy, they give you a bunch of people to practice on. 

 It’s fine, right..? If you're ready to move up a level just sign the form at the front for our advanced interactive course: “Personal DNA exchange: the basics”.  Places are limited so don't delay.  And there's no need to you know, think about it too much.  That's what your teachers are for, they have all the knowledge and experience so you don't need to worry about a thing.  Except when you're actually doing it.  Then you have to think a lot.  Really focus and think about what you're doing, but not, you know, what you're doing...I mean think about it close up, but not like, far away.  You don't want too much perspective.  Perspective is only good if you're in charge. And you're not, cos you're a beginner.  

English style dancing

A:  What do you mean English style dancing? 

B:  The stuff that mostly comes out of the English-style lessons billed as tango classes, compared to the Argentine tango dancing one sees in e.g. BsAs.

A new Golden Age?

A:  For a long time I went around asking people which groups today are trying to recreate the sound and complexity of the Golden Age (so that we would have more tracks) and was surprised that there seems to be virtually nobody. 

B:  It is true. There's no money in it, esp. when they have to compete with the greats we have on CD.

*

A:  I was thinking about what you said - there isn't the same music today because there's no money in it etc.

 But imagine if everyone danced as they did in the 1940s when it was normal for people of my grandmother's generation to go to local dances on a Saturday night. She told me they'd walk three or four miles to get there if they had to. I do dream of that. Everyone dancing again. Every neighbourhood should have a milonga.   Imagine that.

B: I can imagine that :) but I don't think we'll see another Golden Age of dance soon. And esp. not in the UK, where most of what people call tango is the English-style dancing done in so-called Argentine tango classes.

"If you feel the music"

A: I'm probably going to start djing in the next few months...for my local group.  But I will start by playing music I know and love so it will be well known tracks. Also the dancers here are mostly new, so I want to play things they may have heard to get them up. 

But even just getting a tanda with a similar sound and mood from about the same era, which is danceable is no mean feat.  I haven't tried blending tandas yet. And I haven't checked the dates on my tandas!

B: If you feel the music, dates are of no value. Most of what is said about matching dates is for DJs that do not feel the music.

A: I am so relieved by what you said about the dates, because I had in a way thought that but until then I would not have been brave enough to go with my instinct. 

B: :) 

A: I can't imagine how or why anybody could or would want to dj if they didn't have a feeling about the music.

B: Many people have no idea what it is to feel the music hence don't know they are lacking

Setlists: "Mine, mine, mine"

Linnaea Mallette

A: Hi XXX, I have just seen you are DJing at XXX. I am thinking of coming to the milonga but it would be a significant detour from my route home. Would you be willing to share a recent set list for travel purposes? 

B: Hi! I am not sure I understand what you are asking for. If you are wondering about what kind of music I play, I will happily tell you. But I do not share set lists.

A:  So what kind of music do you play?

B sends standard DJ blurb for a marathon and tries to palm me off saying they play danceable music (does anyone claim the opposite?) and covers everything from drama to Guardia Vieja none of which tells me anything useful. 

A: If you don't mind my asking what is your reason for not sharing set lists for travel purposes?

B: My set lists are my work. I spend time and effort on them. I see no need to give them out to a complete stranger. As I say, I happily discuss music and musical taste, but will not give away my work.

I ask DJs if they will share set lists quite often. 

Sometimes I ask them to share privately because I want to know whether travel to hear them may be worthwhile though I know from experience that even a good sample set is no guarantor because poor soundcraft can - and often does - ruin a good or good enough set.  Most of the time I get a positive response - but then I don't ask everybody. That tells me a lot: that most DJs I ask are probably relatively nice, trusting, relaxed, open, good-natured and secure people.  

Sometimes I ask people I know if they will let me share a set publicly (I think always one I have heard) on The Outpost or on Milonga Review for all the many reasons that sharing sets is useful. I can't remember anyone I've asked who has said no.  I found that slightly surprising and very heartening. I've had - still have - one waverer but that's all. 

Although these are genuine reasons for asking people to share probably the most interesting thing for me is to see what kind of person shares sets versus what kind of person will not. And - the reasons they give when they don't (if any).

I understand people may not want to share setlists but I rarely buy the "can't" argument.  It is so unpersuasive I don't hear it often.  Sometimes I have written sets out by hand, photographed and posted them.  Once I wrote down a set on paper from an agreeable DJ's computer at the end of the night and  - short of spare time - typed it out on the train on the way home and posted it from my phone.  It didn't have the dates so it wasn't ideal but even with just orchestra name and track names an experienced DJ can tell at a glance what the set was like, it gives even a new DJ some idea, it tells dancers who want a reminder about a track they loved what it was, it tells a potentially travelling dancer what this DJ played and it tells everyone that this person shares.

I have heard many reasons people give for not sharing playlists - not always from people I have asked. One tends to get a vibe from that sort before asking.  They are nearly always to do with my work, my effort, mine, mine, mine and - always unsaid - my fear.

