Tea dances in Padanaram and Dundee

Boozing at Chris's in Glasgow on Saturday night and a long rail-replacement bus ride home meant that the next day I was not feeling quite up to taking my children walking around Dunkeld in the glorious Sunday sunshine.  I expect boozing is how it seemed if you'd been looking my way but not to misrepresent things Chris's wine-tastings are highly organised, civilized affairs with such good cheese (I used to live round the corner) that on those days I feel I could never be vegan.

Daddy was back to work in Manchester that afternoon so I took the boys  - protesting heavily - to the tango tea at Padanaram near Forfar for a couple of hours.  The drive on the back roads through Perthshire which Visit Scotland advertises as "Big tree country" was breathtakingly beautiful and I thought  - as regularly - how fortunate in many ways we are to live here. I also lament it at least twice weekly.  But that day the trees and hedgerows were afire, contrasting with the fields bleached to beige from the stubble of the crops recently cut. There were stick figures in some of the darker fields, perhaps tattie picking but I didn't know they still do that. Mostly though the ground has not yet been ploughed to dark or rather the sort of burnt red you see as you travel north of here.  I start to notice that red in the stone once we get to around the village of Kirriemuir, famous for its folk festival, for being the birthplace of JM Barrie and for having one of the four camera obscuras in Scotland.  If you have never seen one of these I particularly enjoyed the one in Dumfries museum - but then I was the only attendee that day.  It is only about half an hour from three points on the M74 if you are driving north or south.  Sorry to digress but there are so many marvellous places here and I find it hard not to recommend them.  

As you can see, the venue at Padanaram is still attractive and nicely presented. 

The excellent refreshments cheered both children immeasurably.  I thought the concession price too cheap for two hungry boys, tried to pay full price for all of us but was not allowed and we settled for £15.   My younger son, not usually shy, asked me to introduce him to a little girl who was there and to invite her to play with him; thereafter they played happily outside the hall.  Today he said he enjoyed it so much he wants me to take him next time. 

Things were very similar to the last time I went with numbers up to perhaps 40-odd,  including the organisers, helpers and DJ - very creditable, especially in Angus.  People had travelled from (at least) around Dundee, Aberdeen and even Edinburgh.

Space was tight at the tables and as we arrived an hour after it had started I wasn't at all sure where we could squeeze in.  I went to see about extra chairs just as the organisers were doing the same.

The DJ was again John Newton. There were cortinas and people used them, clearing the floor.  There was a clearly discernible ronda.

I danced the last track of a Rodriguez tanda. 

Example tracks (to the best of my knowledge):

Etincelles, F Canaro (vals) 1936

Plata Vieja, Juan Carlos Cobián - (1923). I remember being surprised, but still this may be a mistake because I can hardly remember hearing a tango this early played in a milonga

Sur Troilo/Rivero (1948),

Mentira Carabelli /Lafuento (1931)

A mi madre, Carlos Garcia

Olga, De Angelis, (1954) 

Canaro, Florindo Sassone (1956)

Mi noche triste, Sassone (1949)

I saw a woman I didn't know and wanted to dance with but after the Sassone, when Milonga negra, by Mercedes Simone struck up, decided to call it a day.

For comparison, we went on to a swing tea-dance held by Dundee university in the Bonar Hall. This was part of their annual Riverside Stomp, a big weekend with visiting teachers and several social dances. I have seen the hall done up for the couple of ceroc dances I once went to but for the swing it just looked a bit like a gymnasium. The contrast with Padanaram in decor could not have been more apparent. Here it was just about people, music and dance.  There was a temporary floor taped to the wooden floor, similar to the one I saw at Rotterdam.

Heavenly setting under the sun, and a huge sky, Wilhelminapier beside the river Maas, Rotterdam, August.

At the Bonar hall there was no seating, beside the stage that I recall, and the floor.

Numbers were probably forty and rising while we were there, with swing and lindy dancers from all over Scotland and possibly beyond.  Most people were in jeans and t-shirts with one or two dressed for the scene. I like the music, the clothes and the atmosphere I find at swing socials.  Most people were probably in their twenties though there were a very few probably in their thirties and forties. Of refreshments I saw water and a plate of biscuits.

I said we had just come to watch for a short while and who should we pay but they didn’t charge us and even said if we wanted to join in, we could. We sat on the stage for maybe twenty minutes.  It was casual and easygoing, with much of the quirky creativity and self-expression that I have seen at other swing dance socials. I asked the boys which music and dancing they preferred and both said the swing though couldn't say why.  I think it was because it looked younger, more fun and relaxed.

Manchester Pop-Up milonga 5 at The Whisky Jar

On Sunday 16th October, the day after the milonga in Pant, I went to the Manchester popup milonga run not, as I thought just by John Tan and Stephanie but also by Paris and Helen as a team of four. It ran from 1300-1800. I love a milonga of five or six hours duration. The times meant people could travel quite far and still get home on a Sunday night.

Accommodation

Wonderfully, this milonga says it will try to host you if you need to stay over. I usually stay with my brother now local after relocating with the BBC, but couldn’t this time. The post said don’t be shy but I wasn’t that brave. Besides I was staying four nights and made other arrangements.

Location
The milonga is very central in the basement of The Whisky Jar. It is in the trendy Northern quarter which my brother described as “hip and bohemian”. On the way, I got a bit lost down some back alleys and came across this:

  

It presaged the afternoon well.  What I felt about that milonga was a bit like the feelings I had from that graffiti:  surprising, a bit glam, a bit underground, creative, exotic, unusual.

The bar upstairs is spacious, the decor is brick and wood with leather sofas. 

At the foot of the basement stairs are closed black doors. It felt like entering a sort of cave. I thought it quite magical.  Before I went someone said they had heard it described as ‘enchanting’ and it was.

Fairy lights were everywhere. Orchids decorated the bar. The glassware gleamed, strawberries glistened. There were bowls of picture clips for your drinks, beautiful fans, little baskets of chocolates and I think chewing gum. If it was I would have swapped it for mints because I don’t dance with people chewing gum and don’t like to see it in the milonga. Really, though there was just such attention to detail.

Welcome and hosting
The welcome from Stephanie and Helen on the door was quite lovely and included a glass of prosecco with strawberries.

There is an adjoining room at the far end for coats/changing shoes etc, which I am pleased to find increasingly standard in most of the milongas I visit.  I was early and put down my drink on a table while I went to change my shoes. I was surprised though when evidently one of three or four people at that table had swiped my drink - so drink up then get ready! 

Perfect hosts, Helen and Stephanie greeted and said goodbye to everyone. The guys said hello too. I danced with Paris soon after I arrived. Entrada was very reasonable at £8. I know from my own experience and from talking to hosts that most of them especially those who run occasional milongas with visiting DJs who charge can struggle to cover costs.

All the hosts danced which is good because they can feel what sound and dance conditions are really like. The floor is small and towards the end I saw Paris and Helen dancing beautifully in the difficult conditions, he using his body to protect her, both taking small steps, using little space. 

