Underground milonga in Amersfoort

It was Saturday night after the Waterlelie milonga and I wanted to keep exploring and dancing. I went on to the Underground milonga in Amersfoort.  Details: Oude Fabriekstraat 20, Amersfoort. 20.30 - 01.30, Entrada 8 Euros.

I went by train from Leiden with a guy I'd met at the Waterlelie, also on a bike. 

It was busy. There was booth-type seating down one long side, although this photo (for the more traditional milonga in the same venue) suggests it is more likely the chairs were just turned round, booth-style, to face one another. This made it less easy to invite because you could only do so by standing nearest where the photo is taken at the bar/short end (above left). Here too you can see the makeshift bar by the entrance and behind it very limited seating, lounge-style. In memory it was darker than it seems in the photos but not impossible for invitation by look. The floor was like chipboard but was OK. The photo below shows the semi-industrial feel to the place and the start of the booth-type seating on the right. 

I think Arthur (?Abel) was the DJ - you can see the DJ spot under the speaker in the top photo. The music felt like 50% alternative which was more than was advertised. I think it was in the format of one tanda alt, one traditional which made things easily predictable for chat or to step outside for air. Most of the trad tandas were pretty good for me. The atmosphere was relaxed but by this stage I was relaxed anyway. 

I danced initially and off and on with the friend I had arrived with and twice with a Dutchman in swapped roles because he had a lovely smile, lots of adorable white Dutch curls and was willing. He enjoyed it, therefore so did I. People were tolerant about the swapped roles and smiled.  As you can see there were women dancing together too. I danced with a young guy I'd seen or was to see around and that was about it. One or two guys asked discreetly and politely for dances but I never felt pressured or hassled. The men looked easygoing and relaxed - so different from the more uptight UK. 

It was not thereafter easy to pick up dances with girls and only partly because of the seating/room arrangements. I was hesitant because I was not sure who I wanted to dance with, not having been focused on the girls and they hadn't seen me much either. 

I haven't been recently to many alternative or semi-alternative milongas in the last two or three years - only St Andrews and that not lately - but I was starting to realise it is not unusual to find in them a warm and relaxed atmosphere. I am glad I went but I didn't fancy enough of the dancing at the Underground and after a couple of hours - by about midnight - had had enough and got the train back to Amsterdam. 

I heard from several people there is a nice trad milonga in the same venue called La Roca.

Waterlelie milonga, Leiden

On 13 August I put my hired bike on the train in Amsterdam - or rather, some nice guys did it for me - and made the short trip to Leiden. I had heard the town was pretty but wanted to get to the milonga on time. After cycling through some residential streets I soon arrived at a fenced in deer park. 

The structure with a triangular roof is a pleasant tea house also serving food. It has indoor and outdoor seating. Many people though brought refreshments to share at the milonga so there was a spread of snacks and juices. 

I was welcomed by co-host Peter who introduced me to Mariane. Entrada €4.

Visibly, the floor is under the roof of what we in the UK would call a bandstand. The setting was lovely. As is often the case with outdoor venues the floor was concrete and poor. (Much) talc was provided. Still, I heard from several people that this is their favourite milonga. It ran during the afternoon I think from 2 or 3pm til about 7pm. There are only the few seats you can see to the left but conversation as well as invitation by look were all easy. The atmosphere was very relaxed and I enjoyed it. 

Music

Peter was the DJ. I have a note that the music was better than at De Plantage by which I think I mean that the good tandas were fairly reliable. The orange thing you can just about see in the top photo is the tent which covers the DJ equipment. The music turned turned alternative after six, as advertised when numbers thinned considerably. Someone commented that numbers always drop off when this happens. Peter said he plays tango-vals-tango-milonga as he has found this creates the right energy. 

There was Manuel Buzón early on. I don't have a note of the tracks but listening to his Al Verla Pasar (1942), it is nice but for dancing I think I would always crave the Laurenz and this distraction would disappoint me for Buzón. In fact, I know that is the case from when Adrian Costa swapped this track in to a Laurenz tanda (for fun!?) and I found it so distracting I had to go and ask him about the track later. I wonder if I would like it better with more familiarity or in a wholly good tanda. I like the singer Amadeo Mandarino but the arrangement, the pairing of Laurenz’s orchestra with Martín Podestá I find incomparably better. I wasn’t surprised for a moment when I saw the recordings are from the same year. You can often hear a proximity, a similarity in feel between the same tracks recorded by different orchestras but in the same year though the quality between them varies. The only track by Buzón I have a note that I heard in a milonga around that same time is Fueye (also1942, also with Mandarino).  It is likely I heard it in that milonga but I can't swear to it.  I have heard this track in some milongas and (with the reservation that I am insomniac at 5AM) I think it is OK. Until I hear it more I am sceptical that it is good enough to get that true pull that makes one want to dance.

