Seating

Seven years ago I wrote a series on the good conditions for a good social dancing experience (in the milonga). For one reason or another I didn't publish them. I was reminded of one of the posts - seating - while in a salsa bar last night, from where I messaged my Colombian friend:

I asked a friend who had danced salsa in Europe if no seating was the same there.  Pretty much, she said, so maybe it is a European thing.

Most tango dancers realise that, given the significance attached to invitation by look, not to mention basic social awareness and courtesy, you never stand in front of anyone sitting down. But in the local salsa bar my view was often of the jegging-clad buttocks of other women. Salsa culture, for all that it's fun, seems to be one where the idea is to be out there and proud and for attire specifically not to leave much to the imagination.

The two banquettes were covered with coats and bags. The table held an assortment of hastily placed drinks. At the other end of the long room the only other table was occupied by an elderly man watching, surrounded by more coat mountains. Neither of them were places to get dances, and indeed I didn't, much, dancing only with a couple of guys I already knew and one I realised too late, who seemed drunk or stoned.  He literally seized me as I made my way to the bathroom. Why I didn't import my milonga behaviour to manage that situation better, I don't know.  Maybe I thought I already looked distant enough to most of the guys without visibly disengaging myself and causing a scene. But salsa tracks can be long, five long minutes or more.  Sometimes you're just a beginner and new on a scene again.  Later I watched, amused, and learned anew a long-familiar lesson, as a self-possessed girl turned down his walk-up invitation. 

Kami was right. Not having a chair and a table for your drink is uncivilized. So is a sticky floor.  So is the behaviour of some guys.  Some uncivilized characteristics congregate.  But it's free, and it's local and there's sometimes a vibe and you cannae always have it all. 

No judgement on other women who danced all night. But personally I just can't bring myself to hang about on the edge of the dance floor in clear sight of guys looking for dances.  I sought refuge in chat with a tall French-African non-dancer with a reassuring presence who liked to listen to the music and watch his friends dance. 

The girls get their dances light heartedly but if I were to do it that way it would feel too much like prostitution.

Something alive

Walled garden, Crathes castle, Aberdeenshire, Summer 2016

A milonga is a precious thing.  It is something alive, an organism, an ecosystem.  

When it is healthy, its various parts work in harmony, its atmosphere makes it glow.  An example:  the cortina exists to clear the floor so that partners can see one another to invite by look for the next tanda. If dancers dance the cortina or stay on the floor during the cortina, they undermine its purpose  and prevent others from finding partners.  

Another example: invitation by look is the most efficient, discreet way to invite, allowing men to save face if rejected and to accord women true choice.  But if seating, lighting or room size is poor, or dancers do not respect this system all of this suddenly is broken.  

If seats are taken by others, partners struggle to find you, the calm flow of the evening breaks up as you hop from seat to seat leaving a scarf here, a bag somewhere else.  But seating appropriate for friends, single dancers and couples is like nourishment or oil to this system - it helps it to function.  A host in a well-attended milonga might show you to a suitable seat, knowing which is your spot, if a regular, or where might be best if you are new or a stranger.  This accords the host an authority which is useful when s/he has to manage situations of for instance, dangerous floorcraft.  And it tells everyone that this is your seat, your host with the benefit of their experience placed you there, with care. 

A milonga reminds me of a habitat.  In fact I suppose it is - it's the habitat of dancers. Healthy natural habitats can grow wild:

Allean Walk, Queens view, near Pitlochry, early summer 2016

They can be cultivated, as in the header photo of  Crathes castle:

Or they can grow in the most unpromising places:

Banks of wildflowers growing inside/below a huge roundabout/intersection in central Manchester, summer 2016

They can be connected to other, special things:

Kitchen, herb and flower garden, Pillars of Hercules, June
2015

Cultivated wilflowers in the strawberry field/outdoor cafe at Pillars. August 2014

     


They can develop under gentle supervision and benign neglect:

Wildflower meadow behind Doune Castle, Perthshire, July 2016

A healthy milonga can be completely killed off by its system becoming so broken it no longer functions well.  Or by noxious influence, falsehood, politics, disillusion, lack of faith.  It can become a mere carapace, essentially dead inside.  It can become mechanical.  

The health of a milonga depends on the conditions in which it grows and thrives.  If it is run by teachers who refuse to allow anyone but their own students, or it cultivates that sort of atmosphere, it will be stunted and never thrive. If it is run by teachers who teach moves without music (here are 50!),  teachers who give primacy to movements and technique over music (and nearly all do) then the milonga will produce unmusical dancers and these are not dancers.  There are endless problems that can beset a milonga: the venue size, shape, acoustics, temperature, the music, the sound, the floor quality, the tables and seating, the lighting and lines of sight and perhaps most importantly, the quality of the hosting. Variations in these will attract dancers accordingly.

I am puzzled if people (usually hosts) say there are too many milongas. New milongas come into being because existing milongas are failing to serve a need.  This is why only weak and insecure hosts try to see off, dissuade even kill off competition in all the many ways they do.  Strong, secure, confident hosts just concentrate on what they do well.

