Salon De Oranjerie, Arnhem: New Year edition

On 2 January 2017 I went to the Salon de Oranjerie in Arnhem organised by Franc (and possibly others) of Amor de tango.  

Booking

You have to buy your tickets for this event online and state your role. The ticket was "€ 29,50 (excl. booking costs). This includes salon entry, a good meal and 3 drinks.... Extra drinks will be sold for € 2,50. Wine will be € 3" [from the website]. Personally I thought that deal was fine - about £26 if you consider it less than £9 for entry and the same again for a meal and for three drinks.  That is much cheaper than for example wine would be in the UK. It was also a long milonga - a wonderful seven hours: 3-10pm. 

This event seems to be infrequent.  The next salon is in June.  There is a good deal on at the hotel and smiling Jo Switten who I heard in Antwerp will play the music.  I think it should be very nice. 

[Update: Sadly, the salons stopped running soon after.] 

Franc

I met Franc in De Duif at TangoMagia in 2013.  I had been dancing about eighteen months. He was a memorable and quiet dancer - the best of that festival for me - and a reassuringly nice guy. You’re a teacher! I remember gasping very likely in enquiry as the penny dropped during the few words we exchanged over two tandas.  I was still awed by many teachers at that time and thought "Of course he is, dancing like this". I know now that some teachers are marvellous social dancers while many are not.  He mentioned, quietly, people he knew in the places I had already travelled to in the UK, like the Mango in Devon. I realised he had been dancing long before I had even had children and that he had met more callow women dancers than I could imagine. Modestly he shrugged, “Half the people here are teachers” as if in reality that meant nothing, which I now know to be true.  At the time I hid from that worrying thought in his embrace. He was nothing so much as gentle in manner.  I had since heard of his Oranjerie salon, thought it looked nice and it stayed in the mind's backburner for several years.

Getting there

  At the last minute Rian decided to go.  She proposed we meet at the station, travel to the venue together and perhaps go for a walk before the milonga.  I was delighted because it is never easy to catch up properly in the milonga.  We met in a coffee shop in the station with a marvellous lichen-like living wall. Like me, some children there could not quite get over how wonderful that was. I seem to recall the staff saying the plant absorbs moisture from the air so does not need watering.

The bus-station could hardly have been more conveniently accessible from the station. The venue is on the edge of town and you get off at the stop shown in the photo. We walked up the long drive to the Groot Warnsborn hotel where a polite and pleasant man on reception agreed to let me leave my things while we went for a walk. I should think with such courteous staff it is probably a very nice place to stay.

The drive up to the hotel (left) and where to get off the bus!

My experience of afternoon winter walks in two Dutch woods has left me a little underwhelmed but I live in Perthshire, one of the most wonderful areas for woods in the UK.  It does not matter though for there is almost nothing nicer than walk and talk  in good company.

Map of the walks around the hotel

Venue, welcome, seating

The milonga is in the Orangery near, not in, the main hotel building.  When we went in it was well underway.  There was a predictably busy ladies room off the foyer and a coat rack by the booking table where I left my luggage.  They scan your booking code and give you tokens for food and drink.

You walk then straight in to the salon on to a red carpeted walkway down the side of the dance floor to your right.  This was a good idea as it keeps the dancers and pedestrians separate.  Picture.  Straight ahead was the DJ spot.  The carpet petered out there so people walked on that corner of the dance floor to get to and from the central gangway that ran through the tabled seating area (between the red and white tables in the pic) to the floor.  At the back of the seating area, to the right was the bar. There was also table-less seating opposite the walkway.  I did not find a good spot from where to take a photo discreetly.  When I arrived I was not keen to take a photo until I had absorbed the atmosphere for a while.  Later I was too absorbed in it and forgot.

The room itself was beautiful.  Rian and Wil, whom I had met in the ladies, had gone ahead.  I was greeted first by Franc who was welcoming people on the carpet and then suddenly by the Northern Mischief looking svelte, her naughty grin and sparkling eyes positively bubbling over with fun and pleasure.  I guessed that El Corte for New Year had been good.  It was lovely to be welcomed by her.  She invited me to chat at her table where I was introduced to a quiet, unassuming Norwegian guy who turned out to be one of my nicest dances of the week.  I introduced my friends, more dance-focused than I, who had already found spots on the edge of the floor.  I was delighted to be at a table with drinks and chat, chatting with many.  It is also a useful barrier to invitation while you are not ready and want to take things in.  

