Milongas in Amsterdam

Amsterdam can be a tougher place to dance than the rest of the Netherlands, being often said by the Dutch themselves to be a more closed milonga scene but this is often said of big city scenes in Europe compared to dancing in the provinces.

On the other hand there are more milongas than in other towns and they are all bikeable.  There are probably more experienced dancers here in one place and the music I heard in the milongas was mostly from the Golden Era, though that is not the same things as saying it was all the mainstream, popular, traditional music that many like to dance. You might also hear tandas from each side of the Epoca D'Oro but you are much less likely to hear non or neotango than you are outside Amsterdam.

Making a weekend of it

To make a weekend of dancing you might go to De Plantage (review) on Friday (2215-0200). Dancers were perhaps aged 35+ but most were older than that when I went. I heard another option is the new El Berretín milonga. I see that there are different milongas on a Friday at the Academia de tango.  I got the feeling that is a younger crowd than De Plantage but I did not meet many who mentioned it when I was asking for recommendations.  Ditto, Fenix milonga. Both of these are on Tangokalender.  

There are actually a few different milongas on Friday but there never did seem to be, whenever I checked, much on in Amsterdam on a Saturday night.  It's a shame they couldn't move a couple of these Friday night milongas over to Saturday.  That, and not finding a single Airbnb in or even for miles around the city for under £100 is what decided me to go to Antwerp instead to hear a DJ who had been recommended:  Jo Switten.

On Saturdays in Amsterdam there is sometimes, or used to be Milonga Lounge.  I heard from a recent visitor that the milonga had stopped but it is still advertised on Tangokalender (advert here) though the website mentions no milongas. I enquired about the DJing there once but the performance style pictures (and here) and the fact that no locals I knew ever mentioned it as a place to go put me off. Video. From that it seems quite a young scene, especially the women.  Tangokalender shows one or two others that pop up occasionally but don't seem to be regular and nobody ever mentioned them.

The only other option was Tinta Roja run by Lucas whom I met in Edinburgh where he once DJd . The music then was very mixed for me thought there were some great, classic tandas.  But he seemed a nice and friendly guy and I regret not taking him up on his offer to look him up when I was over. According to his Facebook page, he has a free practica 17 till 20hs and a milonga on the first Saturday of the month. Few Dutch I met mentioned this practica but a UK friend of the host said the dancing on the night it became a milonga was the best they found in Amsterdam and that the vibe was young and informal and she thought the music was great. More about El Berretín and Tinta Roja soon.

You might also consider milongas outside Amsterdam for a Saturday night.

Later  I learned many good dancers apparently go out on Sunday when the top four milongas take it in turns.

El Cielo (review) - first Sunday

La Bruja (second review) - second Sunday

Tango11 (review) - third Sunday

TangoTerras a/h IJ (review) or De Plantage (review) - fourth Sunday. The De Plantage Sunday edition starts at 1830 and goes on for 5.5 hours. I heard it attracts more people from outside Amsterdam than the Friday night version.

I also danced one Sunday afternoon in the Oosterpark (review) which is a free summer milonga. Gorgeous setting, seating inside the bandstand, terrible floor, iffy music, free ice cream!

Top milongas, top DJs, top venues

La Bruja or Tango11 are reckoned by many locals to be the top milongas in Amsterdam meaning they have the best dancing.  The video about the encuentro run by the host of La Bruja was the spur for me to go to the Netherlands in the first place. I should say that of any milonga I have contacted, this was the least responsive in that when I enquired about closures in August and September, about needing a ticket for Tango Train and possibly another earlier enquiry I never did get any response.  Certainly at La Bruja the first time I went there seemed to be plenty of good guy dancing - but I was already apprehensive about going and could get none which made me shut down to the guys sharpish. On that occasion I danced with the women instead who were warm, open and good dancers.  I had a nice time.  Many people, including good dancers from within and outside Amsterdam told me they don’t go to either of these milongas but especially La Bruja because of a perceived closed atmosphere.  Some of those who do go from outside said it took a while for them to be accepted.  Depending then on how you rate your prospects or the kind of experience you are looking for you may or may not want to risk one precious evening there. 

La Jirafa (Jacob) in La Bruja was the best DJ I heard for traditional music in Amsterdam, followed by Age Akkerman in El Cielo. See the piece to follow on DJs in the Netherlands.

The most traditional salons (in layout) were El Cielo, La Bruja and De Plantage and as venues I liked them all. They all had good floors.  None of these are places were there is much standing for invitation, particularly among the women.  There was some among the guys but not in a bunched up, desperate, pushy or intrusive way that I have minded in other places still less the girl standing and loitering at the cattle market experiences of the milonga weekends I have been to.  There were a few guys standing around the bar in De Plantage but when do guys not stand around a bar?  A few guys stood at the short entrance end of El Cielo one or two trying too hard to invite and girls and guys stood around on the short, entrance end at La Bruja, mostly in a natural, social way or because they met and chatted with people when moving around the room.