Edinburgh International Tango Festival: Saturday afternoon cafe and generally

My husband ran a finger below my eye. You look tired he said. I’ve never seen you with that before. Oh! I said, and looked in the mirror. I had slept little and it was true I had lines under my eyes. We're getting old he said laughing. And what the hell I thought as I went out to do messages in town before driving the hour to Edinburgh. The following week a mum in the playground said that when she told her husband she felt unwell he’d said “You’re getting old”. I laughed at her mock outrage in the retelling and at the coincidence. At least yours said “we” she said. I didn’t tell her my husband’s several years older than I. 

Entrance

This year six of the seven milongas for the EITF were in the same room. The venue was the Teviot building, part of Edinburgh University. You pay £4 entry for the cafe downstairs to the friendly volunteers. I knew one of them and was warmly welcomed. This year on the same level as the salon there is a cloakroom and chairs to change shoes. If it existed in previous years I had not noticed it. 

Refreshments

There were no water jugs or they were empty outside the salon. I went on a hike to find some through the warren-like building to the cafe a couple of levels back down. I came across the organiser there and mentioned it to him. Over the event sometimes there was water, sometimes not. During at least two of the other milongas in that venue I saw no table, jugs or cups for water. There are bars in that venue but the two I went to were closed. No one was drinking anyway. You couldn’t really risk it (see seating). With water unreliable or non existent people eventually got wise to bringing water bottles in with them.

In contrast I liked the tango cafe last year at Bailongo. There you could get decent food and drinks in the room itself.  I remember salad and cake. It was nice and contributed I felt to the relaxed atmosphere.  Two years ago at Bailongo the cafe conditions had been diastrous: the (differently managed) cafe area was right next to the dance floor which was sticky anyway, the space too small, no gangway, lighting too bright, everything had been wrong. But last year the room had changed and everything was much better. I liked the light and airy EITF tango cafe in the other Student Union building last year too though the seating had left a lot to be desired.

Rules

The tabletops had been made into diagrams of floorcraft. Distributed among these was also the most comprehensive list of rules I have ever seen. It was a pamphlet actually including another copy of the same floorcraft diagram. There were nearly fifty items to consider.  

The previous night

Before getting changed I looked in to the salon and spotted some women I knew who were visiting. How had it been last night? They looked uncomfortable at the memory. One looked positively unhappy. Guys had walked up to invite, even hand-offering one of the women said with an understandable shudder. I guessed such guys had not read/cared about the rules. But then I think things change successfully for reasons other than rules.  I said that with any luck it would be better this afternoon with more of that sort in workshops. In the evenings there is a bigger mix of incompatible people including workshoppers with less experience of milonga etiquette. Apparently the Friday night opening milonga had been busy and the ronda rough.

If I go to festivals - and I have tended not to, for all these reasons and more - I prefer the afternoon dancing for exactly this reason. The lighting tends to be better too.

Attendance and dancing

It was quiet when I arrived.  Fourteen people on the floor, one life couple who were good dancers I had seen before and a number sitting. There were mixed ages, mixed ability. There were some good dancers, many but by no means all of these younger. It got busier over the next hour and at some points it was really busy. 

The ronda at the EITF was one of the worst I can remember since...probably the last EITF. It is not bad at all in the single snap I took of this day as I was leaving but it deteriorated. It can be I think a problem with festivals where a crowd of people who don’t know each other get together, many of whom prioritise class moves over social dancing. So actually all those tabletop diagrams and rules shout that this festival is full of people who need this sort of telling.  But the truth is they are unlikely to pay it any attention because from what I saw, fundamentally the festival-going type do not care about the niceties of social dancing. Some guys do, I know and some, being class-dependent or just,  like me, miss years of experience in the ronda. But the ronda deteriorated over the three days I was there. Once during Sunday night the guy in front of me changed three times, though actually more than that because those three guys kept lane swapping between each other too. I remember once being between two good ronda dancers, which is to say they just kept their place, and thinking what joy, what peace, what uncommon bliss. I saw Edinburgh and ex-Edinburgh dancers with years of experience, who can get good girl dancers but who simply cared not one jot where they were or what they did in the ronda.  Such arrogance is a very Edinburgh attitude among that guard. Combine that with a large influx of London dancers, the more random elements of the Glasgow and Aberdeen crowds and a sprinkling of visitors and you have the perfect storm ronda-wise. On the last day I was so frustrated I felt like raising both elbows and attaching scythes to them, at which point I considered it might be wise to quit dancing. 

Conditions

Lighting was OK though it was bright spots, - theatre lights I think. By the Monday certainly the lighting had changed to this (apologies for the photo quality) which was darker but softer and less blinding.  In the upper left and right sides you can see the lights they had used, now turned off.

The floor was good. The room itself is attractive. Room size and shape were OK but quite large. 

Seating: chairs, tables, access

There were chairs and some tables though more on one side. The small tables made people feel quite connected I think. Big tables in contrast split people into groups. If you are in family or friend groups which some (usually less central) milongas particularly cater for in Buenos Aires then you might expect large tables. But in the UK big tables often force together people who would not necessarily sit together and separate them from others. At the EITF the tables are the small and lightweight folding kind. They are a good size but too light and in those floor conditions were knocked easily and often. That is why you could not risk putting e.g. a large bottle on them. In Buenos Aires I found the small tables more robust.

