Mind the gap: milongas v shows

Rward

This was based on a draft from years ago about choosing your own teacher.

Would you not always prefer a natural dancer who is listening to the partner and the music, to some individualist who is thinking about their dancing and what they learnt in class? Surprisingly, not everyone does. Most people, indoctrinated through dance class and through watching dance shows in milongas that have nothing to do with what happens on a social floor speak about levels and technique. 

There is a huge gap between what happens in the milonga (social dancing) and what happens in shows (performance) and yet the shows are adverts for what the show dancers want to teach you in class.

Anyone with a gram of experience in the milongas or an ounce of sense regarding physical safety knows that the drama you see in a show does not translate well or safely into a milonga unless the venue is huge, the attendees acrobatic and they have enough respect to keep well away from others.  A high stiletto swingeing through the air can draw blood like a knife. 

Moreover, what you see in a show by no means converts easily to class either.  It can and should appeal to students of choreography but not to social dancers.  Another gram of sense will show that nearly all dancers in the milonga use a limited repertoire of maybe half a dozen moves.  So class attendees pay all the money to learn the tricks but then don't use them. Why?

Sometimes I wonder if there were simply more people at some milongas would the shows just die out? Wouldn't it just become so blindingly obvious how what happens in a performance is totally unrelated to social dancing and just feeds some fantasy in peoples minds?

I will never forget someone in the Netherlands in about 2013 telling me, after I had been wowed by some performance, that no, they didn't like dancing after a performance as everyone was trying to ape or impress the teachers and the dance floor turned into a riot.  

That's what happens when ego gets mixed up with social dancing.

A long gap and a return to the milonga

The Counting House, Edinburgh

2021 was taken up with a huge amount of campaigning, trying to make the most of the money available from Sustrans' Spaces for People fund.  I posted about this and various issues related to the vexed topic of land access in Scotland on one of my other blogs, Perthshire and Beyond.  

During the first year of the pandemic with no vaccinations and great numbers of people becoming very ill and dying, once public transport started to open up again many people were nervous of taking it.  Bike sales soared.  These factors and the lower volumes of traffic meant there was both need and opportunity to implement temporary bikes lanes and more space for pedestrians and al fresco dining in towns.  The government made money available via Sustrans, the cycling charity.  I formed a group and over two years campaigned long and hard to try and effect these changes in Perth. But the political will in this Conservative administration was not there.  The council passed an application (which it made to itself - ask yourself about the democratic process of that) for a huge new road.  Even Perth's one promised bike lane, one mile long, which doesn't really go from anywhere useful to anywhere useful and is forecast to take years to build, has recently come under threat. So I gave up campaigning and contented myself with watching the strides made in other cities, particularly London. It's always easier to vote with your feet than to press for change, but moving house, especially once you have children settled and happy in school, is no easy undertaking.  

Last Sunday and last Tuesday in Edinburgh I went to my first milonga at The Counting House, home of of this milonga for about the last twenty years.  Apart from the unfortunate addition of the Six Nations flags on the wall, nothing much had changed.   Toby was still running things and on the door. The 'entrada' is still an astonishing £3. George, who used to run things and had been nearly as permanent a fixture as Toby in the milongas has apparently moved abroad.  Claudia, who used to play some good tandas, hasn't been seen for ages.  But Jessie was back, sometimes DJing apparently these days and Gustavo was still around. I am still not used to the slightly glitzier revamp of a few years but am not averse to it.  It takes most guys at least 7-10 years to become good dancers and by no means all of them do.  But I realised I have been on the scene a long time when I saw a guy who started dancing after me, 'already' (probably 7 years on) looking like he dances well.  

The music was, as expected deafening on Sunday from the DJ who reportedly has hearing problems.  My sympathy for any such affliction wears extremely thin when the hearing of others is or is threatened with similar permanent damage as a result.  Upon various requests, the volume improved though on Tuesday.  

I had not planned to dance but to take along a friend for chat and drinks and to see how things were at the milonga.  But there were enough good classic tandas to be able to dance quite a lot on Tuesday.  On that day I had grabbed my shoes at the last minute, still not really planning to dance.  But that gorgeous music rises up inside you and propels you to your feet.  When the music pulls you towards the floor it is a better indicator that it is danceable and great than anything else.  It is what mystifies me that so many British and European DJs play so many dud tracks.  Why play music that doesn't have that pull that has been felt by generations of dancers and which is why certain tracks are more popular than others? Don't they feel it?  