After that I danced a lot though I remember deliberately skipping tandas occasionally because of the music. I have a note of one tanda, a De Angelis vals with Carlos Dante and Oscar Larroca in duet: the first two tracks were Lina (1956) and Adiós, Adiós (1955). They are extravagant but I rather like them. I have heard them before but they are not common where I usually dance. They remind me of Antti Suniala somehow, though I haven’t heard him DJ. I heard this kind of vals more than once in the Netherlands. I do not entirely trust my note for the last track which says it was Soñar y nada más (1944) with Dante/Martel which I think does work in this combination, never mind the dates. There are many great vals recorded in 1944 but even so I think those De Angelis vals of the forties have a polish for that time and fit well in the fifties. Many might have played Como las margaritas (1952) which is nice music but I prefer it for listening.

You can hear how distant De Angelis was from some other orchestras then when you compare one of his 1944 vals with one of the same year by an orchestra forgotten for all but historical reasons, say, Me duele el corazón by Porfirio Díaz, sung by Carmen Del Moral. It sounds almost like a street organ-grinder especially when you compare that with the Caló/Iriarte version of the same year.

Dancing

I didn't see much really nice guy dancing but the fact is I met early a guy from De Plantage (review) and we danced quite a bit. After that I met another guy (see below) and and danced with some women so didn't have as much time to watch and take things in as much as I might ordinarily. A woman swapped roles to guide me who hadn’t had lessons in the guy's role. It was lovely. There was a child, older than mine there with some relatives, an uncle and perhaps a grandmother. He danced a lot and seemed in demand. I was impressed.

I met this guy here. 

I got talking to him by the snacks.  I hadn’t seen him dance but he had the lean body, clothes and shoes of an habitual tango dancer.   A good milonga started and I just kind of assumed we would dance. He agreed readily but for his part expected me to lead it, since I asked him.  I thought this entirely fair, and we danced many tracks changing roles often.  

I was reminded of a conversation from a couple of years before with someone else:

A: When I invite a woman and she says: oh, but I can't "lead", or can/do you "lead"? The better response would be....?

B: In a real milonga?? Her better response would be to decline the invitation of someone who is not making clear whether they are a guy or a girl.

But I think we danced together too much and in the wrong way for some because a guy I’d made an agreement to go to a milonga with afterwards came to cancel.

After a few days we realised we had irreconcilable differences of opinion about various things but he has unusual, interesting, questioning and challenging perspectives about the tango world. You can read his views if you sign up to the newsletter about his travels here.

De Plantage, Amsterdam

Bar, left; entrance at the far end.  I sat near the right hand corner.

One Friday night in August I biked from west Amsterdam to De Plantage, a Friday night milonga in the city that had been recommended by locals and visitors. This was as usual a solo trip and although I had gone to the last TangoMagia festival in 2013 this was the first regular milonga I went to in the Netherlands. 

Near my lodgings the Haarlemmerstraat and Haarlemmerdijk were lively with people spilling out of the shops, bars and cafes. If felt like theatre. The area was full of the mingled smells of weed-smoke and spice. 

The tunnel under the IJ (a sort of bay) was closed so there were roadworks going on and I lost my bearings. I coasted up to a group of what I took to be workmen in high vis vests though I was a surprised to see at least one woman too. I said I was a bit lost. A tall, friendly guy with a lovely manner stepped forward. Holding his rollup he took my phone in his other hand to see where I was trying to get to. “Do you trust me?” he said to soften the surprise of finding myself giving my phone to a stranger. He explained where to go in his near flawless English. Not for the last time in the Netherlands I tried to imagine the reverse scenario: a Glaswegian workman switching to Dutch to help a tourist. Maybe not but they are helpful in Glasgow. It is rare that I don’t find people helpful pretty much everywhere. The guy had indicated a large boulevard opposite where we were standing  from which traffic was heading towards us . “Not the other side?”, I said, indicating the other lane where the traffic was going the way he was pointing. Perhaps there was a cycle path I should take on the side he was indicating. “It doesn’t matter. Either side. You’re in the Netherlands”, he said, smiling. Seeing me hesitate, “That’s the safer side”, he agreed. "Well, I’ll do that - I live in Scotland" I said, unrelatedly, meaning “It’s my first evening here”. 