Apart from the floor not clearing in the cortina the biggest problem was the lack of gangway round the room. People walked between e.g. two dancing couples at the start of tracks and on the floor during tracks. Not just couples but groups stood on the floor in the ronda to chat at the beginning of or between tracks. Both issues worsened during the afternoon and during the festival. The worst spot for arriving pedestrians paying no heed to dancing couples was at the entrance. One pedestrian bashed into my partner and I as we danced with nary an acknowledgement in her haste to reach her seat. 

Invitation

... was difficult because chairs were straight on to the floor. Being so close to the dancers, post-cortina after the first 10 seconds you had no chance to see. This happens in Buenos Aires too but I found you generally have more view of the room than in the Teviot salon because there can be more depth behind the seated dancers. Also at milongas with separate seating the seating is specifically arranged so that you can see guys often to your left and/or right and/or in front e.g. El Beso, Obelisco, Consagradas at Salon Leonesa, Salon Canning, Lo de Celia. Also, guys can and do often move around the room to be closer to invite if they are far away and /or the dancing has started. 

But because in Teviot there was no gangway it was nigh on impossible to move somewhere else if you had no luck inviting at first - unless you walked on the floor and upset the ronda along with everyone else doing the same. 

As the floor increasingly did not clear in the cortina it was even harder for people seated to see to invite. Sitting by the door to the left was a bad idea because the guys standing in the entrance meant your only chance was them or to try to seek invitation down a row (LHS of the photo) which is always problematic. The area to the right of the door was taken up by the DJ and ETS stalwarts. A corner at the far end was taken by other ETS experienced dancers. Everyone else fitted in where they could. I noticed visiting couples dancing often with one another and many visiting women not dancing and looking glum, though others did. The same was true, though less so for some visiting guys.

To get round the "I can't see" problem, many people, guys and girls but especially guys seat-hopped to try and get a view of girls so people never knew where to find each other and seats/tables got taken. Again, if you like a calm environment, it was not that. 

Atmosphere

I am not sure. I don’t know how many cared about the conditions but there was a lot of movement in and out of the milonga though whether to classes or because people weren’t enjoying it I am not sure. Either more people are wise to poor conditions or I am more aware of them but I had a sense some people were not sticking around because of the conditions or were not getting dances. And some were. And some were having a good time. 

I danced in flats with two local friends soon after arrival and two women visitors I had danced with before. I did not want to take chances with my knee with guys in those conditions. I found it chaotic, frustrating and noisy and left at 1630 after two and a half hours with much relief.

I had skipped lunch and went for good soup in the relative calm of Peters Yard five minutes away by the Meadows. Then I drove home yawning and with no desire whatsoever to return for the evening milonga when I suspected the conditions which had curtailed my visit would be exacerbated. I am much more of a local milonga girl - where those are good. Local milongas have had longer to get the music and conditions right,and these tend to attract the kind of dancers I like.

Stuttgart Milonga Weekend, personally: Saturday and Sunday

I had had a lovely morning and was a little reluctant to run the gauntlet of the milonga. I arrived at the start to find it very quiet and considered perhaps I ought to have stayed out in the city and the sun, but remembered when a milonga is quieter you can often have a better time.  Deciding to see about dancing with women I wore flats yet accepted, inexplicably, a couple of guys I had avoided the day before, mostly I guess because they invited very respectfully, yet still too near for the quiet conditions.  The downside of a quiet milonga you don't know is it can be harder to refuse  invitations you do not really want.  I accepted a couple more in conditions that were nigh on impossible to get out of but were my own fault. Then I accepted someone who looked good yet I suspected was too forceful which was true. 

The effect of dancing one does not like is tension and stress, visible both on and off the floor. I had been manhandled, the floor was becoming and my knee hurt. 

But my luck changed. I was on the stools watching the floor while there was no wall of women. I had not seen him dance but from the quiet, fun way he invited at a distance just knew he would dance well.  Humour is often a shortcut.  

Later, I sought a dance by mirada across the tabled area and got a nice, traditional Buenos Aires type dance with a guy older than me. He did a double take perhaps because I had not seemed to want to dance for so long. Look. If he keeps looking, smile. (Maybe) an invitation.  I think that's how it works.  

On Saturday night, fuelled by the type of music, the atmosphere felt busier and pumped. I had had a nice, relaxing evening in the park prior to arriving quite late perhaps 2330. The milonga had started at 2200. I soon felt uncomfortable and could not settle. I did not find partners nor expect to and quit after two hours. I saw others also leaving before me especially after 0030. I think I danced once through direct invitation I had found hard to get out of but again that was my own choice and the dance was fine.

On Sunday afternoon the weather was gorgeous again. I figured the way things had been I was probably going to have a better time out of the milonga than in. I stayed out in the good weather and did not go to the dance until the last 90 minutes, around 1730. I sat near the front of the little used seating with tables to watch the dancing with only the floor in front of me, inexplicably well out of reach of all most invitation. Under pressure the gaze can narrow.  I had seen the desperate covert and less covert gazes of women who are not dancing.  Unwilling to be anything like then, I found my head physically would not turn towards where the guys were. Don’t be perverse I scolded myself, moving to the quieter side of the bar where I fell into easy conversation with Kenneth.  I was surprised then to be invited by one of the good dancers and the only guy in fact with whom I'd chatted hitherto.  So those theories I mentioned I suppose were borne out - knowing people and becoming relaxed/distracted seemed to work.  