I guided my beginner friend, a man of 61. "Llevar" (carry) is so much the better word in Spanish for this activity.  But, as that verb suggests, it is hard work.  Guiding a beginner dancer by dancing with them is the hardest thing in the milonga, guiding a bloke in the woman's role, while nigh-on essential for them to learn good dancing is harder still.  Men just don't move like women.  The only men who move more smoothly than other men are gay or double role, male dancers. I can only think of one guy who danced so lightly it was like dancing with a woman.  This was a guy from the queer tango scene in Paris, which has some of the best dual role dancers.  When I wanted to swap back to traditional roles it made sense when I later discovered he only ever danced in the (traditional) woman's role.     

While dual role and male tango dancers from the queer tango scene dance better than most men, nearly all men are much heavier, more awkward and, on the whole, much less willing to "entregarse" (let go, give themselves to the partner and the dance) while not pushing their partner over.   As a woman, guiding a beginner man, especially an older man is by far the hardest thing I do in dance.  I have done it countless time, but no more! My right side, from my back to my knee were all destroyed by the end of the evening. They were worse the following day by which time my right wrist had joined the cacophony of physical complaint.  It was a challenging evening, but fun nonetheless and it was just lovely to hear the music, watch the dancing and be part of that social atmosphere.  

A friend talked later about "solo milongas" by which I understood he and his partner dance only together, with no one else in the same room, for perfectly understandable reasons to do with the pandemic.  But this for me is a contradiction in terms of what a milonga is, a necessarily social experience.  Dancing with only a partner, alone, in a room or a hall, however pleasant, is well, just that.  It's no milonga I can imagine nor have otherwise ever heard described.

But is it safe to dance in a real milonga? That depends on personal circumstances and your perception of what safe is and for whom.  Vaccinations reduce the likelihood of severe illness and death.  More controversially, but still, I believe, they reduce the likelihood that you will catch the disease, at least in the short term.   But yes the milongas are likely to be spreader events, of covid-19 just as they are of the common cold. Long before covid it was an unwritten rule that you shouldn't go to the milonga with a cold for that very reason.  

I didn't go anywhere during the pandemic, no cafes, no restaurants, no pubs, while there were no vaccinations and for a long time afterwards. This was partly because I had had a bad bout of covid in March 2020, possibly picked up in Spain at the end of February.  I had health problems after that and the whole experience shook me.  Primarily though it was to protect my parents.  But when dad started going out more than I was and the boys were back in school, things started to seem rather back to front.  In September I started attending a Spanish Higher class ('A'-level) in school.  The boys and my husband caught covid in August 2021, but I didn't.  Then my youngest caught it again in January 2022 and again I didn't.  Over the winter of 2021-22, unless you lived a hermit-like existence, and with children in school, we did not, you were almost inevitably bound to catch covid.   So I seem to have some immunity at least at the moment. 

The Edinburgh milonga requires for entry that your vaccinations are up to date as well as a lateral flow test done on the day.  I discovered recently that when you report your test to the government there is nothing clever built into this process or the test kit.  You part with a significant amount of personal data  - as one seems to do increasingly these days - but when you report your result there is no technical verification that the test is accurate. There is nothing at all to stop you lying about your result when you report it, making them useless really for attending events.  You might as well just ask people on the door whether they have tested negative that day and rely on good faith because that is what you are doing with LF test results. 

Furthermore, the tests themselves are known to be fairly inaccurate. A few months ago a GP told me that one of their patients tested negative ten days running using LF tests and then tested positive with a PCR test.  

We still only meet my folks outdoors and we all test beforehand.  I don't buy the fake news that LF tests are completely useless. My family has tested positive using them on numerous occasions.  However, I have also felt as though I was coming down with, or was fighting off, something very covid-like during and outside of the periods when my family tested positive and I tested negative.  It is for reasons such as these that we still only meet the folks outside, after testing and when we feel completely well.  

Dancing after Christmas: other options

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Long milongas

Lunan Bay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Festivals vs milongas

Three track tango tandas are usually orchestrated by DJs and milonga organisers who think they know better than the dancers themselves what such dancers like.  Unsurprisingly, this tends to manifest in other heavy-handed ways of which perhaps more another time.

 Adrian Costa played three track tandas when he DJd for the Edinburgh festivalito recently: 

"I asked why the tangos were in threes and whether they were going to stay in threes - thinking perhaps he was waiting for more people to arrive. He said they would stay in threes because he didn't know the people and wanted them to dance with more partners, or, I think he corrected himself, to have the opportunity to dance with more partners."

This “I know what’s best for you” attitude happens in (usually) teacher-led or teacher-inspired milongas.

A festival milonga is a very different creature to regular milonga, hardly warranting the same name:

A: “Festivals are a significantly different case [compared to a milonga], wherein probably more attendees are indeed looking to dance with many different people.

A key difference is that at a festival, few know each other, so might hope to find a good partner amongst many, so want to try many. At a milonga few don't know each other, so want to dance with those they prefer, being necessarily few.

