Cambridge Spring Festivalito: St Pauls

The day after the opening milonga in Cambridge at Romsey Mill I did a morning tour of the city then went to the afternoon milonga for three hours from 3pm.

The location this time was St Paul’s where I had been before, but this time it was upstairs. 

Entrance - Juana was taking the entrada again, but this time in the hall downstairs.  She told me where to go. There was a room next to the salon jammed with people’s kit. Just as I was wondering where I could sit to change my shoes a woman who had walked in said “It would be nice if there was somewhere to sit to change your shoes” echoing my thoughts. We found a chair or two between the bag room and the salon but in that case you might as well change your shoes in the salon itself. 

Lighting was good, all potential partners were visible.

The floor was excellent. 

There was a kitchen with drinks and snacks.

Seating:  There were chairs but no tables. People took drinks into the salon which led to the inevitable confusion of glasses and risk of spillage on the floor. There was some seat-hopping which is more explicable with the absence of tables: people feel freer to move around.

Atmosphere: It was relaxed, more of a practica feel but people still observing the norms: invitation was predominately by look. I quite liked the fact that I could move around the room more freely and chat to different people. Not everyone of course wants this but most people I find seem to like to chat at the right time and to meet others. As in life, one feels one’s way. On this particular instance as a visiting single I felt more relaxed than the previous night though being able to see people easily really helps with that. I think a more formal milonga without the helpful structure of Buenos Aires style seating can be quite a trial as a visiting single female dancer - depending on the conditions, attendees and things like how much space between seating there is which affects opportunity to chat when not dancing. So although I generally like the conventions around seating and tables I was happy for the change in this case.

Numbers and dancing: There were surprisingly few I thought for a festivalito but then I think it was my first of this type of event and realised many were workshopping.  I saw or spoke to a number of travellers. There was a woman from the milonga desert otherwise known as Kent. There was someone I knew from Leeds, someone from Manchester, three who I see around Eton, two from Edinburgh, a DJ from Chicago who was travelling and doubtless several others. A number, possibly the majority of the Cambridge locals I met were from other countries.

There were few good guy dancers. Some of the guys who could dance from the previous night were not there or were there but mostly watching or stuck in the DJ-and-friends group. I danced with a couple of guys and then decided to dance with women, some of whom I already knew. 

Music:  The music was disappointing. I would not have recognised the DJ (from the music) as the same guy I heard in Carablanca.  Many tracks were not what I think of as mainstream and many were, but I just find that frustrating.  As happened the next day at El Quinto and was to happen again at Beeston that weekend there was a half-good half-poor Di Sarli sextet tanda. I heard something I thought was Pugliese and so did the Chicago DJ but I asked Aytek later and it was (unusual) Troilo. I think there was Pugliese-Maciel of type Cascabelito (1955) and Remembranza (1956).  As music it is nice but it just does not impel me to my feet for dance the way other tracks do. I will happily sit to that and watch the spectacle - often to Pugliese the dancing is just that. There was one very early Guardia Vieja type tanda that was sufficient to send me to the kitchen.  The Di Sarli I heard was of type La Capilla Blanca (1944) which is justifiably famous.  There was good Donato and good Fresedo. The milonga and vals were nice. 

Nevertheless, it was somehow not an unpleasant afternoon mostly because the girl dancing was so much better than the guy dancing. 

My best memories of that afternoon were chatting to a sunny American woman and just the variety of chat generally and seeing Aytek holding his baby on his knee at the DJ desk.

I came across a basement wine bar underneath a wine shop on Mill Road. I wanted to be on my own for a while. The guy in the shop was pleasant and so I had a very good glass of wine in that quiet downstairs darkness. I had slept little and napped at my Airbnb for an hour  before realising I was simply too tired to go out.  I was disappointed that I missed dancing with several people I knew would be there that evening and who were expecting me to be there. I heard the next day that the low light had meant invitation was hard by look.  The music (the DJ was John Tan) was not what that friend preferred.

Next time round I might just dance night.  so there is time to do things in the day, rest a little and dance at night.  I especially like this when I am away visiting another city.  It seems I am not alone.  A friend and I were comparing notes about our weekends dancing away in different places. She told me she had done the same. I had gone sightseeing and danced, they had done workshops and gone to an afternoon dance. All of us skipped our milongas in the evening as a result.