I think in Amsterdam despite how the guys were the first time I would like La Bruja best if La Jirafa were DJing because of the music, the venue with its good dimensions for invitation by look which is pretty much exclusive there; tables and seating, good illumination, good floor, good dancing, elegantly dressed people and the nice bar.  But because of how it was the first time I would have to steel myself to go to that milonga in its regular Sunday slot  and we all know that steeling oneself is not the way to go into a milonga, so I am not sure.  Still, for all those reasons it is an interesting place to hang out even just to watch, if you can make your mind easy with that.

Many said Los Locos on Tuesday night is good. I have not been yet. I hear it is a practica til 2130 and then becomes a milonga. The impression I had from people is that the feeling there is warmer than at some of the other Amsterdam milongas.  Other than that there doesn't seem to be much in Amsterdam, midweek.

Dancing in the Netherlands - an overview

Photo: P.J.L Cuijpers

The articles to follow are what I learnt about dancing in the Netherlands over three trips in August, September and December 2016.  I have been to about a dozen local milongas in the Netherlands, some of them more than once. All impressions are merely that of a visitor. George Orwell was probably more reliable than most of those reporting on the Spanish Civil War by dint of the fact that he fought there and was acutely aware of the deliberate propaganda and the merely lazy and hence inaccurate reporting of the facts.  Yet he said, wonderfully:  I warn everyone against my bias, and I warn everyone against my mistakes. ('Homage to Catalonia')  I hope some of mine might be corrected by those who know better.

The big dancing centre of El Corte is not mentioned because I have not been.

Reviews of Dutch milongas I visited.

What’s on: Tangokalender was most often recommended and has a useful sorting feature showing which milongas are on closest to a particular town - great if your geography of Dutch towns is vague. There is also Torito. 

Pictures of some Dutch milongas on Ojo Oscuro. 

What happens when nowhere is far away

No city is very far away in the Netherlands meaning you can explore milongas across the country by train much more easily than I find is the case in the UK, where milongas are often in village halls sometimes only practicably reachable by car. However, the Dutch who travel any distance to dance outside their locality seem to be in the minority.   I asked one DJ if she had come far for that evening. She said, Yes, twenty minutes.
- By car?
- No, by bike.
I heard this kind of response about staying local confirmed in Amsterdam, in Utrecht and for the Nijmegen area from which one may (only cautiously) extrapolate.

However, because many towns are nearby and some people do travel - at least to the next town with a milonga - it is not difficult to find someone you have met previously - especially in well-known milongas like the Waterlelie (review) in Leiden or the sell-out Oranjerie milonga in Arnhem.  I find this to a much lesser extent with UK milongas where, largely because of distance, most dancers tend to stay local - and a few travel far.

There is though quite a divide between those who dance in Amsterdam and those who generally don't. I sensed it was in some cases almost ideological, on both sides - that isn't how we dance, isn't the music or the atmosphere we like.  But if so it was done with a typical tolerant Dutch shrug - It's just not my way; it's their way, that's fine.  The Dutch are so non-judgemental that, as in California I found it can be hard to get a true opinion, an actual view in the flow of "anything goes".

That divide that nonetheless does seem to exist between Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands is no bad thing.  It becomes difficult when Utrecht for example seems to have a few milongas but no milonga I heard called really traditional and from what I saw at the end of last year seemed to be struggling to get one going.  That means that Amsterdam and perhaps one or two other milongas will suck in the dancers from, say, Utrecht who are seeking a more traditional experience until a more balanced scene catering for different tastes become more widespread.  Or perhaps not - people may compromise some preferences for what can be a more relaxed atmosphere outside Amsterdam.

The dancing population of the Netherlands as a whole seemed quite large to me. You have then a whole country with a well-connected airport, easily accessible internally by public transport and bike, with many milongas, a lot of dancers, a fair degree of cross-pollination between milongas, an apparently co-operative local milonga scene (after all, they organise a festival of the regular Amsterdam milongas), DJs from nearby countries like Benelux and Germany and a generally very laid back population. It is an attractive proposition - and that is before mentioning that the men are tall and the women embrace in a close, relaxed and natural way. 

I found biking in Amsterdam to be unquestionably the fastest and easiest way to get around between milongas though in that city you need your wits about you. Biking I found superlatively good in the Netherlands generally.  I biked and trained a lot. See Biking in the Netherlands. I heard on my last trip that there is also a bike-hire scheme at local stations which means it is getting easier for visitors to participate.

