Bank holiday at Beeston

Taken early before most had arrived

The milonga Media Luz which I attended on the early May Bank holiday is run by Tango in Nottingham. The venue is the parish church in Beeston, a suburb of Nottingham. In the morning I visited Wollaton Park which I can recommend. It was part of a long weekend away I cobbled together with dancing at the Cambridge Spring Festivalito and El Quinto beforehand. I had heard the conditions were good, that the music could be good and, a big draw for me, like El Quinto it was a relaxing five hours long - much closer to the length of a Buenos Aires milonga than the mishorta of two or three hours that are happily becoming rarer in the UK.  This milonga ran from 3pm-8pm and I stayed for all of it. Entry was £10.

There was car parking on surrounding streets that was free being a bank holiday.

Entrance/facilities

I was greeted by the organiser, Lisa who I had met briefly at the milonga in Cambridge in January. The pre-milonga class was finishing about on time as I arrived at the start of the dance. 

There was no Ladies room per se - the loos are mixed. There is a disabled loo for getting changed. There was nowhere else besides to change shoes but since the venue is large there are discreet spots at the back.

Venue and atmosphere

The venue, the space, was lovely. It had a good feel. 

I was relieved that there were no rules on display.

The atmosphere was relaxed I think though being alone, sitting for the most part alone, knowing few and not dancing much one can’t help but feel the pressure of not dancing. A couple I knew offered me wine but I stuck to fruit tea before giving in gratefully later.

Seating

Besides the seating with tables at the edge of the floor you could if you liked sit more quietly to watch or chat discreetly. I sat centre front at the far end from the door from where the header photo is taken because I had a good view of all sides. 

With men and women in mixed seating it is hard enough for a guy to invite by look down a row. Not to exacerbate that tables need to be forward from between the pillars for such invitation not to be nigh impossible. I have noticed this problem in churches used for dance before. This is another reason I chose to sit at the shorter end - it is easier for partners on both sides to see you on the diagonal. 

Floor

The floor is wood and tile but it was possible to avoid the tile and the wooden floor was good.

Refreshments

“Refreshments” hardly does it justice. There was a real spread - and paella too. 

The food was good and substantial though I found mid-afternoon a strange time to eat,. The locals seemed wise to this and I guess had skipped lunch because the food was popular straight away.   Considering the entrance price this was, like the Padanaram tea, an extraordinarily good deal.

Music

Lisa was the DJ. I have much respect for anyone able to host and DJ for more than a small, informal gathering, particularly when providing such food. I know how hard it is and doubt I would or could combine both roles again. 

The music was mixed and not as good as I had hoped but during the central two hours the tangos were mostly good. There were some non-traditional tandas including some Russian tangos; this despite the advert for traditional music.

Early on the sound was too loud then when it came down it was muffled, not crisp, but after a while it improved or I got used to it. 

There was a tango tanda that sounded like Maglio at the start which worried me but a number of DJs put on music like that at the start of events, though happily fewer and fewer I notice. It is the kind of music you next to never here in traditional milongas in Buenos Aires. I asked and was told it was Juan Pancho which confused me. Someone wrote me later that Pancho was Maglio's nickname.

I have a note of a Piazzola-Fiorentino vals El trovero. There was Domingo Federico of type Tiburón with Mario Bustos, which I think of as the kind of movie music liable to make you drop off on the sofa. There was I think the instrumental Muy Suave, which you can see being danced elsewhere. I think there was Corazon Encadenado: hearing Moreno in this orchestra, sounding older, rather than with Rodriguez was very odd but I discover he joined Federico in 1950. I believe this combination reappeared in the milonga later on in the 1955 romantic vals Pobre novia which I found worth listening to just to hear Moreno in completely different mode. In Buenos Aires I heard this kind of music in the few milongas I went to with younger people or where the age group is more mixed. It reminds me of something Carlos Moreira might play in a more liberal moment in one of Daniel and Juan's otherwise traditional milongas Derecho Viejo (Mondays) or La Cachila (Thursdays) in Gricel or when I heard him play for a mixed crowd in Centro Région Leonesa one weekend. By this really I mean it is not what I think of as mainstream traditional.  I cannot think that Dany Borelli, or Vivi La Falce or Carlos Rey would play these sorts of tracks or play them much and theirs was the music I heard most and most liked.