The dance was the swooping, elegant and athletic European style. Being my first dance since the previous afternoon I was not warmed up and felt as stiff and awkward as the Tin Man. That style tends to make fewer concessions to the conditions of the woman than others.  In similar circumstances I often have a sense that I must try to keep up.  But it was one of my best dances of the weekend.

So I had three good tandas over the four milongas at the Tango Loft milonga weekend which, proportioned against travel speaks for itself. The conditions regarding seating, lighting and invitation were not right for me personally and during the weekend I felt stuck between the guys who wanted to dance with me but with whom I did not want to dance and the guys I wanted to dance with who did not want to dance with me. Even so although there were plenty of good dancers I did not have much sense that I wanted to dance with many of them - or perhaps that is just what happens when you feel guys do not want to dance with you. Who after all would want to dance with someone when, apparently invisible to them, the feeling is clearly not mutual? 

I am glad I went to Stuttgart.  Tango Loft is an attractive venue, Kenneth is a warm host and there was plenty of good dancing and from the milongas the weekend offered much for reflection. As in Cambridge, in Nottingham and this weekend at Dumbarton Castle rather than at the new milonga in Glasgow with which I combined that trip, my best time was outside the milongas, exploring and being shown the city.  As so often in life friendship makes all the difference.

Stuttgart, Friday: a personal experience

After what happened in Berlin I was wary about seating and chose cautiously a very quiet place to sit. It was true I knew no one.

In Buenos Aires this year on suggestion:  if you don't start dancing you'll have come all this way for nothing, I had for a few days accepted guys not far off randomly and wished I had stayed true to my first instincts.  The trouble is in the first few days you don't know the guys, the whole culture shock takes a while to get used to and I couldn't distinguish the men so well.  I'd track one I liked as he escorted the woman off the floor, I'd track him back to the guys section in the crowd - and suddenly I'd lost him.  You scan a sea of men roughly the same age, same height, same grey hair, same pale shirt, same specs and either you don't accept until things start to fall into place (my initial and regular approach), or you accept randomly and regret it.

But I was soon back to my normal self and planned to be as careful in Stuttgart. I sat - and stayed - at the back of the bar on the seating side. I had a glass of wine and a prosecco on an empty stomach. With so many new faces I found it difficult to keep track of who danced how and where they were sitting. Few had any base and moved from spot to spot to invite but mostly on the mobbed side of the bar. 

The physical conditions regarding seating/lighting/proximate invitation were some of the most difficult I can remember and at night, with lower lighting, about the worst imaginable for me personally.  Most people did not seem to need this though or feel the same about the conditions. There was none of the culture shock of Argentina but I found the conditions for dancing far harder in Tango Loft. I had not, however, found separate seating or at least, as in Gricel, same sex tables difficult in Buenos Aires. I found them in fact often a welcome relief from the European way. 

All in all once in the milonga besides tired I felt overwhelmed, ill at ease, defensive.  I simply wanted a quiet place to relax, listen, watch and take it all in. I wanted time to try to adjust to or at least understand conditions I shied away from.  Yet many guys expect you to want to dance very soon and are puzzled when you do not. I saw one or two other girls in the area with tables and chairs near me who looked as though they felt the same.  It was clear like me  they wanted a table, but apparently felt ill at ease, alone at it.  I would have too which is why I chose the bar.  The others not in groups or couples were around on the other side of the bar in the wash of guys and girls coming and going from the floor, some girls staying beached on the stools.  So until things became clearer I did not seek and actively avoided some invitation I sensed from guys coming too near or who I had not seen dance or who I did not want to dance with, or when the music was not what I prefer. Unsurprisingly, I was left alone and did not dance. 

But in Tango Loft, although usually happy in my own company I did not feel peaceful. Knowing I was observed not to accept guys added to the pressure.  Was I sealing my fate for the weekend? In some cases I think it proved so. Guys I thought had hovered on Friday were not interested the next day, or perhaps they never did hover. I knew it was right not to mind or care about such guys but it still bothered me. 

Indeed, the next day a guy from whom I foolishly accepted a too proximate invitation said he had seen me the night before not dancing, only watching - all night. What had I been doing? I felt obliged to explain myself but did not want to even if, like him, I had been inclined to chat while dancing.

After changing my shoes to leave I stood near the entrance and felt the wave of heat, expectation and atmosphere hit me as dancers left the floor at the end of the tanda to drift in that partnerbörse in the hope of catching a ride out to the dance floor.  It was powerful stuff, but it isn't how I like invitation to happen and so I hadn't had the inclination to join it.

Stuttgart - El Amateur milonga

Teehaus im Weißenburgpark

I loved the name, El Amateur, long before I saw the place.  That alone is a call to those who prefer traditional social dancing to events centered around the professional tango dance industry with workshops and shows.

Access

The location of El Amateur is wonderful with great views over the city.  It is not in the city centre but it felt to me like a place doing its own thing and unapologetic.  I was told there is no public transport to get there, that taxi was best. I see that public transport will only take you so far.  You would have to walk at least 25 minutes on foot and it is uphill. 