Herein lies the fundamental reason that, other variables being equal, festival dancing is generally of lower standard than milonga dancing, and I believe satisfaction amongst good dancers is much lower... unless they treat the festival as a milonga and dance with few.

Festivals are better for bad dancers; milongas for good.

Teachers wanting people to dance with many is actually them wanting their class students to dance with many, since customer satisfaction leads to sales. They do not favour non-classeros dancing only amongst themselves. Threes v. fours [tango tracks to a tanda] is basically bad dancing business v. good dancing socially.”

B: I think part of it is that the pressure is on on DJs at festivals: they want people up and dancing all the time so they, the DJ looks good (even more so for those with a performer mentality). They think that playing three [tango] tracks [as opposed to four tango tracks to a tanda] will increase the energy and the hype and keep people up. I think it’s the same logic that is behind why I often hear too much strong/rhythmic music and vocal drama at festivals and music that is too loud. But it’s true it just leads to poor dancing, a sense of broken music and a messy floor. But then, I generally like milongas and dancing low-key and by definition a festival nor even a festivalito is intended to be a low-key affair.

Kindergarten milongas: “Do the math!”

(Three track tandas III)

A: Don't some organisers who ask for three tango tracks to a tanda just want to accommodate the many (paying) singles who go to meet and dance with others? I mean I think it's normal for people to want to do that.

B: Many milongas do that fine without shortening tandas. Shortening tandas does nothing to accommodate singles.

A: Except that they get to meet more people. I thought that was the point.

B: Wrong. Do the math.

A: Do you not get about another four or five tandas if you do them in threes over say 4 hours assuming 12 minutes for a tango tanda and 9 for a vals or milonga tanda with a minute's cortina each time?

B: You do. But that doesn't say you "get to meet more people".

A: Well then, if you do, in the organiser's mind I'd imagine they think an extra four or five changes is worthwhile. 

B: Do more math! :)

A: I don't follow! What's math got to do with that?

B: "more" is about arithmetic. If you work out how many different people you'd already have to have danced with before five changes could increase the quantity, you'll see why it is nonsense.

A: Oh, I see. Four hours with three tango tandas - of four tracks each - to an hour plus a vals and milonga tanda, gives about twenty tandas in four hours, compared to twenty four tandas if you play tango tandas with three tracks each. If you danced all tandas (of four tango tracks) and the vals and milonga you'd dance with twenty people. Even assuming you sat out say six of those you'd still dance with fourteen people: More than enough for most. So you hardly need the few extra tandas. I see why you think it's spurious.

Kindergarten milongas: Custom versus imposition

(Three track tandas II)

“A good custom is surer than law”

Four tracks to a tango tanda I think just emerged in the traditional milongas of Buenos Aires as being the thing that worked best for people who like to dance traditional tango music in the environment best suited for it. That is the difference between the traditional four track tango tanda which came about through custom and the non-traditional three track tandas which are imposed on dancers in kindergarten milongas, whether the dancers like it or no.

There are connections between coercion, control, imposition, "knowing what's best" for the dancers and these sorts of milongas.

El Quinto milonga, Nottingham

I went on from the milongas at the Cambridge Spring Festivalito to the milonga called El Quinto in Nottingham. My plan was to combine this milonga with another run regularly on Bank Holidays at nearby Beeston the next day. I stayed at the Holiday Inn conveniently just off the motorway and five minutes from the venue. Were you to consider this, the hotel doesn’t look up to much from the outside and the reception/bar area is as you might expect but I found the room itself fine with excellent blackouts. 

Entrance

Parking was conveniently behind the hall and free. You pay the entrada inside the entrance to the salon. I was greeted and as at Camtango asked to give my name though I did not learn my host’s. I was advised to walk behind the dance floor in a narrow gangway - a new innovation apparently, as - controversially - in Edinburgh - with which hosts the organisers at El Quinto have ties.

Telling unknown people what to do is one way I suppose. After all, I might have been a new dancer but I tend to find that people, even new people can work this out for themselves - or they demonstrate they cannot which is also useful for everyone. In that case a regular may quietly, wordlessly even, guide them the right way.  This is a form of social learning, I find that preferable and not just in practical terms - besides saving a new person from embarrassment it may show them a friend and an ally which, god knows, in many milongas a new person needs.   

I find what happens to you at the entrance can set the tone of a place. 

Much later I took a couple of photos from two corners of the room but as I walked back to my seat was told by the organiser that there was a “photo policy”. I wasn’t made to delete my photos there and then but was asked to execute care if posting them because not everyone likes their photo taken. Yet whole room photos are very useful to convey a sense of venue, numbers, ronda, and type of hold or embrace prevalent in the room. My photos are not at all intended and rarely do focus on individuals. It is a shame really because of the 26 or 27 people in the photo I was going to use not one of their faces are visible, nor are they near the camera yet it shows the attractive room nicely. If you want to see it, do get in touch. But as I say below the rules are strict there so here is a photo of the floor instead.