It was a relief then when the next tanda was D'Agostino and after that the music was largely very nice. There was a significant wobble with the Russian tango which drove me out for fresh air. Later there was a Caló of type Nostálgias (with Arrieta, 1948) which sounds to me like two tracks going on at the same time and Los Despojos (with Iriarte, 1947) which I mind much less but the tanda improved after that. 

After the Caló things were mixed. That might have been when I heard good Rodriguez bar a strange opening choice. There was another of these grand romantic vals, this time Salamanca of type Ansiedad (1959). Perhaps all vals is dance music but some surely is more for watching on TV, or for listening (or not), than for social dancing. I think there was a vals by Orquesta Simbolo and a Pugliese-Morán tanda with type El mate amargo (1951) which left me cold.

There was good D'Arienzo, Di Sarli sextet with (broken for the third time this weekend, with two out of four good tracks), but good Malerba and Donato to finish but in the last hour between 1900 and 2000 there were few dancers.  Some had been there for the class since 1330 - another reason in my view not to attach a class before such a pleasantly long milonga.

Invitation

Given the way people were sitting I think invitation was mostly by look, but I was watching the dancing more than how people were inviting. Sometimes invitation happens around a food area in the UK but I was far from there.

Only one guy invited very directly by coming and sitting next to me and asking.  I said no thank you. Another guy did the same but we had already agreed to dance something different and I did not want to dance with him right then to that Di Sarli, saying please later, accepting instead for the rest of that tanda a guy I know I can dance that music with and who invited by look. I find in some places that if you refuse a walk-up invitation, depending on the crowd, other guys cotton on quickly. For sure they notice that in Buenos Aires.

I think some guys invited because they did not like to see a visitor sitting alone for a long time and not dancing. That was nice and the guys did not seem to hold it against me. One or two invited twice despite being rejected, understanding no is not always forever with us. Lisa asked if I was OK too.

Dancing

The dancing was disappointing. Few were moving in synch in deep or even any embrace. There were some show moves perhaps courtesy of the pre-milonga class which inclines me ever more not to attend milongas with a class beforehand because of the legacy it leaves in the social dancing. I see these days though milonga organisers, even teachers emphasising that there will be no pre-milonga class. 

The dancing was mostly class-derived as opposed to learnt socially. The couples therefore looked awkward and strained with much throwing about of the women. Perhaps I am just not good at judging but I was very careful who I danced with here, being new, there seemed to be many guys much smaller than me (!) and because I saw a lot of rough guy dancing. The guy I danced the last tanda with said how few women - two or three perhaps - would come close for the embrace. But what is the point otherwise? I said, feeling sad at the divide in the way people understand and dance and yet all call it dancing tango as though they are all doing the same thing.  I had a (very) few lovely tandas here though with a couple of guys.

In the last hour I changed to flats and invited two women. Being increasingly timid with women of late I had found out beforehand through a third party if one was likely to be willing and another I believed might accept. Both were a pleasure for me. 

Summary

The conditions at this milonga I found mostly good. There is plenty to see in the area so this would be a nice milonga as part of a weekend away. On a Bank Holiday Monday which is when it has run regularly I would prefer it with a link-up with another milonga as happened on that occasion with El Quinto, or on a weekend I would look for a Friday evening milonga or Sunday afternoon dance somewhere between Scotland and Nottingham which still tends not to be easy. Given most of the dancing there that I saw I would also prefer to go in company with people I know and like to dance with or perhaps I would try my luck next time with more women.

Padanaram afternoon tango tea dance: Milonga del Descubrimiento

I went to this milonga today from 3pm-5pm. Details.  I would have gone earlier but it was Father’s Day and we were doing family things.