Sometimes I took time out to watch, removed a bit from the bar. On these occasions both Stephanie and Helen asked if I was OK.

A day or two later I received a message to say thank you for travelling. I had come to Manchester for various reasons but the timing was because of the popup. It reminded me of a story from decades ago that my parents had told me about a wealthy, charming man with lovely manners who had invited them to a party and then he had written to his guests to thank them for coming.

Lighting

Paris apologised to me on arrival and later on to all for the dim lighting caused by an electrical failure. This was when he made an announcement for the host of another milonga who was there about the new, permanent change of venue for their Wednesday night milonga (has classes beforehand).

Venue and seating

As you enter, to your right is a long bar with stools. The bar is not staffed but there is the bar upstairs and it is nice to go up for a breather now and then. There is a corner seating area and low table which would fit maybe eight people. There was a long bench on the opposite side of the floor, parallel with the bar but if you sit there your feet and legs are right on the edge of the line of dance. When I sat there, it was cross-legged.

The temperature became warm but there were lots of fans. It was not unpleasantly warm for me but had I liked the music more and danced more, I suspect it might have been.

The loos weren’t as in Buenos Aires (what could be?!) but just as there, the locks on two out of the three loos were broken, so - as as is de rigeur in the ladies in Buenos Aires - one is extra-circumspect about closed doors.

Floor 
...was OK for me, better than I'd expected from seeing photos. One or two people described the floor layout as it had been previously, where people had danced out to the bar. Crates in place now prevent this so the floor is rectangular. There was a packed outer circle to the ronda and an often much freer inside space. John must think if the space is there, use it because I often found him there, giving the lie to the idea that only poor dancers dance in the middle.

Music 
The music was by DJ Benedicte Beauloye, aka Bomboncita. It was not what I personally prefer. I heard two great tracks of a D’Arienzo tanda as I arrived near the start - type El internado (1938). Then there was Di Sarli sextet but of the type DJ Solveig played in May, and that sort of choice I unfortunately heard several times that bank holiday weekend. In the first part of the afternoon I recall some Guardia vieja but not endlessly. I remember much later there was great Biagi tanda but there were lots of "specials" for me that I have never heard. There was probably a whole Garcia tanda I don’t think I knew.  I remember a Laurenz tango tanda composed of what I think of as second rate Laurenz - Yo quiero cantar un tango and Como un hornero - not awful but not the best for me; Laurenz to get through more than to dance. There was rhythmic music for a while. Eg. milonga, then rhythmic instrumentals (good Troilo I think) and other strong and rhythmic tracks also adjacent which I thought at that point too much of one thing, especially given how busy it was.

Generally I found the vals good although there were some that were very unusual. One, Amante soñador by Orquesat tipica porteña (1930) of these was clapped which rather astonished me. I thought it more bland than sweet but perhaps it will grow on me. Admittedly the sound quality was better than this but I couldn’t help thinking I would almost rather have heard the waltz from Aram Khachaturian’s 1944 Masquerade Suite that turned up on the radio on the journey south. Certainly for listening I would rather have heard that What a magical waltz though to play for children in the run-up to Christmas.

Later there was a slide into more dramatic music. I suppose you could say there was “something for everyone” if you were to try to cover all corners of the kind of tango music you might hear rather than trying to please a majority most of the time. Still, the floor was usually busy. The penultimate track was Dizzy Gillespie's Vida Mia (1956) which I find later he did with Fresedo. I watched a full floor and - surprised - found myself enjoying it. Gillespie, wholly steals the piece. Musically, it felt like a reprisal just as the tango era was giving way to something else, the soaring trumpet like a glorious farewell.  It got rapturous applause.

Invitation
...I found not the easiest because:

- there were a lot of people I didn’t know and knowing people is the main thing I find that increases one’s likelihood of dancing. As in most places, I suspect the thing here is simply knowing people. 

- invitation happened mostly all down the bar and at the seating area. This means that options for inviting women were either at close quarters - too close for me, really - or that you had to look down the bar. Even at 6’ I couldn't see down to the end of the bar because of the crush of people. 

- being so busy, it became more natural to invite in conversation. I prefer not to invite this way but like many I don't want to be ridiculous about things and it depends on the conditions too.  

I also invited successfully:

- from the bench or the bar across the floor width-ways.  All the same, I could see and was told by people there that invitation at the bench was hard that day because of the lighting. 

- down the length of the room - but only after moving on to the edge of the floor so I could see. 

So I invited all these ways but if you need or prefer certain conditions for invitation, you may find this venue difficult. If I didn’t get the girl I wanted to dance with I did not then usually try for another because apart from anything else that would invariably mean re-positioning oneself which was difficult in those conditions and would contribute to an unpleasant scrum if everyone did it. 

Ronda 

People arrived throughout the afternoon, which tells you firstly there is no point in a DJ playing an “arc” of music following the supposed arc of the afternoon - a DJ who simply plays a varied selection will suit those coming and going rather than playing for the few who stay the whole time who might well not notice anyway. 

The floor became very busy. If you are a dancer very skilled in the ronda with a great partner whom you know and you know the people around you maybe it's fine. But if you are not particularly skilled dancing in a tight ronda, and you are dancing with an average partner whom you don't know and you don't know the people around it might be very difficult. The problems came as usual I find, with guys who are or who pretend to be oblivious to others. Most people made an effort and were careful so it was probably better than the Edinburgh festivalito ronda. Still there was the escort of another organiser who had a thing about dancing very slowly. The empty space in front of him lengthened and lengthened. Oddly, he faced me against the ronda and stayed there but did not or would not acknowledge me. I couldn't move. He couldn't move towards me and he couldn't step backwards because he didn't know what was there so he had multiple “moments” with his partner while the ronda ground to a halt behind me. His arm was permanently stuck out awkwardly, poking people.  Another tall, very experienced dancer deliberately stuck his arm out in that tight space, claiming more space than was his fair share, though I rather think what one supposes that is depends on the size of one's ego and sense of entitlement.  My arm was tucked right in but ours still collided. A new dancer in front of me did a little to and fro jig on the spot while not using the empty space in front of him. My partner and I stopped dancing to watch that mini show until he decided to move on. There was a psychotic guy who was maniacal enough with good women dancers and terrifying when he danced with a diva in heels, alarming the dancers and those on the long bench. I saw, disbelieving, one guy dancing in socks in those conditions.  A partner of mine was grazed, just avoiding a major slicing and I am surprised there was no medical emergency that day.   

It didn’t help that the music was pumping on that packed floor, whereas I feel on a very busy floor with much variety in dance experience a DJ needs to be very careful with rhythmic music and intersperse those tandas with steadier De Angelis, D’Agostino, (I’m not sure I heard either of those in tango) good Canaro , OTV, Fresedo (I recall none of the latter) and music of this sort else the floor just gets too hyped.  I believe there is a strong link between poor floorcraft and the music DJs play. So between all these things I found it quite stressful and I don't want to dance with (especially new) partners in those conditions. If I go back it will be with the intention of dancing early.