Cambridge Spring Festivalito: Romsey Mill

Over the May Bank holiday weekend I decided to combine another trip to Cambridge, to visit Nottingham for the first time and go to five milongas in those cities. To my knowledge, no hosts yet in Britain are combining their milongas into, say, a Bank Holiday weekend of local dancing to make it worthwhile for dancers from outside the area to visit. Given that lacuna, this was my personal, ad-hoc take on the Tango Train idea.  A propos, Berlin’s Embrace festival looks similar - I think it is a kind of festival of local milongas. Best of all “PS: To participate in EMBRACE registration is not required! Registration only for workshops and classes.” Archived here.

I had loved Cambridge, wanted to see more of the city and to dance with people I knew and had not seen or managed to dance with last time. Camtango was running a Spring Festivalito so I expected good numbers. I was a bit worried because the weekend was workshop-heavy which tends to attract the type of dancer I don’t prefer. Still, it has the advantage of being only two hours from Nottingham.  With Radio 4 for company and my own thoughts I arrived relaxed but road-blitzed and giddy after an eight and a half hour drive on Bank Holiday Friday. I decided to take things easily. 

Access

I stayed in an Airbnb nearby and walked to the venue.  The area is in any case residential and outside the city so parking should not be an issue.

Welcome

I think you walk straight into the hall which surprised me slightly, or at least finding the desk on the edge of the salon surprised me a little.  I really like the separation they have in Buenos Aires where you are greeted and pay and then the curtain (often) separates arrival from entry to the salon. But I had a simply lovely welcome from Juana, whom I didn’t know; really one of the nicest welcomes I can remember in the UK. She strikes me as born to host.

Salon

The salon was nicely presented. There were plenty of tables and chairs though no obvious solo seating that I recall. There were fairy lights, uplighters, standard lamps and adorable pink hanging Chinese lanterns. The photos really don’t do it justice but you can see below how well the uplighters illuminate without blinding. On the other hand, the room especially when looking towards the further end felt darker than it appears here.

Cloakroom

I asked where I could leave my things and was directed to a spacious room for larger bags, coats and with seating to change shoes.

Refreshments

The kitchen, also strung with fairy lights, looked warm and atmospheric. I was delighted to see wine was for sale - £2.50 a glass. A condition of the hire was that drinks had to stay in the kitchen. There was nice cake, fruit, pretzels. 

Seating

I asked a couple if I could join the end of one the (large) tables and we fell into chat.  Once I got up I lost my chair - twice. The first time I moved to the other end of the table and when I lost that too I went to another part of the room with a spare chair between tables. With tables now appropriated one does not like to crash another group or couple’s table. In practical terms it did not matter too much as the drinks were in the kitchen. When I went back to my handbag for things - still attached to the original chair - people were very nice - Oh, sorry, was this my chair? etc. One says "No" of course, "not at all", but that’s just what the British do. Some cultures find this confusing, even duplicitous.

Lighting

The lighting was a bit dark for unambiguous invitation by look and harder when you don’t know the people. Someone who went to the same venue on the Saturday night (I didn’t) said they found it hard to see for invitation by look. The uplighters were very good but the standard lamps at eye level are blinding when the bulb is visible and facing you making invitation/acceptance impossible. Even without the bulb showing, because of their level they put the person you are looking at in silhouette. 

Because it was dim, I wasn’t sure if my local friend with whom I love dancing was inviting me from the far end of the hall, or whether it was the woman next to me. One doesn’t like to presume in these circumstances. I had already danced with him, the girl next to me was popular for dance and I wasn’t sure if they had already danced. I looked away so they could make the arrangements without confusion. Oscar Casas incidentally is interesting on this. 

She said to me later she wasn’t sure if we were in a good spot for invitation. She was considering moving. I generally find it doesn’t really matter where you sit. I notice if a guy wants to dance with you enough he will find you. With that view, seat-hopping becomes unhelpful.

Floor

The markings showed  the floor was used for sports. It was not great but not terrible. It was harder for me to tell because my shoes were not very worn in. I danced little but mostly with very nice dancers and find I have less trouble with floors when these are the guys I dance with. 

Invitation

Nobody walked up to invite me verbally, which was lovely.  

Dancing

As it was Friday night and people were coming and going at different times depending on when they had arrived and how far they had travelled, there was a sense of fluidity in the crowd that I liked. It reminded me of Buenos Aires where none of the best DJs that I noticed did any “mood” or “arc” DJing. They simply play a spread and variety of music for those who are there at the time.  At one point I counted 22 people down two sides, plus roughly similar numbers down the other two sides, a few in the middle, a few seated and a few who’d already left.

