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.