On the other hand because it is so intimate it is very easy to chat. It is a great place to meet people from the area and beyond.

Dancing

The only other guy I danced with was someone I know.  I saw several good guy dancers but noticed no invitation from these.  I wasn’t really looking.  Women were in excess and there were many with whom I wanted to dance and who wanted to dance with me. After the floor got busy though each time we parted, in our looks and few spoken words I felt mutually conveyed the hope that we would dance better if we have the chance in easier conditions. I danced enough for those conditions, probably more than enough. I noticed a woman dancer great in both roles danced relatively little too.

What they said

I think everyone agrees the welcome is lovely. You are acknowledged and feel cared for. That is passed on among the dancers and is just one of many reasons why the welcome is so important. The feeling there was mostly warm for me.

Some like me, commented on the effort that had gone in to the decor. 

Some people said the lighting was quite dim even on occasions when the lights are restored. 

Some women I think didn’t feel danced but that is a common theme in milongas, especially trendy ones that attract young and pretty women. 

Someone said for a while they didn’t recognise any tracks at all. 

The main issue I heard repeated was about the ronda but many people liked or were curious enough about that milonga to go and to dance.

This milonga won’t be for everyone, especially those who like tables, seats, space and the formality that often accompanies that arrangement in British milongas  - and a different sort of formality that accompanies it in Buenos Aires. The popup is a different vibe.  Rather it is for those curious about different DJs, who enjoy the welcome and the aesthetic and who can manage or tolerate the ronda. And for someone - especially new people - who just wants to spend an afternoon meeting dancers and watching them dance it is ideal. It is especially good for solo dancers and if it is not clear why that is more about that maybe another time.  

Going there reminded me a little of visiting The Flying Duck vegan bar/diner in Glasgow, somewhere a bit surreal, a different world to the regular one.



 I loved that feeling: as though you are entering another world, a semi-secret sub-culture. Because who would have thought that on a Sunday afternoon in the basement of a bar beneath the streets of Manchester a group of seventy-odd men and women of all ages were packed into an atmospheric room, dancing. 

Milonga in Pant, Shropshire

I had several second thoughts about leaving my children for a few days. They had remembered because that day there were extended morning cuddles. My elder son popped corn for me for the journey. The little one put some apples in a paper bag and they both pressed on me some of their precious sweets acquired on a morning supermarket run with daddy. Under this deluge I felt loved and guilty about leaving.  Love swirls always between us yet I knew without a parting there would not have been quite the same outpouring of affection.  As I drove away I turned on the radio and found it tuned to Classic FM. On school mornings my organised and conscientious elder son puts it on while he waits for the rest of us to get in the car.  I was leaving my family to drive five hours in pouring rain to a milonga about which I already had  reservations.

The rain cleared though and about four-thirty I stopped in Chester for a look around.

The milonga had seemed to have no Facebook event. I mentioned to some people there how surprised I had been that I knew of only one person who had been to this milonga and few even in the north who had even heard of it. It is because it isn’t advertised they said. I wasn’t sure about that. It was, after all, on TangoTimetable. 

I arrived to find a typical British village hall - they are great for dances - with parking.  There were coat pegs outside but no one was using them. I left my shoes there but was the only one to do so.  People changed their shoes in the hall.

I went to get ready and heard as I did so what was part of probably the first or second tanda: Troilo/Fiorentino - Cada vez que me recuerdes (1943) and Pa que seguir (1942), then Cada vez que me recuerdes (for sure) a second time. If I was mistaken about the first one I can’t think what else it could have been unless those lyrics are repeated elsewhere.  I thought these tracks an odd choice for this time of the evening.

Welcome, venue and hosting

The room was good sized, of pleasant dimensions with perhaps six or eight people already there. More people arrived gradually.  The furnishings seemed spare but the place had a warm glow. The DJ table was to the left of the door set back a bit from the floor, surrounded by fairy lights. Entrada is £7. I was warmly welcomed and oriented to the tea and coffee by host Sharon Koch who was also DJing. 

Sharon accompanied me across the floor to the seating area set up well, I thought, with tables and chairs cafe-style at the far end.  These were sufficient for the numbers who arrived though not perhaps if as a couple you wanted to keep to yourselves.  Most people though I find come out to dance with and meet others at least in part.  Sharon introduced me to several people.  

The kitchen behind the seating area had tea, coffee, some biscuits and pears on the table. A few more bits and pieces arrived over the course of the evening. Apparently people make contributions.  I was glad of the tea as I was cold when I arrived and wore a wrap sometimes but as to the what the hall temperature was like, it's hard to say as I don't think I was very representative that day.

 I felt welcomed and looked after:  I sat alone but Sharon came to sit and chat then invited me to dance and said nice things. Later on a chatty, friendly couple joined my table while I was away from it.  After they left early as I was sitting out a lot and she came to see if I was OK.  I was but it was nice to chat a bit more.

Then, part way through the evening there was first one and then another announcement:  “Would whoever does not normally dance here please remove whatever is on their shoes that is making the floor too slippy and wipe their feet.”  I think I was perhaps the only person who didn't normally dance there.  These days I am so worried about wrecking my knee from the single man-handled pivot by a poor dancer who invites me in a way that makes it socially difficult to refuse, or about whom I have made a mistake, that my shoes often have stuff on them to protect against that risk if I discover I have not managed to avoid it.  Also few floors are top notch and again cause injury.  That day, experience causing me to be cautious of all the unknowns perhaps they had too much; for sure I hadn't realised it was affecting others. Perhaps if milonga organisers impressed upon men the effects of asking women directly, this might be less necessary.  Usually I would own up and apologise but being almost named in public was pretty alarming in itself.   

The hall was done up prettily yet with so few props, I thought it quite an art and wanted to remember it. There was some dark red material with a shine to it, pinned behind the DJ wall.  There were tea lights and fairy lights around the seating area.  When there were only three couples on the floor, most out of shot or unrecognisable I went outside the salon doorway to take a quick and distant snap of the room, to get just a general sense of the decor.  Sharon had been dancing but she sees everything and was on to me immediately.  She just said: “No one likes to be filmed” but it was so final I didn’t bother to explain.  While there I asked someone about what, later driving home I thought of as defensiveness.  The dancer said it was part of making people "feel safe".  So perhaps it was protectiveness.  Perhaps not.

The floor though, I think I can fairly safely show you was like this.  I think most people probably found it ordinarily OK.

Mid evening I asked Sharon if there were about forty people. "No", she said, honestly, "probably thirty", though apparently they have had fifty. 

- "Oh, it feels busier", I said.

- "People come here to dance" she replied. "They don't sit around much".  
I was sitting around quite a lot and, being solo, noticeably so. I decided whilst it might be wise not to forget this remark, to try not to take it as too pointed, though that was becoming harder.   I looked about.  People were in fact sitting around quite happily and chatting. I remarked on this. It was impossible not to see it as just social and very relaxed. She agreed but I had a slight sense that“Yes, that’s all very well but you can do that anywhere - here we come to dance”.  