Adventure
I had left the Sunday afternoon milonga in Tango Loft less than an hour before.  By the time  I had returned to the hotel, showered and changed it was nearing 8pm and the milonga would start in half an hour.

As things turned out my friend - a local - decided to come to this milonga.  Though we had never danced he had had three failed attempts to learn to dance tango in class and was now very into the contact improvisation dance scene.  He suggested given the hour he pick me up and we go by motorbike.  I agreed after much hesitation and only after establishing his last crash had been several decades previously.  He promised “bicycle speeds”.  In childhood or teenage years my father had said I would be disinherited if I ever got or perhaps even rode on a motorbike.  The force of that statement more than any genuine threat had stuck through life.  I have had friends affected by serious and fatal motorbike accidents and seen them on the roads so have had every inclination not to get involved.  In the circumstances though it did seem like the best way - so I thought until, rigid with fear, I had to get on the thing.  He told me my skirt could not catch but I nevertheless hitched up my dress beyond I felt - once astride the machine - what decency required. Though it can hardly have been further than 3km distant and we apparently never topped 40km/hour I think it was thrilling but terror, especially on bumps, curves and acceleration overpowered most other sense. Trying to take my mind off things I wondered if I had control issues and decided if not on the salon floor then certainly as regards personal injury.

The setting 

...of the venue is casual.  You can sit outside with a drink before the milonga but I just sat down to get over things, revive feeling to my tense limbs and to remember about breathing. 

Bar

Inside there is a bar for which at that stage I was extremely grateful.  Apparently the restaurant is closed just now but there was nevertheless good value African food in the adjoining room served by a lady from the Congo to whom we spoke in a mixture of English, French and German as she spoke them all. This room also serves as the bar.

Host

Though we did not really speak I understand the host was Otto. Johannes, who I believe is the regular host, was on holiday. Entrada was by donation. We gave 10 euros apiece. 

Conditions

My quick photo makes the room look less nice than it is. It is true it is not as jazzy or as stylish as Tango Loft but the conditions for me were superb. Seating, lighting, floor, room shape and size were all ideal.  You could see all potential partners from wherever you were in the room without moving, though some guys did.   As in many Buenos Aires venues you need only move your eyes.  I feel  especially in unfamiliar places or where I am less at ease the more you have to turn your head, still less crane your neck, you start to leak discretion and the milongas for me are all about that.  We got a table and were able to keep it. I already knew this milongas has existed for twenty years. Seeing it I was not surprised. 

I had been to a cafe in a beautiful park above the city that day.  It had had the same relaxed feeling as the El Amateur milonga.

Attendance

I am poor at estimating and did not count but there was enough for a good evening. The lower end of thirty to forty perhaps. It seemed to be mostly locals who sat for the most part down the left hand side from the door with the better dancers toward the further end towards the DJ spot.  There was a handful of dancers from the milonga weekend: a group who came together including DJ Stephan, his wife with I guess their friends and one other. 

Atmosphere

It was just...quiet and focused on dancing. One or two of the Tango Loft group did not seem to dance much so perhaps they did not like it or were just tired. It was a very different atmosphere to Tango Loft.  Despite that it was all new to me and I was dancing for the most part with a brand new beginner guy and in swapped roles I felt much more relaxed here. Otherwise I found the atmosphere hard to judge partly I did not know the place, second because my friend and I were so unusual in that setting dancing the way we were. 

Music

The music was probably - eventually - the best I heard all weekend. The DJ was Mohamed of Sydney, possibly this guy, friend of DJ Stephan Resch. When I walked in though I thought I had made a terrible mistake. The music was simply awful: heavy, plodding Guardia Vieja.  I was shocked and disappointed.  It went on for at a guess two, perhaps three tandas. I went to change my shoes in the Ladies, we paid the entrada and the music was still terrible.  At this stage I had not realised the DJ was a dancer from the milonga weekend. To escape it we went to see about food and drinks next door. I started to feel euphoric but I think that was more happiness at survival than the sekt. 

I considered leaving in the time we were eating next door except that I could not just then face getting back on the bike.  I heard two or three bearable tracks, heading towards good. Had it lasted any longer I might have left or gone outside for drinks and to watch the sun go down. 

Suddenly the music changed, became and stayed wholly good, which is to say, mainstream, until near the end of the milonga. I asked the DJ about the start and he said he often started that way and that some people like it.  Some do but not I think the same people who stay for most of the rest of what he played. It is, in my view, a common DJ error.  De Angelis came up in the conversation and he said he rarely played that orchestra, I don’t know why. I think many people find De Angelis hard or hardest to “get”. It was the last orchestra for me. Not everyone likes it perhaps because some DJs can play such terrible tracks by him. I remember hearing only one (good) De Angelis track played the whole time I was at the Stuttgart milonga weekend but heard it often in Berlin. 

There was another change at about 2340 to I think possibly Varela/Ledesma Qué tarde que has venido which I did not want to dance. I felt it a shame.  I know some like this but it was so different from everything that had gone before and to which everyone had happily danced.  Many had left already I guessed because it was a school night.  I waited to see what was going to happen. It turned to I think Pugliese which was OK but I do not dance that in swapped roles and decided to call it quits.  I noticed someone else doing the same.  It was nearly midnight in any case.