I asked where I could change my shoes. There are two Ladies rooms to the rear of the salon and a convenient bench outside them to change shoes. Most people seemed to observe etiquette in this regard which was such a relief though it is still not quite universal, even in civilized milongas. 

Atmosphere and Invitation

Still, there was a distinct sense of everyone trying hard to “do the right thing”. That is good I suppose in that most requests to dance I saw happening were by cabeceo.  The downside of this rather self-conscious observation of milonga etiquette was a somewhat stilted atmosphere for the first two or three hours or so. Feelings about atmosphere especially as a visitor are very subjective but someone I found fun and relaxed felt the same. 

Even so, at least five men invited me directly, or as good as, but not in impossible ways. I did not for (nearly) the most part find it difficult to refuse, feeling sure and relaxed about my reasons. 

Room and seating

The room itself I thought was lovely. It is used as a wedding venue. There is a high ceiling, beautiful windows, attractive lighting. It is also one one of the coldest venues I have been to. People told me this was usual here and I noticed blankets hung up outside the ladies room with a sign from the hall management saying: If you are chilly in the hall please use them. Luckily I had a good wrap. Someone said to me recently at another cold dance “How did you know it was going to be cold.” I don’t. I just anticipate that it might well be, because it often is! 

There is a bar, also free water and a refreshments table which that day had biscuits and cheese, cake, sausage rolls, grapes.

There was a card of rules on all the tables (see photo).

Seating was at tables, then there was the gangway around the hall and some seats without tables behind these for the more retiring or for latecomers. Visibility of potential partners was excellent. If you wanted to move seat I would not say it was a particularly easy place to seat-hop. I felt it more a “keep your seat” kind of place. I like this and find it civilized though it can be hard if you arrive alone and unknown and don’t have people to chat to. This was my case but I chatted to all the people around me - at least half a dozen - and despite dancing very little this, watching and listening kept me there for several hours. The chat I found relaxing even if the atmosphere I felt was, in some way that I think was related to the rules, a little less so.

Numbers, floor and dancing

The photos I have show about thirty but not everyone is necessarily in the photo so there may well have been more.

The floor was old and I had previously heard possibly rotten in parts. When I saw it I had misgivings but my first two tandas on it were with a lovely dancer with a warm, fun personality, and it was simply a joy and pleasure to dance. In these conditions I was pleased to find the floor unproblematic. Sometimes I find a floor becomes difficult by the type of dancing one accepts. Thereafter I did find it so and with the knee/back problems which I could not risk aggravating I quit dancing early.

There were only a few guys in the room I really wanted to dance with that day and I danced very little, partly because I was no longer in the mood for dance due to the sound issues (see below). I wasn’t really paying attention to the girl dancing but find it is generally always better than most guy dancing.  Had the sound been better I might have tried my luck with the women later on though I find I need the atmosphere to be relaxing for that to work.

Music and sound

The DJ was Solveig (Bergen, currently in Norwich). 

I had hopes for a great set after hearing Solveig earlier in the year in Cambridge, but at first I was alarmed. There were two good Di Sarli sextet instrumental tracks and then La Estancia which I don’t think is the best for dancing and Maldita which is very like it. Luckily my partner was great and so it did not matter as much as it might otherwise have done, or as much as it would have mattered to me if I had been dancing in swapped roles.  I find better examples of early Di Sarli here - all lovely tracks for me. 

In El Quinto I recall next about another two tandas of slow, leaden, Guardia Vieja type music I did not know similar to the start at El Amateur. I started to wonder if I had made a terrible mistake. Then there was a very good D’Arienzo tanda but it had been slowed down and thus I could not imagine dancing it. I mean the actual sound of the music was slowed down i.e. as if a tape or record was being replayed at a slower rate. DJ software such as Traktor can do this. I looked to the DJ in astonishment and frustration. Tanda after tanda was like this. I queried the slowness with the DJ but she was not aware of it which astonished me further. It made tracks I knew to be famous unidentifiable, even the orchestras became hard to identify. I knew them yet did not because something was so wrong. I heard Rodriguez tracks I knew I knew and was eventually able to associate orchestra name with the weird sound but still the track names remained bizarrely out of reach because the link between name and right sound had been cut like a rope bridge hanging by just one side.  There was also a significant crackle in one of the speakers which the barman I think helped to resolve. Much later towards the end of the afternoon the slowing of tracks either fixed itself or I got so used to it that I no longer noticed it but it completely put me off dancing - even in the other role. I have never had an experience quite like it. It was a shame because after the very shaky start in musical choice the tandas soon became of the sort I remembered from Cambridge - mostly great and mainstream.