Sharon is straightforward. I found her frank, funny, a bit outrageous, probably fearless and fairly scary. Still there is something refreshing about some of that directness. She tells you what she thinks and how it is and I appreciate that more than any snake in the grass. She has strong opinions which I felt would brook little opposition still less change which is why I put forward no contradictory opinions.  She struck me as someone who goes about things in a businesslike way.  

Music

My main concern about this milonga had been the silent cortinas I had seen advertised on the website.   I have mentioned the problems as I see them of silent cortinas in Edinburgh several times previously and about being cortinaless - which is nearly the same thing.

The set was indeed with silent cortinas that were so short the tandas effectively ran together.  I had some conversations about this while there.

The music was mostly from the Golden Era. There were some good tandas for me but I found a lot of the tracks and therefore the tandas problematic which is why I felt I did not dance that much.  Still in retrospect I had perhaps seven or eight partners which is probably record-breaking for me lately.

Potential DJs within this group are able to try playing their own selection of the music for I think it is an hour, from 8pm. It was Sam, the trial DJs first time. If I recall well there was one good track for me in the Lomuto but most people danced all those tracks.  I was impressed by three good OTV tangos together, which I find is more than many DJs manage.  I think at least three out of four of the Donato tangos were good for me. Then three good Donato milonga. 

Here follows exactly an example of some of the problems you encounter with dodgy music and no cortinas:  A guy had earlier by half walking up invited me to the third track of what, up to that point had been good Laurenz.  At the end of that tanda I started to leave the floor. He asked: did I want to continue? I liked dancing with him very much. I marvelled how someone who lived ninety minutes from his nearest (and I think only) milonga could dance so well. “Sharon” he said, modestly. In reply I said "Lets see what music comes next."  Being then I think some sort of Guardia Vieja I declined saying I would love to dance to something else.

Much later we were chatting when suddenly there was Cafe Dominguez the last track I think of an otherwise indifferent De Angelis tanda.  I asked him if he wanted to dance it. I had a lot of doubts about the vals which followed  (a different tanda).  Because I so liked dancing  with him I was about to give in and dance it but decided it would be a mistake.  Though I regretted leaving him, I realised as I walked away  hearing the development of the music that it had been the right thing to do.  He was extraordinarily patient and understanding, but since he was the kind of person I like to dance with it was so not surprising.  

Regarding other music:  Sharon said that she usually plays D'Agostino tangos from the 40s but that night it was from the 50s.   I remember a very good Rodriguez tanda later on, then, near the end a wholly lovely tanda of four Fresedo, which I danced feeling much gratitude to both the current DJ and the partner with whom I danced it. I heard three good Caló tracks as I was preparing to leave (I didn’t hear the last one). 

Most of the music was rhythmic. There was some of the romantic type Di Sarli. Surprisingly, the last track of that tanda changed to more rhythmic music so I danced it. I asked Sharon why there was so little of the more softer, more lyrical music generally. She was characteristically forthright: she doesn’t like it. She plays a bit to keep the peace but that’s it. "There are other places people can go if they want to rub each other’s legs", she said with such scorn that take aback by the image and the tone I couldn’t help laughing . There is also that expectation I felt that people get up and dance.  I felt the idea there is that rhythmic music gets you dancing.  It does, but so does softer music. Again though I didn’t feel there was anything to be gained and probably much to be lost by saying differently.

Nothing was said explicitly but I came away with the impression that dancing Argentine tango here is not really about connection with another personality, that that might be too slushy a notion; that is was more about movement and "thinking about things to do" (I heard this said) and an upright posture and a sort of required dynamism to the “more suitable” rhythmic music.  

Ronda and dancing

Admittedly, it was not cramped or overcrowded but the ronda here was very nice.

Just about everyone seemed to dance in the embrace. There were a number of nice dancers, especially among the women, a surprising number of whom danced both roles, usually with each other. Of the men I enjoyed two of the three guys I danced with.  I saw another over whom I hesitated but by the time, later on, I had decided “yes” he seemed to have lost interest and left early. 

I find it pretty much impossible to turn down any guy sitting at the same table as me who invites me and accepted the man of the couple who had joined my table. They also left early.  When I asked why it was because he had a cold but they had “made the effort" to come out she said. I knew what Janis would say about that.  They had a special event the next day so wanted to be fit for tit. I hoped I would be too and would not infect the baby nieces I had come to visit and not have to miss the Manchester pop up milonga for which I had driven so far.

Atmosphere

I did start to wonder if I was "sitting too much" but the absurdity of that notion didn't trouble me in any seriousness.  "For who"? I have learned is a good response to this sort of query.   I wondered if my shoes were OK, if between my attempted photo and who knows what else I had done this or that wrong.  I realised these slight worries came less from me and more from the tone of the milonga but this sense I had was not coming from the dancers.  The tone of a milonga is generally I find set by a host.  I felt there was much personal preference dictating things here and wondered what the difference is between inflicting your own personal preferences on people and creating an environment of shared preferences.  Unquestionably, though there were thirty people who chose to share these preferences that night, even if, by 2230 many had left.

One of the lovely things about this milonga was that I was not "blanked". People acknowledged I existed. Even though I was far from accepting all guy invitations by look and might have been considered snobbish I did not feel judged, or hassled, or ignored. I did though dance with more women in both roles. 

Later on a guy walked up to invite me but when I said “Not just now thank you” he accepted it immediately and in an understanding way. In general I felt a sort of tolerant benevolence from the group. Some people did talk about about classes and teachers and “we believe”. I always find that a bit alarming in a group, preferring independent opinion. I had a sense of a place run very much from the top, but I didn't talk or dance with enough people to say so with conviction. A strong host in some ways is useful though: when it comes to floorcraft.

This milonga left me feeling conflicted.  I was unquestionably welcomed here by  Sharon and was far from ignored by the dancers here.  But there was also, unspoken - and not from the dancers - a sense, a kind of warning about conforming, fitting in, toeing all the lines, knowing and respecting who is top-dog. You can drop-in but it is not really a drop-in milonga. It seemed more a milonga for Sharon’s established teaching group.  I am curious about whether I would find much attendee overlap at the other local milongas.

I left quietly during the second track of the last tanda towards 11pm.  Sharon made a point of waving goodbye from the floor as did my partners from that evening. It was a nice way to end. 

The roads north to Manchester were excellent and I was back about 0015.

Edinburgh Festivalito with the Costas

Friday night

On Friday I went to hear Adrian Costa DJ at the new (for a milonga) venue at Lutton Place, Edinburgh.

This was the Edinburgh festivalito hosted by El Tango Club. This event was run it said for the Edinburgh Tango Society and the hosts, who run (at least) the DJing of the Edinburgh Tango Society are also the hosts of El Tango Club. All detailed information about the weekend was on the latter’s website. There doesn't seem to me to be much difference at the moment between the management of the two outfits.