Dancing

The outer ronda seemed fine. Inside the ronda were the beginners, weaker dancers, people who overtook and one or two wilder dancers though in fact we were not so many. If I had not been dancing with a complete beginner I would not have wanted to be in the middle there. 

I danced with three guys besides my friend and enjoyed them all.  Two appeared to be visitors.  “Viel sonne” remarked one, wryly, of my British, sunburned back.  I agreed in English and squirmed, still Britishly.  It was clear I had been outside incautiously that afternoon.  Then, in German: Did I not speak German? Again, I squirmed. Not enough to converse.  Like many tolerant, accomplished Europeans he repeated what he had said this time in English and agreed to my remark that his accent his was not German, telling me his country.

The women nearest me were not looking my way and given the spectacle my beginner friend and I must have made I can’t say I was surprised.

Three other guys, locals I think, I would have danced with but they did not seem to want to dance with me either. I felt rather shunned. I considered they found our dancing so awful in swapped roles that they couldn’t face me as the girl, or to an objection to women dancing in the other role, or simply an objection to a beginner guy dancing at their milonga. But with so many variables and plenty others besides it is not worth guessing. So there were some OK to good guy dancers there I had not seen at the Tango Loft weekend and the same in girl dancers.   There were also the kind of average dancers you find everywhere at local milongas in Europe.  Some local dancers stayed only for a couple of hours, arriving and leaving early or arriving later and leaving later - another reason to DJ buffet style - which the middle part was - as opposed to as an arc or mood DJ.

Second Stuttgart milonga weekend

Tango Loft from the entrance side

I am recently returned from the second milonga weekend in Stuttgart. It comprised evening dances on Friday and Saturday and afternoon dances on Saturday and Sunday.  

I went for these reasons:

• It was milongas only and had been recommended as having no workshops, classes or shows
• It did not, in theory require registration.  This was still true for the second weekend but the emphasis had changed slightly.  Since the venue is limited by capacity though it made sense to reserve a place.   
• There was no list of rules. I find while I like events that adhere to traditional milonga etiquette I do not tend to enjoy the hosting or atmosphere of events that are explicitly rule-bound, either on websites or I have even seen rules on cards or posters in venues.  That implies the people coming need that kind of instruction so it is likely I won’t enjoy that kind of event.  On the description of this event it said simply that the event was for experienced dancers.  Given the other features and traditional music I expected dancing in the embrace to be the norm, people to clear the floor during the cortinas and invitation only by look and that is what I found.
• There was an opportunity to go to El Amateur milonga (different venue and host) on Sunday night
• I hoped to see something of the city.

Practicalities

Registration

I tried - late - to register for the first event last autumn.  However, I discovered in correspondence with the organiser that they were balancing gender.  I dislike waiting lists especially when I dance both roles and this tends to keep me away from events.  Also I did not hear back twice when I expected to and ultimately there was no space for me. I also heard reports of poor DJing e.g. DJ La Rubia - not for the first time in her case.  I had not therefore intended to register again.

I changed my mind especially as the advertising seemed to imply there may not be gender balancing.  I see now though the same statement was also made on the advertising for the first weekend when there was indeed gender balancing. I registered earlier and this time there was a place.

Entrance

Payment/registration was outside the salon, which I prefer. The welcome from the host, Kenneth was both warm and professional - that of an experienced host.

Garderobe

There was space to leave shoes and large bags.  One young liberal European guy used it to get changed… There were chairs to change shoes.  There are useful hooks under the bar for handbags.

Salon

When I saw the salon I thought it was lovely, a real dance club, with a bar, tables and chairs.  I was less keen on the mirrored wall - but you can close your eyes.  The salon reminded me in aesthetics a bit of Tango Loft in Berlin though that had for me a slightly more exotic/louche feel.   I am sure if I were a regular here who knew people, with its bar, its seating with tables for a quiet evening with a partner or friend, its gossip stools, I would discover this to be a much loved place.  

Floor

The floor was good but heated up and became sticky meaning dancing earlier on is easier.

Lighting

The salon has windows down one side which means it is light in the afternoon and much easier to see for invitation by look.  However, if you invite/accept with your back to the windows  (even when by the bar) it can be difficult to see because of silhouette.  I nearly missed a dance because of this.

The lighting at night was low.  Since most people crowded into one area for invitation lighting seemed not to be an issue for the majority.  Also I think many people knew one another which means low light is less of an issue than it is for strangers.  I asked if the low lighting was deliberately to create atmosphere.  I was told no, but that because the lights are stage lights they overheat the room and quickly.   LED lights which do not have this problem are being installed gradually.  

Refreshments

There is a bar selling alcohol, soft drinks and cocktails. Throughout the weekend there were snacks of pizza and cake which looked very nice and I understood ice cream on the Sunday afternoon but I did not attend until the end. There was also fruit, crudités nuts, olives.  Water was free.

Seating

There were tables  and chairs  under the windows next to the floor but this was used little or not at all because I think it is thought invitation by look is hard against the light there or simply that it is too far to invite across the room, though the distance would have been normal in Buenos Aires.