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.

Disruptive?

When we arrived at El Amateur there were few people. Before we knew there was food there we had decided to dance while it was quiet then go and find something to eat. But we hadn’t factored in the music and by the time we had had our tasty soup next door and the music had changed enough that I wanted to dance it, the place was already filling up. 

I am not unfamiliar with dancing with brand new guys in places I do not know well.  I had done so in January in Letchworth, though only I think one tanda, the music being unsuitable for beginners. In mid-February I took a friend new to dance to a new milonga, La Redonda in Edinburgh.  I had done the same with another friend, also a beginner guy in La Catedral in Buenos Aires in March. We danced all evening.  You never know how it is going to go with each guy.  There are similarities dancing with beginner men in swapped roles but equally they are all different.

But in Stuttgart as time went on I felt a bit awkward.  I felt this milonga was traditional in that perhaps they did not expect or appreciate people dancing in swapped roles or more that they did not appreciate complete beginners even in the middle. Later I found my friend, a local, thought more that they were tolerant as long as we did not bump into anyone. Astonishingly, we did not.  With my eyes open I was less sure but did not encounter any apparent hostility, more perhaps surprise. I continued because this was the only chance to dance with my friend, we did not appear to risk harm to or disrupt anyone and we stayed in the middle. Besides, I cannot help but feel it is no bad thing to share, wordlessly, in public the insufficiently well known view that beginner men can - in my opinion should - dance first as women with a more experienced partner, though ideally I think they would do so with another man.

I am not sure I would do the same there again mostly because I felt in those particular circumstances it would have been better and I might have felt less disruptive to the ambience - if indeed it was felt disruptive - in a practica. Or I would wait until I knew the milonga better. The experience also taught me something about how to dance better in swapped roles with beginner men, something I have since tried in another milonga. Still, another man - also a visitor - commented that what we did was a good thing to do for my friend and for me for which I was very grateful. While seated and after I think my friend and I had danced our last tanda of the evening, the visitor gave him a useful tip.  I never would have but it was not his partner and it was from a man to a man, so it was different.   He leaned across me: "Women automatically close their legs" he said to him in his forthright English. They just do. We don’t. But when we dance as the woman we must! Then it will be easier for her, he said, indicating me. 

Certainly, there is nothing more testing than dancing with a beginner guy, especially taller than oneself in swapped roles and in an unfamiliar environment. My friend said it was his best experience dancing tango. Given three failed attempts in class it could hardly have been worse.  Besides, there is no reason to think the real - as opposed to class - conditions would not be better and his remark made it more than reason enough for me.

EITF: Monday

Monday night

I had stayed overnight in Edinburgh after the main festival milonga the previous night.

On the Monday afternoon and the evening milonga I stayed sitting for the most part with friends, none of whom, curiously, were from Edinburgh.  When they said they found the atmosphere closed I wondered if there was a connection between the two things.   I enjoyed the girl chat. For me that Monday afternoon and evening were the best part of the weekend largely for that reason. Sometimes we danced.

The DJ I was most keen to hear was Juan Venegas Ortiz. Juan used to live in Edinburgh but retains the ties.  I knew he could do good sets but sometimes I would hear the odd bit of drama and the occasional Guadia Vieja tanda and occasionally more than a bit of these. I was curious to see which way he was going.

The music was the best I heard this weekend.  I stayed in the salon and danced more so my music notes are more confused for that day. However, I can say  that of the two DJs I heard that day Juan is the DJ I would hear again, being the more mainstream.

As I recall there was great D'Arienzo, good Rodriguez including Este es tu tango and Por eso canto yo. The latter is OK and nice music but not among the best for dancing I think and I find that repeated "ding" on the piano a bit contrived.  I hear it as uncharacteristic of the orchestra, in fact come to think of it it doesn't sound at all like the pianist I expect in that orchestra.  Or maybe it is.  I guess if I'd been on the piano and made to record that track for dance I might have protested the same way.  He sounds a bit ironic to me.

There was a tanda by Laurenz.  I remember because I had two of my best dances of the weekend to that and the Rodriguez with a visitor from somewhere near the Midsummer Tango  event. A friend had previously told me about it. The visitor looked a quiet, even hesitant dancer, easily missed, but I suspected he did not feel that way.  Indeed, he was quiet, assured and musical which is how I and many girls seem to most like them. He disappeared off to class at one point and I could not fathom why he would think he needed to.