I was quite tired and happily ensconced on the sofa reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase to my son. I decided to go mostly through curiosity about Adrian Costa's DJing and the hope of a good turnout for dancing, though for Scotland I felt a Friday night - as opposed to say a Sunday afternoon - to be inauspicious. This is partly because the milonga finishing at midnight is past the hour of much public transport to the surrounding area. Also, if only staying over one night I suspect people prefer to stay over on a Saturday than a Friday night. But really I think the classes were supposed to be the main draw here and they were running on Saturday and Sunday.

Venue

The milongas ran between 2000-0000. I arrived about 2020 both days. Entrada was £8, £10 on Saturday.

On Friday, outside the main room I heard cortina-type music which continued to different tracks while I got ready and changed my shoes. I was surprised at what seemed to be the late start. 

There were snacks in the entrance hall: sweets, crisps, olives, and fruit. Water was always available. The following day there were some cakes.

The hall was large and rather spartan. It appears cosier in the photo.  I have danced more festively here many times at ceilidhs. Red tablecloths and on Saturday night, clothes for sale - looking more typically from the swing rather than the tango scene - were displayed on the stage and helped give warmth and to brighten the space. Inside the hall there were sufficient (on Friday) tables and chairs. Lighting was fine for invitation by look even across the relatively big room. The floor was old but I found it fine. One woman said she found it slightly uneven, which, the few times I danced as the girl I found to be the case in only one spot. 

On Friday it was cold.  I danced a lot else I think I would have been cold and it took three tandas for me to warm up. Women seemed to be in excess and many sat without dancing. People were leaving from about 2230, though whether from cold, from not dancing or something else I am not sure. The majority had gone when I left at the start of the penultimate tanda (Gobbi). An announcement had said the last tanda would be Pugliese.  I had felt the direction of the music for a while.

People and dancing

I had wondered to myself if the atmosphere had been a bit flat on Friday.  Someone voiced that thought the next night. On the Friday forty to fifty people rattled around the hall, rather too big for those numbers. There were quite a few I had expected might be there but who were not. Someone told me they had avoided the first night because even in a smaller venue last year it had not been particularly well attended. 

There was a contingent from Aberdeen despite that there was also a milonga in that city on the same Friday. On Saturday there were a few people from St Andrews. Of visitors from outside Scotland I saw few. One  I met was here for work that weekend and one was visiting friends. 

The music was great for half a dozen tandas.  Probably because of that I found myself in a remarkably good mood and somehow stayed that way even after the music started to slide into drama. 

Sometimes a few people stayed on the floor between tandas, a habit in Edinburgh that I rarely see elsewhere but that seems persistent. It was nothing like as bad though as at the Edinburgh International Tango Festiva (EITF). It is the legacy of Counting House DJs who used to play - and some still do play - silent cortinas though happily I believe the current head DJ no longer does this. 

I danced mostly with women and with five guys over two milongas somehow managing on Friday to avoid the tracks I found most troublesome. One guy was clearly an experienced dancer but he didn't embrace, did "stuff" more at me than with me and I felt gripped in my back. As ever, much is about compatibility. 

One of the guys was so quiet and dances with such sensitivity that it was a pleasure for me to stay in the woman’s role. It is not so much what he does as what he doesn’t do. That and just his attitude. Because this dance for me, is a lot to do with that.  I asked if he danced with guys in his town where he has a milonga and was delighted to hear that he does, in both roles. His girlfriend is a lovely dancer too. He is quite new to the dance and - wonderfully - he doesn’t teach, he just dances with people. This is one of the nicest guy dancers in Scotland for me but what is so patent in the milongas is how everyone likes different things.

A Latin man said he was still “trying” with his tango. “Why don’t you just swap?” I said. “I don’t know any way faster or better for guys to learn to dance well.” “It’s my pride”, he said, sheepishly. That way is a very long, slow and hard road and while it may attract sympathy, a guy, especially a guy citing that reason is not likely to want to dance with women who feel that way towards him. A guy who puts his pride first may realise that good dancing is making women feel good but this attitude is pretty much guaranteed to prevent that happening. It is quite a bind.

I watched Amanda Costa dancing with a local teacher. It was astonishing. You simply could not have told this was a well known tango performer. She danced just like a regular social dancer, without a jot of show or affectation like an ordinary woman. It was nice to see but boy did it show up how there is not "one tango (dance)" but that performance and social dancing are two entirely different creatures. I did not see Adrian Costa dance socially.

There were announcements both nights. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention but I remember a sales pitch for women to fill up the classes. I thought it was good that smart women are forsaking the classes where they pay to, at worst, be mere props for guys to learn to “think dance” in terms of steps, where the girls get hang-ups about all the things supposedly “wrong” with their dance that they “should” improve and where they learn things like embellishments and how to be self-conscious and stiff which in my experience only hamper dancing. 

On Friday I left at 2345 when Gobbi and Pugliese were announced as the last tracks. On Saturday I left much earlier mostly because of the sound but also because of the ronda. 

On the second night (DJ Ewa) there more people though quite a number went to either one or other night, not both. Seating ran out at the tables but there was a bench running all the way round the hall. I lost and regained my seat several times. So did the polite and friendly girl and nice dancer sitting next to me who had asked to join us. She was another five-months-new dancer who eventually seemed to give up trying to keep her seat.

Saturday

Invitation

A DJ well known for doing the predatory. walk-up hand-offering thing to women half his age did this to to her.  Knowing no better she accepted him but when you are a beginner many can be so grateful to get any dance. This would change if more guys danced with beginners and invited them by look. Some excuse this behaviour as “friendliness” or “helpfulness” but in some cases there is an undertone that experienced milonga-goers who know the scene feel is sleazy. Another excuse is “beginners don’t know about invitation by look” but they cotton on quick in the real conditions of the milonga, especially when they choose to sit next to women who do know. Such new women are regularly exploited by unscrupulous experienced men who cannot get the dances other guys can. 

As we watched this, the experienced, choosy dancer next to me and I looked at each other and shuddered at the man’s behaviour. We decried the fact that many women will dance with anything. She had been to Istanbul, a city often cited for its good embraces and dancing. She said there and in some Latin countries invitation is by cabeceo and mirada and that the women there are much tougher on guys than the pushover some women are in the UK. They refuse guys if they are not good dancers and they refuse guys who walk up. This means the men have to work much harder to get the women they want and the dance standard of the men is correspondingly higher. There is a much-needed point of learning there I felt for women in the UK. 

Things were helped along for me on Friday in that I met the kind of woman I just love to dance with. I invited her from my seat on the other side of the hall from her, exactly as I like invitation to be. I had not seen her dance but had a good feeling.  She stayed sitting quietly until I arrived to the part of the floor nearest her. It was with her a particularly conscious thing that reminds me of some dancers in the south of England, different, somehow to the more casual way people accept here. There is something lovely about the formality of invitation and acceptance between dancers, the staying seated until the partner who should, comes over. 