Still, I love to see the ones who say "No" publicly. It's so revealing.

The first one I saw was Charles Long's (of Eton) and can still remember the surprising sense of being pushed away since I'd recently seen someone taking a completely opposite approach.

Of course, if you are going to share a set it is better to do it well.  I saw some questions here about how to share setlists but have yet to see them well answered. 

Setblogs: "Art meant to be shared"

The title quote is Cliff Coulter's which I love because it resets the idea of sharing the list of music that is played in a milonga away from the negative reasons people give for not doing so. From here (Archived).

I also like the simplicity of Jerry Allen's view "You can share any playlist, it is just a list of songs". When I think of the "Mine, all mine!" DJs who won’t share, I do love the contrast with statements like this.

So, a term as rare as it is useful: “the setblog”. This is a regularly updated list of sets (i.e. the music, the tandas and tracks) played by a particular DJ at real milongas and made available on the web. It is like a public diary of the music that a particular DJ played and where it was played and when.

To my mind the best of these setblogs because of the quality of the music for dancing, the presentation and the fact that musical clips are often provided, is Chris Jordan’s here.  You can also see how a particular track has been used in combination with other tracks through his "uses" feature giving results such as this.

Don’t miss also his Top Tandas - usefully grouped by date.  There are many reliably good ideas here for DJs, especially new DJs. I don't think there should be any guilt or reservations about using these as whole tandas because I believe they are probably offered there to be used however any DJ wants to use them. I doubt Chris thinks anyone "owns" the ideas about playing music that has been played in so many combinations (many of them now famous, classic tandas) for decades. If a new DJ was to string say four or five hours of these tandas together in a set and they lived within a couple of hours of me, I would be there! It could be so easy. Why do people want to make it hard?

Other sites with setlists (information, not endorsement). If you know of any more, please do say.

Current:

By Dmitry

Latest sets from Port Townsend (under More>Last Milonga Music)

By Clive in UK

Jessica Schilling's public playlists on Spotify  

"With that in mind, it doesn’t seem like giving away any great trade secret to let people know what you played. Everyone, including the DJ, learns as a result!" From here.

Archive resources:

Homer's sample sets.  Various music.

A few mixed music setlists from C-U tango, Illinois from 2011  

David and Ann’s  practica playlists (mixed alternative/trad from 2012 and earlier).

 

Others

There are also some here and by other DJs scattered through this blog you are reading, e.g. here and on the Milonga Review website e.g. here.  I might get around to putting them all in one place one day.  

Sample tandas  

Derrick Del Pilar's Favourite Tandas

Tanda of the week: Variable tanda contributions by the site host and various DJs.

Clint's tanda collections  

Tango Route's tandas on Youtube

Track groupings by Anton.

Starting to DJ: Technology

A: Start your DJing right, please. This will massively empower you to empower others.

B: How do you mean, "right"?

A: Mainly without distraction/diversion/obstruction from technology, and from experts distracted/diverted/obstructed by technology.

Note: in this case, "A" is a technology expert.

Starting to DJ: Me-jaying

Kianti Azizah, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A: Please don't let your "It's not me" discourage you from using others' tandas. You should not expect to make good tandas on day #1.

B: I think we misunderstand each other. I'm not. But I have to make the tandas partly myself. I simply won't learn if I just copy tandas or even sets from someone else.

A: You won't learn the composition side, but you will learn the performance side. And the performance side needs learning first, I think, esp. if you have no experience with PA.

B: There is a difference between studying someone else’s tandas and setlists and making choices and judgements of your own based on that (which may result in playing the same tanda), and just playing someone else's precomposed setlist. Use of someone else’s sets or tandas has to be the former, active use.

A: Can't see why. Next you'll be wanting to play the notes! :)

B:  It isn’t active. Like dancing. It isn't "just" following, is it? 

A: Beware of me-jaying. The good DJ is not a leader. He is simply a provider. If what he provides is good, no-one cares how active he is. Unless (if he's a me-jay) him/herself.

B: Me-jaying? I've never heard of that!

A:  Extreme example (aided by technology) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8_PjawCcy8

B:  I dunno, maybe he just likes vinyl. People do, I believe. 

A: Sure he does. All the better for Show DJing :)

B: Plenty of people there don't seem to mind.

A: Plenty of people aren't there. :)

I haven't heard tango on vinyl, but should you want to, besides Jens-Ingo, I know this DJ specialises it, (advert) and this one (advert).  I'd be interested to hear of any other vinyl-playing DJs you might know of.

Not about the DJ

Yesterday, at the end of the milonga the host had immediately invited thanks from the dancers for the music.  Of course it is lovely to be appreciated, but from my small corner table I squirmed in the public spotlight.  I was more delighted when someone came up later to thank me privately and to say they had not realised I had played the music. I had been able to chat and dance because the gaps between tracks and sound of my tracks had been normalised for me meaning I did not have to be constantly at the controls managing gaps and volume (or pretending to). I was DJing from a very small device not a laptop so who the DJ was was not at all obvious.  Doing so also avoided the many problems of laptop DJing.