There was nothing like enough tables for all. Groups of friends grabbed them and held on to them.  We kept ours with my wrap and bag there while dancing until it was firmly appropriated in our absence by a crowd of older, solid and determined-looking Dutch.  They looked conniving and resolute and did not apparently move again.  It would be nice if you could reserve tables.  I tugged my wrap, crossly, from under one their bottoms then when everyone started playing musical chairs I ended up on one of the temporary seats, forgetting that my bag was still under what was no longer our table.  I had to go back and was forced to scrabble for it between the unmoving legs.  

Besides being much more relaxing, keeping a seat means staying with your belongings and your partners always know where to find you. Maybe that was never an issue for Franc, who stands well over six feet tall.

Music

The music, by DJ Nico Loco of Dresden was mostly good. Most tandas were reliable enough for me to dance and many were great.  Even so, there was for example, this patch:

Suddenly I found myself with two nearly simultaneous invitations both of which I had wanted.  But they were to Rodriguez vals.   They are fine now and then but not where great dancing is to be found.  For great dancing you want great tracks! Next though was a tanda of Guardia Vieja.  This, bizarrely I danced upon invitation again from one of the guys I had turned down, but was frustrated with the DJ for lining up one not-great and one poor tanda.   Then, maddeningly, after the GV were Rodriguez foxtrots!  Neither the second guy nor I wanted to dance those foxtrots. I had hoped to dance with him for a long time - months perhaps and so, when finally he invited, never did because of three less than impressive tandas in a row and two of them Rodriguez.  That is how important the DJ is - he makes opportunities for dancers, he doesn't close them down.  

I didn't feel too bad about it though because later I heard, horrified, that the guy I hadn't managed to dance with had at another milonga dumped a Dutch woman I knew after two tracks rather than completing the customary three or four.  I was outraged for her at the indignity of it but she shrugged:  He didn't feel like it.  I could see she had let it go and held no animosity.  I couldn't forgive that the same way.

Floor, dancing, ronda
I had heard previously mixed things about the floor quality.  I heard the discreet nudge at the booking table about "a place to leave outdoor shoes outside the salon".  Very likely this was at least as much about not bringing in mud to the salon as about etiquette and it was subtly done.

The floor was in fact excellent.  The dancing was mixed.  I heard from someone who goes often that:  For some people it was quite expensive. So they stayed at home. Others had to work on a Monday. So they did as well. Of course it was fully booked, but not with the best dancers as it usually was. The ronda was  busy and so-so. It was just sometimes a bit messy as you might well expect given that there were people from all over and the event was (happily) not selective.  I saw people from at least the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, several Brits who had been to El Corte for New Year. Quite a few women switched roles reminding me of Eton milongas in the UK.

Food
The food was good. The token system was not altogether clear to all of us.  You chose two or perhaps three things with your token.  The menu was in Dutch but people in line helped with that.  Apparently a room behind this is usually available to eat in but this was not the case that day.  With ageless, engaging boyish charm, Franc, glass casually in hand, apologised at least twice publicly though nobody seemed to really mind.  The food servings was staggered into two to reduce the line and at mealtime tables were set up in the foyer to ease the crush in the salon.  I imagine things are much easier on good days in the summer when it looks as though there is access to the terrace for drinks and chat.

Impressions

I asked one of the attendees who travels a lot what they had thought in general.:

The location and the music were perfect and I had many good dances, so I enjoyed myself.

Someone else said:
"Well the venue was beautiful and I liked the slidey floor. Music was excellent, had some fabulous tandas, hated being asked by men (it was very well lit for cabeceo) and the beginning was incredibly hot but they did then open doors to cool it down. Tap water in jugs would have been appreciated as it wasn't exactly a cheap gig. Loved it in general. Good wine. Good coffee."  

She meant she didn't like the guys who walked up to invite and it was true there was some of that.  

I liked best the atmosphere, the variety of people though it made things a little haphazard.

I would love to go back especially in the summer especially if the DJ was Jo Switten.  

It would be great if there were more and smaller tables. I felt because of the venue and the atmosphere that this might be a great place to try separate seating for men and women but there is something cautious I sense about the Dutch socially, despite all that openness and liberalism. 

It was my favourite milonga of the week, probably my favourite in the Netherlands so far.