There is something nice about the lack of presumption, the “Of course you must have meant me” that a girl can signal when she stands up too early. Like “toast”. That’s the humiliating nickname a girl was given by Argentinians in a Buenos Aires milonga. There is just something nice about that seated poise. 

Ronda

On Saturday I watched some visitors dance in a way quite alien to the local scene. It was fascinating, nothing like the social dance I recognise. I can't remember when I saw so much reach and stretch in a woman’s leg.   I learnt later this is the Villa Urquiza style of dance in action. I am sure they felt us rather hick. It wasn’t that they did not stay in the ronda and I do not remember much danger from dagger-heels (though I didn’t like to watch long) but in that it looked like a show, it was quite the most anti-social dancing I have seen since my partner was kicked in the Counting House on...Sunday.  They did not seem connected to anyone else in the ronda, but then I felt that generally on Saturday night. Early on, the same guy covered several metres of space to come up right behind me with such a blank expression that I thought we had become a sort of blind spot in front of him and that he was going to crash into us; yet there was no blind spot: I could see his eyes, vacant. I am used in the ronda most everywhere to guys giving me a nod or a wink or a smile or just an acknowledgement especially if we happen to come too close and I like it like that.  How they are in the ronda tells me just about everything I need to know about a guy especially for future dance in regular roles.

This couple dance in central London where I think it not coincidence that DJ Ewa teaches and DJs. 

Someone who had been in Negracha recently told me the etiquette had been poor. “In the London scene, surely not?” I thought stifling a choke, but asked,

- “In what way?” 

- “Oh, walking across the floor, that kind of thing.”

- “Walking across the floor when?”

- “While people are dancing.”

As at the EITF I thought. And Things have improved then (!) since I was last in London.

Later I asked where the couple liked to dance in Buenos Aires. They mentioned Sunderland, which I had skipped, not liking the look on video nor the sound of it. They named several barrio milongas I had never heard of. I asked what they thought of the central milongas. They said it wasn’t their style. Why was that? They preferred the Costa's style which they find more in the barrio milongas where there is more space. Things had become much clearer for me.

The trouble is, if as DJ Ewa did, you play that strongly and that loudly when people who dance more by thinking class moves than they just dance the music are in the majority, or for whom a ronda is more a notion than a concrete reality then the results are going to be messy.  The ronda was - less in terms of weaving and more because of this sense of people doing their thing regardless of others. I was tailgated including by experienced dancers more times than I can remember.  The good effect of this is that by reminding one how very unpleasant this is I was confirmed each time it happened in my resolve to try never to do it myself. I remember reading an ordinance this year to the general dancing public I think from on high in ETS/El Tango Club: “Don't you ever tailgate!”. It occurred to me that perhaps this is a particular problem for the scene here.

About dancing moves, I was dancing swapped with a guy who said "Do that again!".  I laughed.  "Do what again?" I never know what I do.

I became aware of how crammed the ronda was on the outside. It became packed nose to tail in one big circle with very few people using the inside space. I sensed the feeling among those trying to be very correct (what a plague that is in the UK just now), that only the poorest dancers leave the edge. It is true, the more erratic dancers were in the middle but I danced there because it struck me as absurd to have so much space and not use it. Between the random dancers inside and the cramped space with tailgating outside the inside won by a margin. Tellingly, I did not see the hosts dancing much or at all.

So it was sad on Saturday: good tracks, largely good hall conditions, lots of people to dance with, unpleasant ronda and much too loud. 

I danced a vals with the serene visitor initially regretting inviting her as we had danced quietly and also to a tanda with high energy and I felt she preferred the former. Vals can, I find - in the wrong circumstances - be a bit crazy in a ronda and I wished I had waited for a quiet tango. The ronda was the most frenetic I felt it that weekend - uneven, disconnected, people doing all kinds of fast, wild stunts.  But we danced very small and quietly in what felt like a still, small pool of our own. For safety there really was no choice.  Sometimes I find a woman who I feel is happy to be quiet and connected and who doesn't mind, who likes even, if things are small and simple because these have their own power. At such times I feel we are deep inside the music, in the centre of it all and any eddying chaos around falls away, blurs out.

I thought about staying until numbers thinned out and the ronda became less unpleasant but figured the volume was unlikely to come down. I quit dancing at 10pm while I went outside the hall to scan through a book I had been lent. I got caught there by the show with my things still inside the room but left directly after that. I had planned to stay til the end but the milonga was scheduled to finish too late for a train so I had driven. Still, in comparison to what I know the Saturday night last train from Edinburgh to be like, after that raw evening, the silence of that hour driving home was like balm.

Edinburgh Festivalito: Music - DJ Ewa Zbrzeska

"What a disaster! If I ever sound to you as though I'm considering hearing DJ Ewa again, please remind me that I've been deafened twice by her. My right ear still hurts. I'm so cross with myself that I stayed in the room for 90 minutes.  If this DJ has not already been deafened - and she must be - she surely will be soon."

The milonga was billed to start at 2000. We arrived around 2020, being among the first there, with our choice of tables. I like to arrive early to feel how things develop. Again, I was surprised how unenthusiastic people seemed to be to come out. Despite the delayed start the DJ still did not start the set, clearly waiting for more people, which I felt was disrespectful to those already there past the billed start time.

When it finally came towards 2030 the opening track was a poor choice:  Que lo sepa el mundo entero  which I know but rarely hear, consider a weak choice in Rodriguez and a disaster as an opener to any tanda, never mind the main night of a festivalito.  Embarrassing then - but no surprise - that of the six or seven couples in the room no one danced it.  The DJ watched attentively, looking curious. The remaining tracks of the tanda were great and well matched. I danced from the second one and by the last one everyone was up. 

I felt the bass reverberate faintly in my body like a warning and groaned inwardly.  The DJ desk was behind the speakers, and to the side. In the first or second tanda the DJ checked the sound twice by coming to stand next to, but (oh, wisely) not in front of the two speakers, which were on the floor at one end. This is why the DJ should dance:  one or two tracks now and then - including the cortina - to tell, sound-wise what conditions are really like on the floor. I realised she must be wondering if the sound was too loud and decided (so I could stay) to confirm that to her: "If you were wondering if it's too loud, it is". She nodded and nothing happened for a few minutes, then I thought it came down very slightly but stayed too loud. Perhaps she didn’t hear me. I should have left then but lots of people were arriving including women I wanted to dance with. 

Twice when I danced as the girl I was standing right in front of the speakers during the cortina and that's when my ear got damaged. I will never stay for music that loud again. I know she was aware of how uncomfortable it was because she kept fiddling with the sound, especially when in one cortina I begged my partner to move us on from there and she grinned, looking uncomfortable.

The music itself was much better than the drama this DJ played at the EITF. The tracks this time were mostly good for me.