I don't remember DJs in Buenos Aires being applauded.  I feel it is more seen as just a job over there requiring competence, not special treatment.  When Solveig DJd in Cambridge - everyone wanted to applaud, me included.  It depends on the atmosphere.  But the feeling from the music at the end of the night, even after good music is often not the social duty of applause, but sometimes more naturally to chat with your last partner as you leave the floor.  Sometimes I feel guilty if I forget to applaud - but it has become a convention here in Europe, I do not think it is always something wholly natural.

Marine Hall, Fleetwood, (Blackpool Tower weekend, 2016)

John Hickey-Fry's Marine Hall interior, CC 2.0

 

I can think of a few examples most unlike the more low-key DJ spots I mentioned. Most memorably, Beth Anne Osborn. I heard her the first year of the Blackpool Tower weekend (2014) which was the only year I went. Video. I already mentioned the highlights for me of that weekend, which were neither the music nor the dancing. I heard Beth Anne DJ at the Marine Hall in Fleetwood on the Sunday. 

'A':  What can you do if the DJ is playing painfully loud music?

'B':  Normally I leave, and avoid that DJ in future.

'A':  Can you say something?

'B':  Yup. You can tell the organiser why you are leaving.

'A':  I asked the organiser to do something about the sound which was so loud I was wincing & my ear hurt. I sat and sat and sat. I enjoyed watching the dancers for quite a while. The music was good. I talked to the DJ for 5 minutes. She runs the Portland tango festival. 

'B': Famous for the likes of this . (I have never been.)

'A':  I learnt some interesting things about tango in Ann Arbor, Michigan & her view of the differences in guys internationally. But the volume was still going up & down. When she put on Fresedo so loud it distorted the sound I'd had enough. Where we had been chatting, behind the speakers it was fine & she only walked the room once (after I complained to the host! ).

I left and took a walk along the beach in the sun and went back in later.

As I was leaving my friend came out to see if I was alright. I said I wanted fresh air & sunshine. She asked if I was having a nice time. I explained. "You're not in the mood, are you?" she said. "You're not making any effort to dance! Take off your cardigan & look as though you want to dance! "

'B': Ah. Start with a lie. :)

'A': I protested, "I'm cold!".  It was a big, chilly room.  On the one hand what she said was all perfectly true. But I was doing the textbook thing - waiting to be asked & keeping an eye out. But no I wasn't in the mood & getting less so every ten minutes. I'd avoided a few "late cruisers": guys who walk the hall after the tanda has started. I wasn't sure how they danced but I didn't think it was worth the risk. And I wasn't returning eye contact with guys with whom I didn't know how they danced. So after I'd been there an hour & a half I realised it wasn't salvageable & left.

Head-banging to Pugliese

opethpainter

“I saw an American DJ Beth-Anne Osborn (Marine Hall, Fleetwood, Blackpool Tower tango weekend) doing the same once [pumping the air]. Someone told me she organises an alternative scene in the US. She played good tracks when I heard her 18mo ago at Fleetwood near Blackpool but the headbanging to Pugliese, the focus of the DJ spot on the stage, the arm punching the air...  I didn't dance a single tanda there - the conditions, the gloomy room and the deafening volume made for one of the most unpleasant atmospheres I can remember at a milonga. But I see last year they brought her back again. Friendly lady though.”

I don't want to be mean. Beth Anne was interesting and accommodating to talk to a stranger mid-tanda.  Maybe the head-banging is just the American way and the track, which was near the end I think, was amazing. It felt like slow-motion or the notes at that point drawn out. If memory distorted into feeling, the scene would be slightly surreal, like a neon light on the blink in some strange bar, or like a strobe light flickering above Beth-Anne. That's what it felt like, observing:  that piece of the track in slow-motion and Beth Ann on stage, her torso and head moving up and down to the music, completely absorbed by it.  

But she was having fun and shouldn't the DJ have a good time too?  Why should anyone care what she does on stage - the dancers were dancing, the sitters were watching (and we weren't many) and Beth Anne was enjoying herself.  I think we are just used to our DJs being more reserved here. It was fun, it was entertaining for me, watching. It was a cultural thing.  It was only unusual. 

Let's say it was just that I didn't have a good time there.  I'd been deafened, frozen, not danced and eventually abandoned ship.  There was a bit too much "whipping up".

Sometimes though things do go too far.  I'm thinking of DJ Goran Nikšić at the December Etonathon 2015 which I don't think I ever did get round to reviewing.  It was partly I suppose because I didn't see how I could pull off being honest, polite and still hope to get back in.  You can get a flavour of the guy and his music here.  I couldn't quite believe it when I saw the DJ line up for this year.  The new version (phew!). But it was what he actually did at  the Etonathon that I'm thinking of.    Another time maybe.