This is the group which started off as a practica and then ran classes. I have been I think twice before, taking my son and his friend the last time when I danced with the children.  The organising group is Dundee Tango Society which is a legacy name from when events were run in Dundee itself.  Currently events happen in the village of Padanaram twenty minutes to the north.

Entrance and seating

There is easy parking at the venue which is a village hall. There is a separate room for bags and coats with plenty of seating to change shoes and it was nice to see it being used for that. I knew Catharine on the door and was welcomed. People often say how nice the atmosphere is here. Someone I spoke to said what a pleasure it was just to be there.

Since I arrived late and all the tables looked taken I wasn’t sure where to sit but people I knew beckoned me and made space. I felt fortunate and joined them.  Seating is with tables and along one long and one short side of the room.  The photo was taken hastily. You can see more photos taken from the other end of the hall on the Dundee Tango Society Facebook group.  

Venue and floor

I like the venue very much and I think most who go do. The shape of the ceiling and the space is attractive, light and airy. The hosts (who at short notice were unable to attend) had put a huge amount of effort into the presentation of the hall and even in the Ladies. It is probably the most attractively presented Ladies room I have been to for a milonga that was not a one-off event. Catharine stood in as host but I believe this milonga is also a group effort from that area. I did not dance in womens' shoes which is when I really feel how a floor is but the floor seemed fine to me.

Food is magnificent and plentiful. Just for food and tea alone, never mind the afternoon’s dancing at £6 (£3 concessions) it is exceptionally good value. Some tea dances in England are about double that. It is more than worth it just to take your non-dancing friends out for the afternoon, simply to have tea and cake or savouries and watch. 

Numbers and dancing

Numbers were about 35 which in very rural Scotland on Father’s Day with next to no established dance groups locally I thought very creditable. I saw dancers from at least Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth. The ronda was for the most part pretty good. A few people including me occasionally danced in the middle. I wouldn’t say I felt connected to the other dancers within the ronda because there are so many different styles of dancing there but then this is a fledgling group with dancers not used to dancing very regularly in a ronda together. Most of us managed to keep in our own space most of the time (sorry for knocking you D!). I confess also to being mortified at overtaking a dancer who had been in front of me in the middle. Where has he gone? I thought only to find I had passed him - and apologised probably more than he wanted both then and later. 

Music

The DJ was John Newton of Aberdeen.  I found the music difficult. It is just that my personal preferences did not on this occasion match the DJs but the world would be a dull place if there were no diversity in our preferences.  

I am not sure that I found a whole tanda that I could comfortably dance. I was chatting a lot through the music I did not dance but there were tracks of type La guitarrita and El penado catorce both by Caló/Iriarte.  The latter I cannot find online to show you but I have found that demonstrates how generally unpopular this music is for dancing.  There were so many tracks I do not hear in the kinds of milongas I tend to go to that I just could not say with much confidence what they were.   I struggle to remember any really classic tracks.  I remember hearing d:Agostino's Palais de Glace while getting ready at the start, there was well known Di Sarli which I danced with a man I know who invited directly though it isn't the type of Di Sarli I would ordinarily dance.  I danced a vals tanda right through though I was dubious about the first track but danced it because of circumstances and even then the vals were unmatched. The tangos I sat down to that started well might have been De Angelis, I forget. The last tanda I danced started with Calla bandoneón which I've mentioned before, (it might even have been the García  version) but the girl I wanted to dance with was free and I hoped things might improve.  Then there was another track I didn't know then a Cumparsita I rarely hear and couldn't say who it was by but it was very different from what had preceded.

So if you mind about the music the way I do then you are not going to have a relaxing time in dance no matter how easy the general atmosphere.  It is fair to say though that since people did dance to everything most people did not seem to mind that way yet I think that had there been more mainstream, classic tracks during that time the floor would have been fuller. 