The set still felt unbalanced being very much on the "strong" side. There was Demare e.g. Mañana zarpa un barca but that I think was the softest it got. Next closest would probably have been the Caló: e.g. Pa' Que Seguir and A Las Siete En El Cafe which is not really what I mean by soft anyway. 

I told my last partner I was leaving early. “I think I’m done too”, she said meaning I think dancing but she was with her friends. I said it was too loud for me and too chaotic in the ronda.  "I feel the same" she said, "and yet" - with a half-shrug - "here I am". I knew what she meant. I said it is difficult when you have travelled far for a milonga and things are not optimal. 

But increasingly, because I am ultimately never happy in milongas that have things wrong with them - a bad floor, poor sound or are too cold I feel one needs a Plan B - friends to leave with and do something else, or even just the pleasure of silence and a good book. At some such places you can outride a difficult atmosphere by watching quietly but it is hard and more a test of will than a good night out. At others like El Quinto where for me the floor wasn’t ideal, the temperature was freezing, the dancing poor and the music had been artificially slowed to undanceable, I stayed for the chat and to see what happened because often, even if you do not dance interesting things happen. But while having travelled I might stay there, they are not places I generally want to return to.

Edinburgh Festivalito: Music, DJ Adrian Costa

I arrived at 2020 to cortina music, surprised that the milonga did not appear to have started at the advertised time. In popular milongas, when DJs are known to be good I find people arrive early.

Still, things started well with two nice D’Agostino tracks. I couldn’t quite place the third one, though I knew it and liked it less. I asked the DJ what is was later. De igual a igual he said. I was surprised because I know this track well. Later, I realised I know it better in the De Angelis version which I think far superior. I hear so little De Angelis these days, still less good De Angelis.

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

Then there was dark Caló, which I suppose presaged the moody musical drama on the horizon. They were I believe La vi llegar, Trenzas and Mañana iré temprano. 

The first milongas were very good standard, steady ones - Canaro I think.

Then there was Tanturi-Castillo but I went out to get wine. I didn’t know A Otra Cosa Che Pebeta  well.   I came back during Decile Que Vuelva, good for me and a better opener I think. 

There were the great Di Sarli instrumentals of around 1939-41

There were those wonderful early D’Arienzo vals: Mentias (1937) which I find haunting and Alma dolarida of the same year.

Then things started to slide. Still, I remember the nice Tanturi vals Marisabel (1942)  and there was D’Arienzo. There were tracks like Pájaro Sin Luz (1945) and Si supiera que la extraño. The singer is Laborde who - while still not Valdéz or Bustos - strikes me as among the more dramatic of D’Arienzo’s singers. I don’t hear these often, don’t really know them well enough for dancing and don’t even get that sense I occasionally get, almost like intrigue, that a track you don’t know might be good for dancing once you get to know it but that somehow so far you’ve missed it.  My copy of this last track is poor in sound and indeed I found the D’Arienzo played was particularly poor in sound quality - these and the famous ones he played later of type El Olivo and Humillación. I love these tracks but the sound was so off or the music by this time was too messed up for me that I didn’t fancy them.

I struggled through a Laurenz: Firuletear de bandoneon which I usually hear in DJs I tend not to want to hear often and I thought it a poor opener. There was Quedate tranquilo which I don’t know well and rarely hear, with, bizarrely, Buzón's Al verla pasar tacked on "for fun". Fun for the DJ perhaps but you rightly rarely hear it because the Laurenz version is incomparably better. I danced it because a woman who knew I wanted to dance with her invited me. 

I quit the floor after the first track of a milonga - which had been fine - because I have rarely heard such a weird and dire second (and third) milonga. My experienced partner was understanding - neither had she. We got up instead to a very strong rhythmic tanda of good instrumentals which I think were Troilo. But the cortina cut in loudly part-way through the third track. It was so violent it felt like being crashed into and it was so final the DJ couldn’t have restarted the track so we all walked off the floor. 

Looking back I am surprised I stayed so long.

There was Di Sarli / Podestá type of type Déjame but this was the best track of those. There was late Caló - from the 50s I think, with Podestá which were not for me. There were two Pugliese tandas and the Gobbi: Si Sos Brujo (1953)  which is when I got up to go, and A Orlando Goñi (1949). I might have tried dancing these if there had been the right guy but he definitely wasn’t at the festivalito this weekend.

Of course, a set remembered after the event can only be impressionistic but I found it uneven, remembering no tangos of Donato, Rodriguez, De Angelis, Canaro, Lomuto, Biagi or Fresedo. At their expense I remember repeats of Caló, Di Sarli and Pugliese, possibly of Troilo and of D'Arienzo, though repeats of D’Arienzo are fine with me.

The DJ pre-listened, but not seriously - only with one ear to one earpiece.

Return to the Counting House

Tuesday 3 November, 2015, 1930

In Glasgow on Saturday, I had learned that the regular host/DJ at the Counting House in Edinburgh being away, Juan was going to DJ for the Sunday night milonga. I decided to make I think only my second trip there of the year. I last went mid-July to hear DJ Lucas Malec who lives in the Netherlands. I did not take a photo so my most recent photo is from nearly a year ago but the Counting House does not really change. It is a much-loved venue for dancing tango - quite the ideal shape and size, with chairs and tables and a bar downstairs. The lights weren’t even turned down too low this time for invitation by look. Entry must be about the best value in the UK: £3 for dancing from 1900-2300, times which certainly suit me, even more so on a school night.

Numbers were about the lowest I have ever seen at the Counting House, hardly over twenty at the busiest time. I heard though that after the August lull the milonga had been busy in September but that there had been a milonga brunch in the city the day before which might have affected numbers. I knew also that there had been a tango tea in nearby Dalmeny that day.

Because of the low turnout the ronda was largely unproblematic. In one tanda though there were only about five couples on the floor yet my partner was kicked by a couple in the centre. The guy had been in extravagant mode and his partners heels flicked up left and right. My partner cried out and we stopped dancing both shaken though she was OK. They both apologised after quite a pause but I was astonished how difficult it had become for me to dance the remainder of the track. These things do happen but I was stunned to see today the same guy talking about #Connect, #HonorEachOther #FeelTheOneness. It is this meaningless, fluffy, marketing pseudo-babble, rife in the tango world that really needles me some days especially when, as in this case, it is so obviously false. Unsurprisingly, that sort of fake-speak is the giveaway. No one talks like that in real life.

Late in the evening while I was dancing I saw a swing crowd invade one end of the ronda and started dancing swing (moves) to tango (music). There was plenty of space and they were not noisy but it was a clash of cultures, inappropriate and disruptive. The host I know keeps a sharp eye out for this sort of thing but was dancing. I saw Juan intervene or be about to intervene. Whether because of this or their own awareness that they were really not fitting in they all trooped out within about a minute. Seated tango dancers who had been watching aghast began laughing so it was well tolerated as the mistake it was.

