London - Carablanca and Corrientes in 2015/2016

Originally published 12.2.16

March 2015: Friday night: Carablanca Tango Club, Conway Hall, near Holborn.

I had been here (in its incarnation as a milonga) once before.  Previously I had known it as a venue for public lectures. The best thing about Carablanca is the venue.  It has lovely wood panelling.  There are red cloths on the tables, a makeshift bar and you can order (not great, I found) empanadas.  Perhaps it is memory but the room has a glow.  It just feels like a good place for a milonga. It is also quite busy with, I think a decent floor. There is a decent Ladies room and you can hang your coats up outside the hall which means it has, happily, far less clutter than some milongas.

I found it a bit snooty when I first went in 2013, older men standing around in groups looking me up and down as though I was slightly soiled goods on sale.  I didn’t hang around then - there seemed to be nothing much doing.  I walked the room because people can and do stand in front of you when you are seated at Carablanca.  I have met all kinds of people there - locals and visitors, experienced dancers and new dancers which probably accounts for the range of behaviour. I spotted a guy who gave me the eye discreetly and we danced.  He was an experienced visitor from Paris.  The two of us, comparing similar notes about the place decided to leave and try Negracha instead.  There we met another experienced Frenchman.  The three of us went together to or met at other milongas over the rest of the weekend.

In 2015 I danced mostly in the other role which was new for me. I picked up, am still picking up the role slowly by dancing socially.  At Carablanca in March 2015 I found - if you can look past and ignore any cliques you don’t want to become too aware of -  a lot of great dancing with women. I danced most of the evening so was not really aware of the guy dancing except for a couple of tandas I danced with a man I know who was there from Cambridge. The music that night was from Aytek Erdil (also Cambridge) with great track after great track.  I have only heard him on that one occasion.  I had a fine time.  If I was to go back anywhere in London and there was the kind of DJ I like then based on that Friday’s experience this is where I would most look forward to dancing.  In the way that milongas can be entirely unpredictable, especially when going alone, I would also expect Carablanca to contradict my expectations and to in all likelihood leave London with a different favourite!

Saturday:  Corrientes Social Club, at Chalk Farm.  

The room is very large, with a good floor, tables, cloths. I don’t remember any solo seating apart from sitting on the edge of the stage, which is well used for that purpose (mostly by women) if you don't mind that sort of display.  I  rather do mind.  Of course you can pretend to be casual about it but the fact is if you perch in a long line of women on the  stage at Corrientes or at Eton or at Clärchens ballhaus in Berlin for that matter, you are “making yourself available” as though you are up for auction - or worse.  It is all rather more explicit than I care for.  Worse, if you are not chosen, you will be left on the stage looking like broken teeth and - after being essentially rejected - you need more sang-froid or insouciance about that very public circumstance than I generally have or would want to have.  I prefer a proper (small) table suitable for a solo person and a seat.   Whenever I have been - or have heard reported - women have been in large excess. One person said ”I once counted thirteen sitting adjacent in one stretch. They looked extremely unhappy. I barely saw a single smile all evening.”  

I do not recall a specific problem with the lighting but then I was either sitting with a group at one table or inviting across a corner to the stage.  Hence, I did not even try to invite between tables which I have heard reported recently are in extreme gloom. I also heard reported that there are spotlights which shine in the eyes of the dancers.  When I see Corrientes in my mind’s eye it is indeed under a contrasting aspect of gloom and glare.  Lighting apart, the room to my mind is too big for cabeceo across it.  You have to try to invite, hopelessly down a line or across a corner.  No surprise many are in couples. Because of - not least - that difficulty of invitation the wiser way to go as an unknown dancer would be as a couple or in a group.

I did not spot the bar until near the end so I could not find water for most of the night.  The first person I asked did not know either and suggested I take my chances with the taps in the Ladies.  Eventually I spotted a makeshift bar in the corner.  

When I went there was fairly extravagant music from DJ Beto in keeping with what I imagine that crowd likes.  That night he shared the DJing with the regular house DJ at the time.  There were a lot of tracks I thought might have been good for performance but hard for social dancing, even if I had known them.  When Beto did play a hit tanda it was great - there were two fantastic d'Arienzo tandas and one by Tanturi.  Most of the music though was high drama and high energy.  I was disappointed as I had heard good things about Beto’s DJing in other venues.  I guessed and it seemed confirmed when I later heard a report about Beto’s DJ in Corrientes - that he plays differently for that specific crowd -  one I guess I don’t fit.  In that report from January 2016 by 00h30 there had been no tango from D'Arienzo, Tanturi, Fresedo, D'Agostino, Canaro, Donato, and poor tandas from OTV, De Angelis (twice) and late Pugliese. The good tanda of that evening - Di Sarli - was reported as of the same type that had been played before the late arrival of the DJ on that night. I have heard reported that there have been organisational problems with classes overrunning into the milonga time, music too quiet etc.  

In March 2015 it was my second visit to Corrientes and the dancing hadn't changed: self-consciously elegant dancers.  I can’t help but feel the dancers would appreciate mirrors.  I found some of the dancing mechanical and contrived.  I can’t help but be reminded by some of the dancing of the women in the film “Stepford Wives”: accomplished, professional, but to my taste rather robotic and artificial.  When I went though there was a lovely dancing couple whom I had seen twice at other venues. They were musical, discreet, traditional dancers, very watchable.  I was surprised to see them because they were so different to most people there. They stood out with their musicality and connection.

I recently heard the dancing reported as “very poor...a vacant, show-based dance with almost no relation to the music.” Corrientes though is reckoned by some to have some of the best dancing - depending very much on who you are and how you define that.  Lots of teachers go, that’s true.  How you see it depends I think on what the dance is to you and for sure the dance means different things to different people.  But if you want to try to join the A-list, it’s the place to go. The same report from January 2016 described the milonga as “creepy” - having the trappings of a milonga, but not feeling like a milonga in spirit.  I thought that was well described. I guess “avant garde” is  another way of putting it. Also, video.

As with the dancing I think it depends on what you look for in a milonga.  Some people want mostly to see and be seen or to exercise "sophisticated, advanced level” moves. Some want something else. Corrientes feels a bit shell-like to me.  You know what you hope for, but when you tap it - it’s empty.   Despite the way things were I had a surprisingly grand dancing time there, mostly dancing with women and switching occasionally with a guy who asked.  It helped that I met Costa and Flo’s nice crowd from Cambridge and that was the best thing about Corrientes for me that day.