The dancing was mixed.  There was enough space so the ronda was fine.  The DJs from out of town, their friends and partners danced for the most part noticeably amongst themselves.  That is common when people dance away - they want to see friends and also get the best dancing they can.  They were visibly enjoying themselves - girls with girls as well as guys with girls. There seemed to be an apparent split in good (guy) dancing between this group and most other dancing. It can be hard to tell when you are not local but I saw some exceptions: the friend I danced with, a visually striking visiting guy - but quiet dancer - that someone told me was a nomad with a blog and a very quiet local dancer apparently from Mexico. The scientist from Mexico danced mostly in the inner ronda and was lovely to watch. I liked that he danced with new girls as well as with girls with more experience. I was not feeling up to dancing with girls that night. It is harder besides to do so when you are not known. I did dance a couple of tracks - badly - with a favourite I already knew from there. Then a very pretty girl sent me a look to dance (milonga). I was flattered and danced but not on form.

Music

The DJ was Ricardo Peixoto. I liked a lot of the music. It was the best set I heard that weekend. I have found in the past that he plays many great tracks and great tandas but often with a lot of energy. On a packed floor on the main night of an event it can encourage wild dancing even among usually social dancers and becomes stressful. I have quit the floor more than once under those circumstances. This time there was more balance in the set and it was no coincidence that even though I was new to the place, the evening felt more relaxed than other times I have heard him play. That said, of the three tandas with guys I most enjoyed they were all fast - Tanturi, D’Arienzo and a fast vals; but then these would all get me up so I don’t know that one can extrapolate much from that. In Buenos Aires the guys I liked dancing with and the DJs who spoke about the older bailarins often said that they liked music más picada. I think this means spicier or in musical terms with rhythm and energy. D’Arienzo was the obvious choice but also some Troilo, some Tanturi, things like that. Música picada is in many other orchestras too but the energy is different. 

Unless you talk to the DJ or have some fail-safe way to know the music such as a friend with whom to check facts you may get some facts about what the music was wrong. Of course, any DJ who cares can counter this by posting the music online afterwards. A recent example is on the new Barrio de tango website. I did talk to Ricardo though more by chance and found him courteous and knowledgeable about music. I am sure he knows far more than I about dates and developments in music. He said in 1942 the orchestras became more sombre in tone and that some say it was because of D’Agostino, some say it was a track of Caló’s. It had been thought to be unsaleable though it is popular now. I still think of D’Agostino as light and relaxed more than sombre but I know what he means. It is not D’Arienzo in the 30s. So he knows about these sorts of interesting things. 

Not all the music was to my taste: the Di Sarli with Florio, the Pugliese with Chanel but some people like that. 

The Rodriguez began with Qué lento corre el tren which is lovely then Iré which I know but not well enough to know if it makes me want to dance. Then there were two more famous tracks. The Fresedo was one of the lovely, soft, sweet selections with e.g. Cordobesita and friends. The whole tanda was great as was the D’Arienzo, the Troilo and the Donato. The vals were nice and the the milongas slightly more unusual. The rhythmic Tanturi was fabulous save the opening track which I can’t remember and probably didn't know. I was puzzled by its use as an opener and asked about it. He said it was the best Tanturi track. I was invited to it by a lovely dancer which is why I accepted.

Legacy

When I left Juana gave me a warm embrace. I read something last year about memory. It was along the lines that researchers had discovered the way we experience something and the way we remember it are not the same. Apparently the things we remember are the things that gave us most pleasure or pain in the experience (so the most intense moment) - together with, crucially, how the experience ended. It is called the Peak End rule. By that Juana was the key person there. Had some guy dumped me mid tanda and with a look of contempt left me standing on the floor but that at the end Juana had still hugged me, by the Peak End rule, looking back, your mind kind of averages out the experience so perhaps I might have left thinking things had been OK overall. Luckily that didn’t happen. Although I didn’t dance much through choice, I liked the dances I had.  I chatted, watched, listened and had a nice time - and the ending was great.