I think there were the irresistible Demare vals including No nos veremos más.  Unless I am mistaken there were the Troilo/Marino milongas I like including Barrio del tambor so I guess the others were Con mi perro and the seductive Con permiso but hard to dance without being unpleasantly jerky for the woman. I think these are the best of the possibilities though I suppose one might have been Cimarrón de ausencia. I have a feeling there was also a Troilo/Marino tango tanda of type e.g. Copas, Amigos y Besos  though I think the Biagi/Ortiz is better,  Sombras nada más (“show me that tango passion”- a great tango for performers) and Siga el corso. 

There might have been later Pugliese-Morán of type Pasional and Barro.

I recall dancing good Malerba and next to my note about that is that there was a there was a weird vals I couldn’t place and terrible OTV tangos.  I have heard ropey OTV from Juan before e.g. Viento Norte.  Boy, can you hear it’s 1929.

Not to do him a disservice one of the DJs this day played poor OTV tangos of type Justo el 31 so it might not have been Juan. No matter, whoever it was, this track does not fit in an otherwise largely mainstream set (which Juan’s was). I failed to find the track on the internet, for reasons that will become obvious so here it is on Spotify. I have met people who genuinely like this type of thing and I think all these sort of tracks should be saved up for that select group to enjoy at special milongas of just this sort of music because to inflict them on the rest of us is pure torture.  It isn't just me, see my friend's comment on the similar Lomuto below.  I believe there was also Viejo Arrabal which reminds me of a doolally elderly lady lost in dreams of girlhood. I cannot again find a link on the internet (hint: no one else likes it either) but here it is on Spotify.  Seguime corazón which in comparison has a lot more about it. I don’t know if it was this because I see different versions of it on the internet apparently by OTV though with different melodies but this struck me as easily the best of those.  Considering the rest of the tanda though I'm inclined to think it sounded more like this.  Even if it was the first version, OTV is not for everyone though I heard it played - especially the instrumentals (and not rarely) in various milongas in Buenos Aires.  There is a world of difference though between the (lots of) poor OTV and say Ventarrón.

Most of the rest of Juan’s set I enjoyed and there was a good mix. The dancers showed much appreciation at the end.

Monday Night

Monday night

The salon was prepared differently for the evening compared to the afternoons events. It looked nice but it was darker though this does not really come across in the photos.

The DJ was Jörg Haubner (Germany).  First I should say that once I plucked up the courage to ask him about some of the music which I did several times he was approachable, pleasant and patient.  When I asked him if a tanda later on in the evening was his second Canaro he looked at me as though amused and said yes but that his second one was with Famá from a different era. I had danced I guess the later Famá (which he played earlier) which included perhaps Al subir, al bajar - a mood changing track and one of the happiest I can imagine if you aren't snooty about Canaro and I have been surprised by the number of unpretentious guys I like who refreshingly are not.  At any rate I did not know to recognise all the tracks and asked if I could note the tanda which I had quite liked. He agreed, kindly and I wrote it down but unfortunately as I wrote it on a napkin it did not survive until I had time to reconcile my notes. The earlier one he played later was of type “special” Canaro e.g. Bernabé la fiera - El trapero - Ya vendrán tiempos mejores.  This would go well I feel with that type of OTV I mentioned above, or the Firpo or Lomuto which came later.

I arrived to great D’Arienzo or rhythmic Tanturi - I think it was great D'Arienzo to start and mostly good Tanturi later. There were very few people that early but I knew one lady and we danced it. It was one of my favourite tandas of the weekend because the music was great, I liked my partner and she could dance and with so few around I felt relaxed with no pressure.  Not too long after I danced milonga and later I think Biagi with my most regular guy partner in Scotland, swapping roles back and forth.  Because we know and feel at ease together I felt my normal self return. My eyes were red with sleeplesness but even so I knew after that I was going to dance more naturally than earlier in the festival.

There were De Angelis/Godoy vals which I hear less often but I think they are nice: Angélica (1961)

Hermana (1958)  - I do not think I have ever heard this - and Imaginación (1950).  I have a note that they were played early though and this felt a bit odd because they feel like tracks later in the evening, or maybe that is just in memory I think I heard this sort of thing in Berlin.

Other vals were the OTV of type e.g. La Serenata, Amor Eterna  which I hear little and Amor y Celos.

It was towards the second half of the night during the Canaro-Famá from the earlier period that I considered leaving. After that there was:

Pugliese Moran which was for sure a contrast, of type e.g. No me ecribas, Sin Palabras.

There were Lomuto vals Bajo el cielo azul and Rosas negras  which I don’t think I’ve ever heard but think is nice as with several Lomuto vals. He seems made for the genre. There was the more well known Un vals/Se fue.  

