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.