Entrance

The area around the milonga was much quieter than the one I had come from.  It starts late for me, used to UK hours:  2215 to 0200. Entrada was €5. I wasn’t sure who the host was. I wondered if the guy on the door was Argentinian. Later I saw him manning the bar. There was an area for coats and bags.  Feeling optimistic, I wore heels for the first time since May.  I asked a woman in the ladies about seating here and if invitation was by look. She said it was. I sensed she was quiet and confident.  Later I saw her sitting in the corner left as you come in where I noticed were some teachers who had been strutting their stuff. They were also sitting by the good partners of the guy I wanted to dance with though he stayed near the bar. 

Salon

The salon was lovely - a good size and shape. The lighting was OK. There was an unnecessary, distracting and to my taste naff video projection on the wall above the entrrance.  Prosecco at the bar was  €3,50 and the water I asked for came free with it. I think there was cake for sale. I bumped into Wim.  He runs Tango at the seaside which I haven’t been to yet. I enjoyed our dance but discovered the floor to be extremely slippy.  I was glad it was Wim I was dancing with.  I watched him choose good partners efficiently, dance and leave early. 

Music

The DJ was El Irresistible. I went to ask him about a track and realised there was a display. He was courteous but I found the music, largely from the Golden Era, not what I prefer, with many tracks I do not hear in the milongas.

Ronda and dancing

The ronda I remember as fine. There were a few nice dancers though inevitably most of these were women. There were also guys who looked like they could dance but with whom I sensed no compatibility.  In any case, they did not invite me or I missed them since I was keeping an eye out for invitation from only a couple of guys. Having just arrived in the country I was happy to watch and listen.  I had a sense from several guys of much ostensible confidence and certainty  - of wearing the right clothes, dancing the right way, doing the right, traditional thing.

Two guys walked up for dances.  I turned one down who invited in the cortina but danced with him afterwards when he tried again by look.  The other made it very difficult to refuse. I accepted a man beside me with whom I had chatted. After quite a while I decided to take a chance and accepted a man who had been trying to invite by look for a long time and from a distance. He shook my hand in introduction between tracks and danced at me rather than with me.  My knee was hurting from forced pivots and dancing that was not light and relaxed.  I decided to quit on the guys. 

I changed shoes to see if any of the women would twig.  While perched on an empty seat waiting for a pause in the music to get back to my seat a man struck up conversation.  I was grateful he did not use the opportunity to pressure me to dance.  I'd given my seat to him earlier so he could chat with his female friend who was sitting by me.  I took this photo from the end by the entrance. The glassed in room above the floor is for smokers.

Taken from the 'good dancer' corner - they were dancing.

Back in my place the women I would have liked to dance with were on the same long side as me but seated at the far end.  Feeling moving to invite by look not sufficiently discreet, I decided against it. How I miss Buenos Aires where in good milongas seating is such that you can easily see the people you want to dance with. 

I love to dance D’Agostino with quiet women, especially if I don’t know them. The woman beside me had struck up conversation and later we danced the first track of that tanda. I discovered with surprise afterwards it was the first time she had danced with a woman. You often can tell, but not in this case. Many of the woman I danced with in the Netherlands were lovely - dancing closer, more relaxed and more connectedly than many British women. 

But the tanda, as so often was unreliable. I didn’t think I could do any justice to my partner with that track and was worried all the remaining tracks might be off too. I asked if we could see what the next track was but someone was waiting for her to go anyway. Still, she came to say hello the next month at La Bruja. I regretted quitting and was frustrated by the music: not least because the third and fourth tracks were simply lovely. 

Atmosphere 

I found the people I met open and quiet, some wanting to chat.  I was introduced to a lovely man in his eighties with a disarmingly positive attitude. He sang in my ear and was delighted when I told him the men in Buenos Aires do the same.  He does not fly and will never go.  A woman I heard speaking English smiled broadly at me before I left. A good woman dancer said goodnight before she left. 

I heard the milonga’s fourth Sunday incarnation is busier and more open when more people come from outside Amsterdam. It starts much earlier and there is food. 

I liked the venue very much though with two long sides I wish there was optional separate seating for guys and girls so that you can see more easily for invitation by look and to reduce the likelihood of guys walking up.  The atmosphere was reserved but not unfriendly.  I think I would go again, preferably with a partner or friends and ideally on a Sunday but the biggest problem for me was the music though I know many would not mind it.