Then D’Arienzo/Valdez of type En el cielo and Por tu culpa te perdi.  Why I didn’t leave at this point I can’t remember.   It is possible it was fascination to see what came next.  I know none of us girls had danced much or at all in a while. 

In fact it was Firpo.  Firpo has become so unpopular among mainstream dancers that I have even seen an encuentro promising no Firpo - no Firpo as advertising, that's how unpopular it is among most good dancers. There was La Bordadora.   I looked at my friends. One gaped in disgust and disbelief saying What is this dirge.  I am afraid I laughed because that is exactly how I often describe this funereal music. I remember a long time BA resident saying in Lo de Celia, a traditional milonga in Buenos Aires, pretty much the same thing when a different (and much better) Lomuto track came on. You have to be careful though with Lomuto, a hair's breadth separates the good from the very bad and, as with OTV not everyone likes it.  And never play Firpo tangos.  Actually I heard the same thing said about Lomuto in another milonga there and by another ex-pat. In the majority they are used to different sorts of tracks.   After that was Firpo's La Carcajarda which I recognised from that cackle.  

Of visitors I did not know I danced with I think four guys during the EITF and one  ambidancing woman.  I wished I had been more relaxed for better dancing with girls before the Sunday night  but did find the conditions inclined me that way.  The best part of the festival for me was the girl chat, hearing the differences in music played by the different DJs and the opportunity to hear La Juan D'Arienzo. 

Edinburgh tango festival: Sunday, including La Juan D'Arienzo

Greyfriars kirk

I usually avoid live music and cover orchestras but this orchestra has a world class reputation and I bought a ticket in advance.  I had already heard recordings of their great instrumental tracks.  Initially I had intended to go to the EITF only for this orchestra.  Music and dancing in Edinburgh as it is means so far this year I had danced there just twice (at La Redonda).  

It was not, therefore for the local music and dancing but curiosity, the chance to dance with visitors, to see my visiting friends and to catch up with people I had not seen for a long time that persuaded me to go back to the Sunday afternoon cafe.  

Afternoon cafe

Someone outside said he had come for the milonga but that the class was still going on.  A class overrunning 45 minutes after the start? I queried.  He had been outside for fifteen or twenty minutes so perhaps not quite that long he said.

I chatted to the box office staff for a while and by the time I went in to the salon the milonga was underway.  The DJ was Antonella Cosi, head DJ at the Edinburgh Tango Society (ETS) and organiser of El Tango Club milongas.  I arrived to a cracking D’Arienzo tanda, type e.g. El cencerro, El caburé, Ataniche which immediately improved my expectant mood.

 Unlike the previous day I was wearing girl clothes and heels. People gave compliments for which I was grateful.  I was to need them later. 

Cortinas
Though the cortinas were longer than the previous afternoon during one of them I counted twenty on the floor. 

Forgive the diversion:  In the ETS regular milongas in the Counting House the confusing,  frustrating and absurd notion of the "silent cortina" used to be the norm until a year or two ago - the excuse being that it was less disruptive.  Less disruptive no doubt for those who want to stay on the floor - as if these are the only people who matter.  Tolerance of, in fact support for that habit remains and was apparent at the festival among some of the ETS head honchos, despite the extraordinary rules. Once started, the practice snowballed as it often does with such things.  It reminds me of feet on seats in railway carriages.  Some years back some rail companies, sensing much public distaste took a tougher line on that practice and it seems to me to have dropped off.

You see people not clearing the floor generally in ETS milongas and notably among those who are anti-cabeceo. The Counting House milongas were my nursery and it is because the floor at the time so seldom cleared that it was a year or two before I learnt the that the cortina is not only an opportunity to swap partners, but more importantly, it lets everyone see to invite by look so that all may have an opportunity to invite efficiently and discreetly, not merely those already on the floor and with no plans to leave.  Now those who remain on the floor usefully demonstrate their disrespect for others who, seated, are trying to see across it.  It is curious that those not clearing the floor included some of the ETS committee which apparently does exist though its members are still, as far as I know not elected or officially named. Even the student tango society holds elections. What with half the committee sticklers for rules and somewhat more traditional music and some quite clearly not, ETS looks under some strain these days. 

Dancing

I spotted about five guys I would have liked to dance with - four of them from out of Scotland.  I had had a good seat but was blocked by the odd couple in front and I did not want to move.  There were younger girls and good dancers in better positions.  I decided to call it quits before mid afternoon. 

Atmosphere

A complaint I heard more than once over the weekend was that the atmosphere was flat.  The same adjective was used by different people. Nonetheless, I heard that at least one of the evenings, I think it was the Saturday night sold out.