Dancing in Cambridge: St Paul’s

Senate House, University of Cambridge

On New Year's Day I went to dance in Cambridge for the first time. I was on my way home after dancing further south in Brighton (Kijutango), Eton (Thames Valley Tango), Letchworth (Oscar and Sofia) and London (Pavadita).  It was organised by Camtango. Over the previous couple of years I had danced with several lovely dancers from Cambridge in other places and hoped to do so again on their home turf.  I was also curious enough after some online chat to hear a new DJ in the UK, Solveig.  I wanted besides to see something of the city.  I had been only once or twice and briefly years before and knew the town to be attractive and full of history and learning.  I forgot to take a photo of the milonga but went for a walk into town late on the afternoon I arrived and the next morning. This is a photo from that afternoon.

The milonga venue was in St Paul’s church on Hills road.  I stayed conveniently round the corner on Coronation road in serviced accommodation I can recommend. You might get a better rate contacting them this way than via the listing they have on Airbnb.

Hits

• The centre has a good Ladies room for changing if need be and make up.  

• The milonga venue inside the church was dramatic and looked attractively set up.

• I was greeted at the door and given a glass of wine or champagne which was very nice.    

• The lighting in my mind’s eye is quite dark but that could have been an impression from the darker recesses of the church.  The lighting for me caused no problems with invitation by look but then for the first two hours I was not looking for invitation, much.  

• There were tables and chairs.  

• I was able to keep my seat. 

• Music by DJ Solveig (Bergen) was great from start to finish - just about every track was good for me. Of the tangos there was D'Agostino, Lomuto and Calo, OTV with mixed singers, Fresedo, Biagi, D'Arienzo and Malerba. There were two Canaros, Troilo with Fiorentino and Di Sarli.  There were Laurenz and Tanturi vals. The Cumparsita was the Troilo 43, a track I think is way ahead of its time.  Much strong applause for the DJ at the end.

• The sound seemed fine to me.  

• The milonga was busy with the floor full all the time.  

• The floorcraft seemed to be for the most part pretty good, especially for such a busy double ronda.  

• The atmosphere was focused on dancing but relaxed.  

• The floor itself was good.  

• Invitation: By look seemed to be rule. No guy walked up to me to invite. 

• There was a table of food conveniently in a recessed area which would have facilitated socialising within that space.  But I stayed in the main room where I found chat enough.  Though one might think kitchens are good places for meeting people in fact I usually meet more people and generally have better conversation in the salon itself.

The dancing - hard to say as it was my first time there and when everything is new I have a more impressionistic view of a place.  I chatted for quite a long time with women while absorbing how things were. There was a guy I particularly wanted to dance with and did.  He turned out to be the friend and dance partner of one of my favourite girl partners from Cambridge.

In the last hour I danced with women and with the music so great and enough women who were lovely to dance with I wished I’d started that sooner.  But I hate for milongas to be rushed and to feel pressured in time as in much else.  

Misses

• I did not see anywhere to sit and change shoes outside the room except on some chairs outside the door which is almost as bad as inside the room.  

• Seating and invitation were difficult.  Most of the tables and chairs were between the pillars in the church making invitation by look difficult.  I sat at one of the short ends which was one of the few places you could see everything.

• There were candles in stands right by the floor. They were atmospheric but also dangerous.  I nearly caught my sleeve in one.  I saw a woman nearly catch her hair on fire and whom knows how many others narrowly avoided the same. But the fact remains nothing untoward did happen.

• It was too short. At only three hours, there was an hour to settle in, an hour to dance with guys and an hour to dance with girls. 

• Invitation: I was pinioned by looks that were too close twice - by two different women. And since they were too close no surprise then that they were also invitations as opposed to "invitations to being invited" . It happened as a consequence of problems related to seating. The reason is as follows: by the third hour I wanted to dance with the women.  By then most people had moved to the food area apparently to get round the problem of the pillars hindering a clear line of sight for invitation in the main room.  But in that area everyone was too close.  Eventually I decided during a cortina to squeeze into that very busy space, pressed against the wall.  I didn’t get a chance to find the women I was looking for because I was then staked not by verbal invitation but by these close stares which were not far off the effect of a direct verbal invitation.  And it's much harder to turn down a woman who does that than a guy.

It was a good experience overall.  It was interesting, the music was easily one of the best sets, possibly the best set of musical choices for me, that I heard that week.  There was some good chat.  As I find common now, my best dances (with men and women) were few in number but were exactly the ones I had been looking for, which is to say they were the ones which were mutually and I felt actively desired on both sides and still enough space given for a refusal to be discreet if necessary.