I danced I think five tandas in all with two women and a man, and one other track.  I sat down at least twice (dancing in the other role) mid tanda - once in the ?De Angelis and once to the second track of an unmatched milonga tanda. I know this isn't really on but in my defence I just cannot dance without...music I can dance to. Not having it is like a power cut. My partner was new and despite dancing only a year she was a joy to dance with.  I felt on thin ice.  As I was apologising after we had sat down for the second time she said “I’ll give you one more chance”.  I completely understood but oh, the pressure! I felt stuck between on the one hand trying to dance to music I just can’t dance, an experience I know to be so utterly misery-making and stressful for both parties that I just don’t do it any more - and on the other hand screwing up my partner’s dancing opportunities. Luckily the last milonga track was good music and we got up again. Can we dance again later? she said, to my utter relief.

El Quinto milonga, Nottingham

Originally posted 16.6.16

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 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

Originally published 14.6.16

St Paul's, upstairs

Originally posted 14.6.16

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 by DJ Aytek 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 at night so there is time to do things in the day and rest a little.  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.

EITF: Monday

Monday night

Originally published 10.6.16

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

Originally posted 7.6.16

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 on Sunday night but so far this year I had danced just twice (at La Redonda) in Edinburgh.  Being better slept, 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 persuaded me to go back to the Sunday afternoon cafe.

Afternoon cafe

I think it was on this day that I saw someone I knew sitting alone in the beer garden outside the venue and asked if he was waiting for someone.  He said he had come for the milonga but that the class was still going on in the room so he had come out.  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 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 rules. Once started, the practice snowballed as it often does with such things.  It reminds me of feet on seats in railway carriages.  Rather like a good milonga host 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 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, as I did, their disrespect for others who, seated, are trying to see across it.  It is curious that those not clearing the floor in the cortina 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 but could not get them.  I had had a good seat but was rather blocked by the odd couple in front and I did not want to move.  There were younger girls and good dancers in better positions.  Besides, I thought even so the guys I was interested in had seen me. But getting none of the dancing I wanted 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 to see about some shopping and to get soup at the excellent Union of Genius nearby, forgetting it was closed on Sunday. 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.  I feel 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.  Twenty-five in number I heard from one of them, though they did not all arrive together.

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 my 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 two of something 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 but I do remember a 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 but if not there seemed to be 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.

EITF: Music, Saturday afternoon

Originally published 7.6.16

The DJ was Mike Quickfall, The 2.5 hours I heard of the set was quite good. The tracks were great and good tandas but rather unbalanced.  I was surprised how many good tracks because while I had heard a good set by this DJ when he first started, the next set or two that I heard was or were so alternative or had had just poor music (therefore not what I call traditional, even if it is old) and not what I liked that I did not go again. 

Tangos were in four, vals and milonga in threes, cortinas were pretty short, ~10s. I did not keep track of it all as I danced some but what I heard was roughly like this:

• Good trad vals on arrival. Later on there was an alternative vals.
• OTV - Anoche a las cuatro - Mi taza de cafe - Una vez
• Another Mi taza de cafe, in the next tanda: Malerba. I have heard this DJ repeat tracks and also orchestras before in sets to the detriment of balance. There was another good track or two, my sense was that it was Malerba and José García mixed but I was chatting. I think I heard Qué no sepan las estrellas by García. If I’ve got that right it was a bit of an odd mix. Despite that Malerba is very distinctive it didn’t jar badly with me - but might have if I’d been dancing. 
• Great rhythmic Laurenz including No me extraña and Amurado and I think De Puro Guapo but again I was chatting. 
• There was vals Lagrimas y sonrisas, Biagi I think, then something I didn’t know then Corazón de artista, Malerba but I thought it worked OK at the time. Who would think this vals could be so different from his serious, ponderous, tangos?
• There was great Fresedo, good D’Arienzo with I think El flete about here, good milonga, good rhythmic Lomuto songs, good Donato songs. Then there was nice Rodriguez and I heard a Biagi tanda which I’d seen on the playlist and knew to be great with e.g. La maleva and friends. It was not necessarily in that order.