On one side of the bar there is a small stage with three or four tables and chairs and more similar seating in front of that in an area two or three tables deep.   This had a good view of the floor in front.   This main seating area was mostly used by friends, couples, a few single guys and a (very) few single girls who, like I suppose me, appeared noticeably uneasy.  I guessed this was because they did not know people or disliked the girl crush, or the seating arrangements or the proximate invitation on the other side of the bar.  Opposite is the mirrored wall you can see in the top photo.  Video showing the bar and seating area from the mirrored end.  Unlike at the milonga weekend the tables under the windows (left) are being used in the video.

Nearly all other single girls were on the other side of the bar or around the bar and most good guy dancers seemed to invite there.  

Between the entrance and the loos was a long wall of untabled seating on stools.  This had  mostly limited or very limited view of the floor because of the bar and people standing.  It was also used mostly by girls waiting to dance.  A few guys sometimes sat here but generally they stood or danced. This is the area where most girls spent most time when not dancing but unfortunately I find no photos online to show it.  The photo I have taken was a single quick snap taken from the stools at that end of the bar with best visibility of the floor.  It was taken at the beginning of the Saturday afternoon which is why it is quiet.  There was a photographer taking many photos on at least two days though from very discreet distance.  Photos from the first event here.

Invitation

...was usually by look.  Only the least popular guys invited too overtly and even then it was more often that they just came too close more than they walked right up and asked.  

Still, most invitation even by good dancers happened at very close quarters at the exit to the floor and around the bar on the entrance side.  It is the space directly in front of the camera (i.e. to the left of the barstool)  in the photo.   Most guys did not invite - perhaps did not need to invite - at any distance e.g. across the room.  Couples would come off the floor, then many of both sexes who had just danced simply waited in that floor exit/entrance area to pick up their next dance. I heard it described as “one large partnerbörse”.   It did not seem to bother most people there, who often invited and accepted with a nod or a word to the person next to them. Conditions one may find problematic are also minimised I find if you know people and I think many did.

If you understand what invitation/acceptance can be like at the busy end of the hall at Eton milongas during the cortinas on a multi-day event then it reminded me of that.

Attendance

The place felt busy most of the time I was there except noticeably the start of Saturday afternoon when the weather was very good.  Saturday night was extremely busy. There were some who attended all or most milongas and many who attended one or two.

A local girl I met at El Amateur on Sunday had been to Tango Loft on Friday night but said since she knew most people it was less interesting for her so she went elsewhere at the weekend. Contradictorily I heard at the bar that there were many strangers.   Kenneth read out a list of the different countries represented. He also announced many local dancers had come out on Saturday but who had not registered for the full weekend itself.  

There were more women I think generally and on Friday there was a clear female majority.  

Dancing

There seemed to be many good guy dancers, some less good and not ones I enjoy but even these got plenty of dances.  There were plenty of very good women dancers of various ages.  More women seemed able to dance well than guys but I find this the norm everywhere.   Look though is not feel and I base what I say mostly from watching as I danced little.

Some women did dance together but not many or often.  I did so only once and early when there were few people there but sensed no disapprobation for others who did so in the ronda.

I think younger women had the majority of the dances but many older women danced often.  Age seemed only one factor of many in guys choosing partners and not necessarily the main one.   I liked that there was and think it healthy for milongas when there is a broad mix of ages.

The ronda seemed mostly good.  One guy bashed me into people (but repeatedly)  yet he always found partners.  I think that was unusual among the guys.

The floor cleared virtually always during the cortina.

Atmosphere

It is hard for me as a stranger to say, also because I personally did not find the weekend relaxing. Unusually I spoke little with people.  Equally no one initiated conversation with me except a couple of guys whose tables I sat at accidentally while they were dancing.  Maybe the better thing to do in those circumstances is in fact to chat to people but I was not in the mood.  I think generally for most people the atmosphere was nice and relaxed.  I sat little and not for long among the women on the bar stools and we did not chat but smiled on arrival etc. In contrast, in Buenos Aires where I felt secure at my table and relaxed I often spoke with women I did not know. I think some women in Tango Loft sometimes may have been unhappy with the gender imbalance.  All that said if this were my local milonga I am sure it would be very nice.  If I were to try to register again I would definitely go in company.  I think this might be less necessary for good guy dancers or anyone generally unaffected by milonga conditions.

La Redonda milonga and Edinburgh

La Redonda, Edinburgh

On Thursday I went La Redonda the milonga in Edinburgh that’s been going for a few months. It was the only milonga I’d been to since getting back from Buenos Aires in mid-March. There is an imaginary parallelogram that describes the area with milongas in central Scotland. Its points reach between Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Forfar (Padanaram village has the dancing).  Besides these there is some dancing in Stirling, also at Stirling university in the village of Bridge of Allan and some dancing run by a couple who teach in the town of Dunfermline and the nearby village of Dalmeny. Within this area, La Redonda is the regular milonga most attractive to me just now.

It is an easy decision because in the first instance I go where I think I will find tandas that are not in the majority, broken.  Other conditions are a good floor and a host that is at least not off-putting and these thankfully are rare.