Tormenta Tango: Altrincham practica (south Manchester)

"I came out to Altrincham on the tram, 20 mins from central Manchester. Found The Craftsman, a modern nondescript bar two minutes from the station. Went upstairs to see through the plate glass window 3 people and obviously the teacher holding their stomachs and going across the width of the room pivoting. It was so earnest, so typical, I nearly laughed but at the same time I can't tell you how my heart sank. I remembered something from the website about 'exercises' at the start but hoped I could skip those or watch. I couldn't bring myself to stay though and it wouldn't have been right. I noticed the blurb on Tormenta Tango website sounds like it’s veering towards classes. But it is already happening. I suppose this is the "practice" phase of teaching before the actual charging. I nearly took a photo, but couldn't bring myself to in the end and thought it would be mean.

I walked up to the door as the guy pivoted with his class crab-like back towards it. He asked if I had come for the tango. I said yes, hesitantly and asked when the dancing began. He said about 2030. So here I am in the Slug and Lettuce down the road, on a hunch it might have been fractionally less loud than the Craftsman bar (it isn’t) - killing time. On the upside, food is half price on a Monday. The barmaid is sweet and got my order in less than half the 40 minute wait time she warned me about. On the downside, the music's terrible and the food isn't up to much.

*

So I was rather dreading it although I wasn't too worried about what happened here. Still, I thought I should come clean upon introduction. It wasn't an issue and I was glad I went. A number of people had already said Mat's a nice guy.

The room is spartan: seats down one side, a heavily talc-ed floor, bright bulbs.

I found 3 older couples taught by Mike and Leander of Tango Cheshire with whom I danced yesterday in Pant. There was also an interesting lady two years back after spending forty in California. She volunteered in day centres for seniors where she met a polyglot Ivan Shvarts who also runs free tango for veterans. Apparently he believed a lot in dancing tango for health. When we had a conversation about guys treating girls well she said Ivan said that too.

Much later, after I’d danced with four of the people there, Mat invited me. He is tall and I liked dancing with him enough to want to put on heels for the first time since August. Before that was probably over that May bank holiday weekend. Heels three times in six months. All that trust felt strange. Heels make a huge difference to the sense of trust but I think he understood. He said he likes to swap in the practica (like Esquina Porteña for 'tango work') not in the milonga. Different guys have different feelings about this - I get that.  It's good when people are clear although he is probably the first guy I've met who wants to swap only outside the milonga. Anyway, we did swap and danced swapping for maybe the last hour when all bar one couple had left.

Mat commented we had a voyeur. Someone was leaning out the window opposite smoking and watching, behind them a darkened room.  I waved at them to come over :) Then I took the guide role in heels. I was surprised at the end to hear clapping!! Whoever it was had got a friend to watch and might have been filming. Mat called out the window for them to come over but they didn't :)

He said something like he'd just pulled the music together for the practica, that it wasn't proper DJing but a lot of the music he played was nice, the best I heard that weekend including the milonga in Pant (review) and the Manchester pop up milonga (review). He let me choose. I suggested we skip the ?second Pugliese or similar and he agreed. There was nice standard Laurenz instrumentals, nice Calo instrumentals, OK Pugliese, nice Fresedo songs, quite nice Tanturi. 

By the sounds of things he is thinking of cancelling the practica which has been going since February I think because of numbers or perhaps he is just busy or has gone off it. I’m not altogether sure. People there said they usually have 15 and sometimes it is quite busy. But I asked around beforehand about this practica and met virtually no-one who had been though the ones who said they had were good dancers. 

His milonga - 'El huracán' - had 48 the first time, 34 the second and they need that to break even. It's £12 and includes cake, prosecco and there's a bar. Someone from outside the area said me they thought the price a bit steep. I thought not, with prosecco included but had forgotten it is £16 if you want to reserve a table. I imagine it is a £4 supplement for the table, surely not each. I don’t know if you have to pay to reserve in BA. I never heard that. The milonga is in a dance school in I think Sale. He said they don't do it for the money and I believe him. After seeing the lovely pictures of first one I wanted to go to the second one but it was advertised at too short notice for me to make arrangements. I hope to go to the third.

Re numbers at the practica I said how I'd often noticed people treat practicas like social dances probably because they like social dancing and why not. So rather than struggle with a practica, why not meet the market demand and make the milonga monthly as opposed to every second month especially as there is nothing on a Saturday night locally. I’m not sure he liked the logic. He had wanted to do a proper practica where people practice and 'work' because apparently there are other practicas around that are really ‘just’ informal milongas.

When we swapped roles he joked to his students that they could correct the teacher now. I said “Are you a teacher?” knowing he isn’t, officially. “No”, he said a bit sheepishly. And then he said the loveliest thing I heard all evening: “Just a dancer who helps.” "

Note: as of this week, this practica no longer runs. Also, the website has been down a lot at this week and still is but the same page says milongas are still planned.  The note I made of the next milonga when the website was last accessible is Saturday 19th November.