Meeting people

Openness in the Netherlands does not necessarily in general mean warmth and openness from the get-go in the way that you do feel that tactile warmth in Buenos Aires and in southern cultures from men and from women. Certainly I found the Dutch far from unfriendly and within three trips I was offered overnight accommodation at least three times. Openness to the Dutch I found means that they may be more willing to talk about most things openly. In actual fact I find the British as much or more open though one's access to one's own culture makes it hard to be objective.  Despite what the politicians say class and the related problem of social inequality is in any case still so rife in Britain that it is difficult to generalise.

I found the Dutch independent - they like it, they respect it and expect it in others. Is there anything the Dutch don't like to talk about? I asked a tall Dutch girl.  We met in Dundee airport but she lives in Aberdeen. Money, she said and I sensed later there was truth in that. Characteristically though, the Dutch will be open about the fact that they are not open about money.

In the milongas I found many Dutch happy to chat. While most did not make overtures to a solo visitor this is characteristic of many milongas and some certainly did. I mean social chat, not walk-up dance invitations. But if you want to meet the Dutch in their milongas, as in most places I have been, you the visitor might well have to initiate chat yourself. 

I found and heard from many Dutch people that the Amsterdam milonga scene is quite closed. There can be good dancing but the attitude is not necessarily especially warm towards visitors. The 'Northern Mischief' (visiting separately) also found this, certainly in one milonga. There were exceptions. The hosts of TangoTerras (review), La Bruja (second review), El Cielo (review) were all welcoming to me but I mean the dancing population. For example, De Plantage (review) on Friday I found a quiet, reserved place as you might expect for a late-starting milonga for older locals but some people were certainly pleasant - socially - to a visitor. It was not a cold atmosphere there. I did not feel invisible there as I did the first time at La Bruja or at Tango11 (review). To an extent you make your own destiny and at slightly chillier places or places where the women are putting the work in to get noticed you may also feel you need to work harder to get noticed - if, that is, you think these things should be about work and putting that kind of 'effort' in and you have the temperament for it.

On the other hand, milongas outside Amsterdam I found more laid back, socially.

Swapped roles 

It was quite easy to dance with women in Netherlands. It is not that I saw many women in swapped roles - I did not but they all seemed to twig quickly to invitation even from a woman they did not know and many were interested.  Gratifyingly, some seemed interested in me before I was saw them.  It's so different girl interest from guy interest.  Girl interest is very liable to mean nice dancing.  Guy interest very often does not!

I rarely saw guys dancing together. They seem to do things quite conventionally in the Netherlands, which surprised me. Maybe that was just chance or perhaps tango attracts the more conventional people in Dutch society.  That said, I saw one of the best dancers I have ever seen in swapped roles in El Cielo (though she danced both) - and virtually all she did was walk. Girls, huh!   I think there's a lesson there, for the more adventurous and open-minded gents - or those who just really want to learn to dance.

Invitation

In the milongas I went to everywhere in the Netherlands invitation was mostly, but not wholly by look. More often, if you chatted with a guy, I found he was very likely to invite you, but as everywhere the better the dancer, the less this happens. I can’t say though that I had much chat or dance with many great dancers but I was probably just cautious because I went to many places, I was alone and there was a lot to take in each time. I look back and find I danced with a handful of great local guy dancers over three trips.

Up next: Milongas in Amsterdam: making a weekend of it and a visitor's summary of the top milongas, top DJs and top venues

Tango Train - Arrival and El Cielo Cafe

El Cielo cafe and bar, looking from the entrance towards door to the dance salon

In December, shortly after Christmas I went to the Tango Train milonga festival in Amsterdam because:

• There were lots of regular milongas
• There were no classes
• There was variety of hosts and venues
• It was easy to get between the milongas (I hired a bike)
• There was no registration. You could just turn up.
• There was no list of dos and don'ts, which I think are unnecessary and set the wrong tone
• There was variety of dancers and they were not the hand-picked preferences of encuentro and marathon organisers
• Because there were no classes it attracted social dancers, not class dancers
• Being just milongas, it was relatively cheap
• It was in a city, with other things to explore and a good place for a solo dancer not to stick out, compared to in e.g. Sol de Invierno which I also considered but which was hosted in a village.
• Many Dutch men are tall
• I knew one or two Dutch people who might be there
• In general I liked my experience so far of Dutch people and culture!

My husband had kindly given me the hotel points he accumulates with work.  I stayed then, feeling very lucky and very pampered in a smart hotel bang in the centre with lounge breakfast and evening drinks/hors d'oeuvres included.  If that had not been so, Amsterdam accommodation being so expensive, I doubt I would have gone.  Another version of this kind of festival of local milongas would be great in a cheaper city with a good vibe.

I was delayed in my plans to get to the El Cielo afternoon milonga on Tuesday 27th but went anyway to meet Albert at the cafe there for dinner.  He said to hurry up - there were a lot of extra guys that day.  In the event there was not much time left to both have supper and dance.  The salon looked nice and from the cafe DJ Oliver's music sounded good.  I knew that Oliver can no longer dance and it was sad but instructive to see his choice of track on his DJ page, Tanturi's La Vida Es Corta.