***

After I had changed my shoes I spotted my friends, popular dancers, arriving as I left. How had the Saturday night been? Their expressions registered dissatisfaction again. More hand-offering? No, just people who know each other dancing together and sticking together and not great dancing. Had the floor cleared in the cortina? No. That had been the other problem. 

A good milonga started and I danced it with a female friend in my chunky, sparkly pink flip flops - repeating almost exactly the same circumstances from three months previously when I had danced like that to amusement in La Viruta with a porteña I had met in the more traditional milongas. We had been about to leave when a great milonga started and she had asked to dance it.

I left more upbeat again. What’s wrong with me?  I half-thought at my inability to get the dancing I wanted. I wondered at the thoughts of the other women I had seen leaving or who would leave.    I had not realised at that point that the largest single influx of visiting dancers was probably from London, which explained much.  Twenty-five in number I heard from one of them, though they did not all arrive together.  There is a distinctive London style in the milongas because I can sometimes recognise such dancers when I see them on the outer side of the London orbital.  

As I walked along outside at the pavement cafes guys looked, caught my eye and held it.  I started to feel better.  A tall, good-looking guy standing on the pavement about to make a phone call grinned at me from behind his sun-glasses and complimented my pink shoes. I answered my own concern: Nothing, in real life! I thought, pleased. It only seems like it in the world of that milonga. I felt relieved I’d left and spent a tranquil couple of hours in the sun.

Curious to see how things had worked out I went back for the last hour and chatted with friends.   The atmosphere and conditions felt unstable. I did not feel like taking any chances and danced with women I knew though even then not well but also with one or two guy friends.  One gentle dancer always understands the conditions of the woman: "But it took me a long time to realise that" he said.  He said lovely things about my dance as though he realised I needed the boost.  I had been relaxed outside the milonga and still was, in the fun chat with my friends, but realised that inside the milonga I was not relaxed enough to dance as I wanted in the other role.  Besides, the music had deteriorated by the time it reached that last hour. 

***

Music

The volume was significantly better than the previous day.

I heard tracks that did not sound anything like D’Agostino then two D'Agostino, I think Así era el tango and Ahora no me conoces.  The mix of those two with something else was so odd I assumed it was an error.

Then there was:

• great rhythmic instrumental Di Sarli of type e.g. Retirao, Catamarca, Shusheta
• Demare songs with singer Horacio Quintana of type e.g. Torrente, Solamente ella, Corazón no le digas a nadie (nice, but not the best for dancing for me), Igual que un bandoneon.
• Canaro vals of type e.g Sueño de muñeca, En voz baja, Ronda del querer  
• Great Troilo with singer Fiorentino of type e.g. Total pa' qué sirvo, Toda mi vida, Tinta roja, Cachirulo
• Infallible Caló songs with singer Raúl Berón, of type e. g. Jamas Retornaras, Corazon no le hagos caso, Trasnochando, 

I remember less clearly the music in the last hour although there was Canaro, possibly with Melodia Oriental. I don’t think it was the Zerillo version. There was a dire tanda, very poor Lomuto I think, typical of what I remember from the ETS regular milongas type e.g. Cuando llora la milonga  I want to say there was Violin Gitano but I can hardly believe it could be that bad and yet I know it can.  I am pretty sure there was Quiero verte una vez más probably in the Lomuto tanda though it might have been the Canaro, I forget. Both are nice for me.

Sunday night

The main milonga of the weekend was in Greyfriars Kirk, situated within the tranquil setting of its kirkyard.

The DJ was Ewa Zbrzeska with performance from the live orchestra.

Sound from the DJd part of the night was extremely loud and inescapable from speakers all round the floor. I had heard poor reports about this DJ and would be unlikely to attend a milonga with her DJing again. Much of the music was very “tango passion”, not what I enjoy. As an example I believe there was De Angelis/Larocca of type Volvamos a empezar  and Como nos cambia la vida and early on at that, or something similar which felt even more odd at that time. I think I heard Troilo-Marino too or much in that vein.

In the past the Greyfriars' floor had been notoriously slippy but was about perfect now. 

Seating and lighting was quite good. You cannot see everyone for invitation because of the size of the venue but guys could move around to invite from different spots without too much bunching and loss of discretion.

The ronda does not look too bad in the top photo, which was taken at about midnight but you can see the right hand side is not as well defined as the left.

The orchestra was great. I danced four tracks with a woman friend and enjoyed it. I would have danced more with others but felt you particularly need the right partner and better conditions for that strong music. I could feel it coursing through me. It was like being in, being part of the music as with the best recorded music only more so. At least two people who did the orchestra’s musicality workshop said it was the best part of the weekend for them. One who went said: a live orchestra for a dozen couples and his expression spoke his enjoyment. I half-wished I had attended but don’t think I could have borne any required partner rotation which is usually the risk in class.