What I heard then this time was quite an earthy set with OTV, Donato, Rodriguez, Lomuto.   To break up the earthy tandas it would have been nice to have something smoother and more sophisticated - Caló, D’Agostino, De Angelis.  Perhaps a Troilo or Tanturi for a different sort of rhythmic sound - to break up the rhythmic tandas I had already heard. Someone who listens, who stayed later than me and hasn't much time for the earthier music said that later there were missed cortinas and that as well as the two Donato tangos I heard there was also a Donato milonga…

The good music I heard was largely ruined by the volume. The speakers were at one end. Even opposite these by the entrance and DJ spot it was far too loud, sometimes deafening. I have also heard very variable sound from this DJ before at the Counting House - too quiet and too loud, usually dependent on whether he was dancing or not. Once that afternoon during a cortina when I was - madly - for a short time sitting near the speakers chatting, I felt the sound go inside my body and and felt it reverberate right through me more than I actually heard anything. Luckily i had blocked my ears and moved straightaway. Later in the weekend I saw an experienced dancer wearing earplugs and thought her wise.

Edinburgh International Tango Festival: Saturday afternoon cafe and generally

Originally published 7.6.16

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

Entrance

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

Refreshments

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

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

Rules

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

The previous night

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

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

Attendance and dancing

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

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

Conditions

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

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

Seating: chairs, tables, access

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

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

Invitation

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

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

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

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

Atmosphere

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

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

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

Stuttgart Milonga Weekend, personally: Saturday and Sunday

Originally published 5.6.16

I had had a lovely morning and was a little reluctant to run the gauntlet of the milonga. I arrived at the start to find it very quiet and considered perhaps I ought to have stayed out in the city and the sun, but remembered I often have a better time when a milonga is quieter.  Deciding to see about dancing with women I wore flats.  Yet I found myself accepting - inexplicably - a couple of guys I had avoided the day before, mostly I guess because they invited very respectfully, yet still too near for the quiet conditions.  The downside of a quiet milonga you don't know is it can be harder I find to refuse  invitations you do not really want.  I accepted a couple more in conditions that were nigh on impossible to get out of but were my own fault. Then I accepted someone who looked good yet I suspected was too forceful which was true. After this I felt tense and stressed from dancing I did not like and knew it looked that way both on and off the floor. My knee hurt from the floor becoming sticky and from being manhandled into pivots I did not want to do, in flats, by dancers with whom I had no good connection, nor one that was truly mutually desired. 

However, I had sought by mirada across the tabled area and got a nice, traditional Buenos Aires type dance with a guy older than me. He did a double take perhaps because I had not seemed to want to dance for so long. Look. If he keeps looking, smile. (Maybe) an invitation.  I think it's how it works. And I had a simply lovely dance early on.  I was on the stools watching the floor while there was no wall of women. Exceptionally, I had not seen him dance but at the time this did not even register because from the quiet, fun way he invited at a distance I just knew he would dance well. It happens like that sometimes. 

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

On Sunday afternoon the weather was lovely again. I figured the way things had been I was probably going to have a better time out of the milonga than in. I stayed out in the good weather and did not go to the dance until the last 90 minutes, around 1730. I sat near the front of the little used seating with tables to watch the dancing with only the floor in front of me, inexplicably well out of reach of all invitation which would happen to the left. Under pressure my gaze narrows. Absurd pride and much experience of seeing the desperate covert and less covert gazes of women who are not dancing ensures I will not turn my head to the side to seek invitation. Don’t be perverse I scolded myself, moving to the quieter side of the bar where I fell into easy conversation with Kenneth.  I was surprised then to be invited by one of the good dancers and the only guy in fact with whom I'd chatted hitherto.  So those theories I mentioned I suppose were borne out - knowing people and becoming relaxed/distracted seemed to work.  It was the swooping, elegant and athletic European style. It was my first dance since the previous afternoon and I was not warmed up.  I felt as stiff and awkward as the Tin Man. I have found that style tends to make fewer concessions to the conditions of the woman than other styles.  In similar circumstances I often have a sense that I must, I must, I must try to keep up.  But it was one of my best dances of the weekend.

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

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