 This milonga ran in the afternoons of the Tango Train festival.  The cafe here was run by at least two different catering outfits changing over on different days. One was the CousCousClub  with the intriguing rubric:  Couscous and cocktails, slow food and fast fun. There was also, a picture of a naked woman.  It seemed very Dutch.  Prepare to be confused!  There were vegetarian and meat options and the other company provided something similar, I forget what exactly but I think there were some nice looking salads. The food was simple, cheap, popular. You ate it at rustic trestle tables with other dancers. 

Albert told me he lives in Friesland right in the north of the Netherlands but said he is moving to near Utrecht to be more central for tango. There will be trains that will get him back from out of town for 0130. From that location he will be able to dance all over the Netherlands.

In the cafe Albert introduced me to very tall Hans from Friesland who, amazingly, remembered me from TangoMagia some years before. "You picked the guys" he said and I smiled nervously wondering "What does he mean?", remembering that I probably had been fairly overt at that time. But Hans seemed amiable and easygoing. Then he said - we were all sitting down:  "You are very long, no?"
"Yes" I said, smiling.  Albert told me Hans has a milonga up there in Friesland.  I think it is the Salon Amarillo in Leeuwarden.  I liked Hans. He was careful in what he said and very quiet.  He was a nice dancer I found later.  We all discussed the options for the evening. There was Los Locos which many people had told me about, run by, among others, Wim who I knew.  There was some kind of tango-art milonga which had a lot of people interested on Facebook but did not interest me much and there was La Bruja.

I wanted to see if it was going to be as difficult there with the men as last time. I did not want to feel crushed by that milonga.  If milongas were like people I wanted to feel I could look at it full in the face and not be the first to look away or to leave it on good terms or at least to walk away without feeling beaten by the guys there.  I just wanted to see if it was going to be possible to have a good time there with the guys as well as the girls.  Why does entering some - many - milongas feel like being a stranger in a cold, unwelcoming land, even when the host does not seem to be like that?  Also, that contrast is unusual.

Luckily, on this evening, I was not alone.  Albert, who has danced for years surprised me by saying he had not been to La Bruja and Hans had been I think only once so we decided to all go. Albert had his bike too so he I and cycled part of the way together until he went to get his car.  Hans wanted to dance longer until the end of El Cielo so we me him there later.

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.

Dancing in Benelux

In August I went to dance in the Netherlands.  That weekend I danced in De Plantage, Amsterdam, the part-alternative Waterlelie outdoor milonga in Leiden, the part-neo/alternative Underground milonga in Amersfoort and the part-alternative outdoor milonga on the Wilhelminapier in Rotteredam. From this trip I realised that while I still love traditional music and many aspects of traditionally run milongas I really value a relaxed atmosphere. The Dutch are relaxed. It is tempting to say I would rather go to a milonga I find relaxing with a mixture of music than a milonga with a stiff, awkward atmosphere and great music.  But I can't because I have been to relaxed milongas with terrible music or mostly neo or non-tango music in the UK and found them very depressing. But in the Netherlands I had a nice time at milongas with mixed music even if I did not dance to it, or tried to but did not generally succeed. Novelty might have had something to to do with it. I think expectation counts for a lot - whether for example you go to a milonga thinking of it as a social event or as a dance event.

On my second trip this past weekend I went to the Tuinhuis milonga in Utrecht, the practica El Sur (briefly) and El centro milonga both in Antwerp in Belgium, then back to the Netherlands to dance in Amsterdam's outdoor milonga in Oosterpark then La Bruja.

I had confirmation that:

- Outdoor dancing is lovely though the floors can be appalling.

- Biking in the Netherlands is fantastic.

- Accommodation in Amsterdam is really scarce and expensive and not just in August

- The worst dancers nearly always are the ones who walk up/hand-offer to invite women. The more traditional the milonga, the more this is true.  Also, the worse the dancer the more disbelieving they can be when you say no thank-you.

- I am probably not compatible with guys who refuse point-blank to swap roles. 

- It is so nice to have a friend to go to an unknown milonga with.  Just knowing someone friendly in the room to sit with or chat to now and then makes such a difference. It can be even better when it's a local woman who gives you the low-down on the guys.

- The experience of travel can be as good or better than the experience of the milongas.

Also:

- Utrecht is pretty and has a nice vibe.

- If you travel far for milongas you don't know much about they can be as bad or worse than  milongas you don't know much about nearby, so better go to those at least first.

- Why do some milongas/scenes devlop a "closed" atmosphere?

- Where was everyone in the city of Antwerp?

- It is likely faster, nicer (and much safer on a bike) to just ask the way than to use your phone.