There was still quite a bit of the "you are invisible" thing going on at the Counting House among the habitués. It is sad that that atmosphere and refusal to acknowledge people is still going strong and being perpetuated but it has been like that in the four years since I first went there. I have heard from women in the surrounding area who I know to be nice dancers that they have been to the Counting House but been ignored, felt understandably uncomfortable and so rarely go back. On the other hand people inside it talk about a "tight" community with little of the common division there often is between teachers and organisers in other cities. I tend to see this more as a monopoly, which I see confirmed by the fact that still only one milonga operates outside of the Edinburgh Tango Society: La Redonda, now sadly downgraded from weekly milonga to a monthly three hour milonga on a Thursday. 

"Tight" communities are also ones that are not necessarily great at welcoming new people. Still, I was aware of at least three of us and possibly more inviting a new dancer who was sitting alone. How different from La Bruja in Amsterdam where one evening I was recently invited by just one guy I had danced with years before in a roomful of 100 or so people. Luckily, some of the women there were keen to dance and lovely.

In the Counting House, a girl I knew to be dancing only five months was so assured in her connection, so natural in her movement. I had seen her dancing in milongas outside Edinburgh. "It is because you are always in the milongas" I said, marvelling, between tracks. She shrugged. “Well, I can't go to the classes so…” ”And see the results of that happy coincidence” I thought, delighting at finding such an unspoilt dancer. Not only that but someone so confident that from learning to dance in the milongas there would be at least nothing wrong with their dancing. Far from it. It will probably be no surprise that she does not have the focused, uptight anguish about dance improvement of so many British dancers. I admire women with the strength of character and the self-belief not only to know just from dancing that they are nice to dance with, but not to be ground down by nay-sayers and those who stump up for class week after week, year after year regurgitating the received idea that everyone needs class for those conveniently vague catch-alls: “the basics” and “working on technique”.

A new guy dancer I met abroad who has sound instincts asked last week:

- What do I respond to the expected good advice to 'take a beginners course' first’ ?
- You might say: "thanks", smile and remember to avoid them for dance in the future :)

Refreshingly, there were a couple of new dancers from Louise Tait's new queer tango group. What a pleasure to meet a guy who wants to “get” the woman’s part - and with enjoyment - while he also learns to dance the guy’s traditional role. It struck me those dancers, though brand new had all the right ideas. Louise brings her students to the milonga. This is how new people learn to dance and learn how things are. They in turn bring others and things get passed on with no unsubtle, in-yer-face milonga rules and demands, of which the smarter versions masquerade as cool talk or comedy. 

Juntos milonga in London (which closed this week) had floor supervisors and seven pages about rules - a warning to other milongas of what not to do if ever there was one. A lot of learning is just being there: watching, listening, chatting, dancing a bit. I heard about a guy in the Edinburgh blues scene who believes just the same thing and who had introduced new dancers that way too. I love to meet people like that.

Music (tangos)  I felt Juan's music had been better in Glasgow. As I arrived I heard two good tandas. One was Fresedo and so good I despaired that I was still getting ready and that it was so early there would be few people with whom I might dance it. The other was possibly Caló, I forget now. I don’t recall hearing Lomuto in the set this time. The OTV in Edinburgh was in the middle of the set rather than early as it had been the day before. Mid-set is fine by me. I find it reassuring when sets don't start with endless Canaro/Carabelli/Maglio/Firpo and worse from the 1930s or even earlier. This tanda started with Coqueta and ended with the Viento Norte which if you follow these links you’ll see were in two OTV tandas of his I minded previously. We had a chat about it though! For those who find these things curious and revealing, Coqueta in that link is being danced by teacher/DJ Stefan OK and his partner. The Viento Norte couple, Pablo Inza and Sofia Saborido I met the other week on their visit to Scotland.

I can’t remember exactly how all the music was over the two nights I heard Juan this weekend but mostly the tangos were nice for me. The most reliable tandas were: D’Arienzo, Biagi, D'Agostino, Donato, Caló, Laurenz I think was all or mostly good; Troilo, though I have also heard him play Troilo with Marino; Demare - what I heard of it because I think I may have left during a Demare on possibly the Saturday. He played Pugliese but I can't remember if it was good for dancing. I rarely dance it in swapped roles and there's almost never a guy I want to dance it with so I switch off a bit. As music for listening it was fine, certainly.

Slightly less reliable for me was Rodriguez but I see I’ve noticed this before. An opener was Expresión campera which I had some reservations about at the time, but listening again I wonder what I minded. I'm not persuaded it's the best opener though.

Occasionally in the music especially in Edinburgh on Sunday I did hear the odd serious miss. One of these was in Canaro, a track I knew but which makes me feel I am in the circus - some Canaro is like that. It wasn't quite El rey del bosque, but it wasn't far off. I nearly quit the floor but my partner was a beginner. It's a shame when there is an embarrassment of great Canaro to choose from. 

I heard a mix of Di Sarli over the two nights. I cannot recall him playing De Angelis, neither this weekend nor in the past. 

The vals and milonga were usually good for me with the odd track that missed. There were Troilo-Marino milongas e.g. Barrio del tambor which I like though I didn’t know his third one. It is a tricky choice though with so few people but they were danced. Later he played fast D'Arienzo milonga including De Antaño which I also like very much. I thought it too much with the Troilo milongas. Although I do like these and dance them quite often with a guy I know well I may be coming round to the view that there are so few people who like these and can dance them well and comfortably that they are probably not worth playing.

I don’t know why people talk so much about, well I think it’s called milonga con traspie and milonga lisa. It feels either smooth, comfortable and safe or it is jerky, rough and horrid. If only more guys tried being on the receiving end of their milonga con traspie I think there would be less of it. Very few dancers in my experience can dance this traspie style well for their partners and so perhaps I am more inclined to think now that it is not the best idea to encourage people to throw others around like rag dolls and do them injury by playing these very fast and jerky milongas. 

It was a relief to meet a visitor from Stuttgart who also struggles with the girls-in-a-line-on-bar-stools thing. There is a view that most guy visitors will try to dance mostly with girly girls in skirts and heels, sometimes regardless of whether they can dance or not and that girls who swap can be near the bottom of the mental list, if they're even on it. I understand that view but there can be some pleasant surprises. It's also nice when you meet a visitor, who can dance and who, like the lovely Finn, sometimes even asks to swap, or in his case presented it, in the middle track more as a delightful fait accompli. I suppose though in general tango tends to attract guys who like girls to be girls. 

A: Would you describe yourself as a feminist?

B: I do not describe myself as a feminist. On the contrary, I might describe myself as a femininist :)

...though to make assumptions about quite what that means might be unwise. 

Luckily, there are all kinds of girls. I was dancing in conventional roles with one of the new dancers and apologising for having my own (silent, dance) ideas and possibly disrupting his (silent) dance plans, which isn't really fair with a new guy. But he was so charming, fun and easygoing - my favourite sort of dancer. He said:

- In the other dance I do we'd call you a "cat" dancer. 

- Why "cat"?

- Well, as opposed to the biddable, puppy-dog type.