I went to La Redonda once before, in mid-February with a Spanish friend, a guy brand new to dancing tango. One of the nicest things for me was the warm welcome. Ricardo, who co-hosted with Jenny also came out to say goodbye when we were leaving. It was the best milonga I've been to locally since Ksenija's one-off milonga before Christmas. The atmosphere was relaxed, people seemed tolerant of my friend and I in our swapped roles. The atmosphere contributes in no small part to new dancers feeling at ease, even more so when it is a guy dancing in the traditional woman’s role. People there said they liked the atmosphere. 

Music

The DJ both times I went was Claudia Esslinger though she does not DJ every time. The music was great. The first time there was even good Fresedo - as opposed to Fresedo that is too early or too late. I heard the kind of OTV I don’t like as I was changing my shoes with only one good track. I apologised to my partner and we sat down once during I think a Tanturi-Castillo for possibly the third track because it would have been worse to try to get through it than to not dance it. Not only is Claudia one of the most experienced DJs in Edinburgh, if not the most experienced, she is far from being a “me-jay”. I am sorry she is apparently not DJing at the Edinburgh Tango Festival. 

Floor

The floor I found good the first time. But last week I stepped on to it in flats with a friend and immediately felt my shoe gripping the floor. With a knee problem simmering away I could not risk pivoting. The floor is old though smooth. Someone said it had been mopped just prior to dancing so perhaps that explained how I found the difference. 

Ronda and dancing

I am delighted that La Redonda is class-free and indeed the milonga attracted a mix of people. In February there were about 40 including several from Glasgow. I think the idea is to attract a broader mix than had been the case at these hosts’ practica which had been on the same day as their main class night and had attracted mostly those doing the classes. On Thursday it was also busy, with a couple of solo experienced dancers who it is a pleasure to watch. The picture was taken later on in evening of my first visit when numbers had thinned.

The first time there was a proper ronda with couple after couple in harmony but otherwise it was a bit chaotic. This was partly from some experienced dancers who don’t recognise a ronda. This is a moden then for new dancers.  There was a new guy who didn't move for ages, absorbed I think in a "tango moment" but oblivious to the pile-up behind him.  A new guy overtook me and then came back towards me, passing me. It was like realising you have a car coming towards you in the wrong lane on a road.  Sometimes people do such amazing things in the ronda that leaves you breathless.  Two nights later in St Andrews a new dancer cut through an inner and outer ronda, drawing the diameter of the circle like some random meteorite crashing through earth's orbit.  

Generally, the ronda could be tricky, all in quite a tight space. The second time it was much better. All the tall people moved into the centre. I was tired though, didn’t dance much and did not feel I contributed to good ronda dancing.  I had hardly danced in the guiding role for a couple of months, did not feel the connection with others in the ronda that I find in places with many experienced dancers but as yet this milonga does not have that kind of dancer in the majority. Since I rarely dance in Edinburgh now it was nice to see and chat to people I hadn’t seen in some cases since last year.

The first time I went to this milonga, mid-way through there was a "dance with a stranger" announcement which I have seen turn into a license for people to walk up and ask you to dance. Last time I dived for the kitchen so I was relieved there was no such announcement the next time. 

Venue, room, lighting, seating, snacks

There was a rack for coats outside. There was only one chair upstairs on a landing to change shoes outside the room. You might want to arrive completely ready as there is only one ladies room I know of.

The room was nice with an attractive barrel shaped ceiling.  It is often difficult to get good lighting in a hall in the evening. The first time I found the lighting just about OK. Jenny told me they had tested various lighting arrangements beforehand. The room had wall-based uplighters quite high. Jenny said they had a nice glow but when they tested them before launching the milonga they were blinding because of too much bulb. She said the overhead lights were nice and started off warm but got very bright.  They made therefore an ingenious solution which hasn't come out well in the photos but they are fairy lights: many many meters wrapped around a rectangular frame of metal and plastic. These they hung from the wooden roof supports with bungee cords.  The effect was rectangles of twinkly light. Last week although I think the lighting was the same it felt dark and someone commented to that effect.  Both I and a friend thought a woman opposite, in silhouette because of the lighting wanted to dance with us but we couldn't be sure and so nothing came of it.  

The tables were great. Although they are light and easily knocked they are small and ideal for milongas. In this respect they are like the ones you find in many central milongas in Buenos Aires. I have seen them more and more at Edinburgh one-off events. Note also how smaller tables tend not to get cluttered as in the picture here.  They create less of a sense of barrier than larger tables. Apparently La Redonda had started with larger tables and changed. There was no solo seating per se. There is the usual UK problem of new arrivals taking a seat you may have been sitting in for a while.

Snacks were in the kitchen along with tea, coffee etc. The first time there was some good cake, tangerines, chocolate later on. 

This is the best milonga in Edinburgh just now because of music and atmosphere. It is interesting that many of the habitués of Edinburgh’s other main milongas at the 'Counting House' were not present. 

Edinburgh however will never be a weekend destination to dance tango for those from other places while it has no regular Friday night, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon milonga. The Edinburgh Tango Society has long had a vice-like grip on the milongas that are run in Edinburgh. This has intensified under its current custodians who hold pretty much the monopoly on all the regular weekly and monthly dances. Edinburgh isn’t alone in being a city with a similar tango cartel. This causes fear in others who are quite simply afraid to start something new because of opposition and alienation from those controlling this scene at present. This situation looks set to continue.