Tuinhuis milonga, Utrecht

All photos by Ojo Oscuro, with thanks

DJ Astrid

  

I had heard nice things from locals and travellers about the Tuinhuis milonga and I already wanted to go. (see http://www.tangokalender.nl for future dates). It is in Utrecht about thirty minutes south east of Amserdam . This was before I realised the milonga is run by Laura whom I had met when she came to dance at the Glasgow Saturday afternoon practica a few years ago. She sang tango songs for us over thick hot chocolate in the cafe afterwards then several of us had dinner together. I was just starting to dance the other role and meeting and dancing with Laura inspired me. She was warm, strong, gentle and confident and has danced both roles for years. I had seen her a only a couple of times since then but she had brought gifts for my children when we met on another flying visit to Glasgow. When she heard I was coming she invited me to stay.

It was October now and the first day of my second weekend this year to the Netherlands.  I had enjoyed September so much.  At least four of us went through the communal garden to the room belonging to the housing project to set up the milonga.  It did not take long.  Later, people brought food and drink to contribute. The DJ was local, Astrid. There was a mixture of alternative and trad music. I think the tandas alternated between the two. I don’t have many notes about the music so I must have danced most of the traditional tandas.  

Laura and Henk sang songs including Caseron de tejas:

The atmosphere here was warm, happy and relaxed.  I think this is what this milonga is known for.  There was a great variety of dance, different styles and experience but my first impression was that it all somehow seemed to work. 

If you need a very traditional format, formality, codes then this will not be for you and the organisers make no pretensions to be or to offer this. They are offering something different. But I really enjoyed this milonga. I'm not sure there were any tables. Some people stood especially around the kitchen area but it wasn't a big deal and as I have said before that makes for easy socialising which can be a godsend if you are alone and don't know anyone. I travel alone a lot and know from experience if a milonga does not have good seating options for solo dancers  then I would rather it had a good area for socialising where I can meet and chat with people.  The only place where I have seen good seating for solo dancers is the way it's done in trad milongas in Buenos Aires where the host seats you with others but inexplicably I have not heard of a single busy milonga in Europe that does this.  I wish they would! 

I danced first with people I knew from milongas in Rotterdam (review) and Amersfoort (review), proving that the more you are known in a place, the more you’ll probably dance. 

The time seemed to pass so quickly. I did not have time to dance with any women or with the guys I hadn’t had enough time to watch. I had just got to the point (after three hours) of thinking about one or two guys “Actually, yes” (had they still been interested) and starting to wonder about the invitation/acceptance ritual when suddenly the milonga was over.

My best guy dance of two days later (in Oosterpark) had been there it turned out, but I didn’t know that then. I would travel to Antwerp and back before I met him.  It’s so great to be in a room of dancers where you are both 6’ (183cm) tall and more and neither of you notices the other!

Dancing after Christmas: Eton

Space in marriage is often helpful and I am lucky to have plenty of it. It is never more necessary for all couples I feel than after Christmas, before the divorce statistics peak in January. For the last few years I have gone away to dance for a few days and for some time alone. It is good timing for me who ordinarily looks after the children and it is nice for my husband who is away so much to have some time with them.

The first year I did this I went to TangoMagia a now-defunct festival in Amsterdam. I went not for the classes, just to dance a lot. By then I had been dancing about 18 months. The second year I went to to the Etonathon milonga weekend west of London. Last year I went to the Brighton milonguero cuatro, then to Eton, then to festive milongas requiring no pre-registration in Hertfordshire, London and Cambridge. 

I am not going to Eton this year. I like that you can pay on the door, I am delighted there is no gender or role balancing, the floorcraft is famously good and it never lacks home-made cake. The floor is good, the venue nice if cramped and short on tables and seating for those numbers and it is very crowded. 

I first went to an Eton milonga in 2013 and started going to its special events the following year. After going for a while to milongas in the south of England and becoming known, I always enjoyed going to Eton. It is many peoples favourite milonga. Even so in both 2014 and 2015 I have felt the multi-day events rather too much like meat markets with women especially sitting literally centre-stage for a good shot at being invited or loitering against pillars casting desperate sheep's eyes long after the time for them to sit down has passed. Some were not unwilling to block other dancers' line of sight during the cortina and once experienced that habit can unfortunately be contagious. I find that peculiar to dancers in the south of England, London particularly. Last year at Eton in chat I discovered a lot of women who had not danced, or hardly danced over three or four days which saddened me. I don’t like a competitive feeling in milongas, that "Choose me, choose me":

"That's why Eton multi-day can be such a hard environment for girls. You have to be really tough, really confident, really pushy in a terribly toned down but bright smiles sort of way. Brash really. It's competition - not that anyone means to do down anyone else, but they want what they can get and will stand and block and be hard and bright to try get it. I can't bear any of that. I've heard it called "making the most of one's opportunities" which might be opinion but struck me as equivocatory at best."

There are always extra women which never bothers me or presumably those who go. But then I know dancers across the south, dance both roles, enjoy other aspects of milonga life as well as dance and have experience surviving attending tough milongas alone and with only faint(?) scarring. If you are unknown Eton is another milonga which it can be hard to break in to. Depending on the usual various things - mostly who you know and the compatibility of your character to the settings - it can be difficult. On the other hand it also has probably more good dancers in a single place than I have seen anywhere else in the UK.

Another factor about Eton multi-day events is that I don’t think I have ever heard a DJ at one of them who was as good (for me) as Charles, who co-hosts that milonga with Sarah. Indeed I have heard there some weak to catastrophic great variety in DJing.

Eton multi-day events are much-loved by many and have perhaps a growing number of devotees although I found the last night of the final day (DJ Diego Doigneau) very quiet when I was last there. 

Just now though, personally, I would rather attend the ordinary Eton milongas instead which I would expect to be less frenetic and more relaxing.

Cuartito Azul milonga, Rotterdam

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The Cuartito Azul milonga was outside, beside the Maas river with a superb view. The skies were huge. The cityscape stretched across the opposite bank. There was a light wind but it lovely, especially when sunny, provided you danced so you didn't get cold. Although I was still surprised to be here, I loved it and would recommend this milonga next summer in good weather, mostly for the wonderful setting. I was told this special event runs only occasionally in the summer so you need to stay informed. 


The dance floor was on the decking of a hotel with a special temporary floor laid on top just for the day and was better than I had expected. With people helping clear it away at the end it was done in five minutes. It was a kind of soft plastic taped down to what turned out to be many MDF? boards which surprised me. These had been laid on top of the restaurant's outdoor decking. The whole, plus I imagine, the speakers were loaded into a small trailer. Nice chairs and tables were provided by the restaurant. 


The dancing attracted many spectators - more than I've seen at any outdoor milonga. Some of them sat at the tables around the dance floor but many stood watching, taking photos and even filming. 


The entrada was only 4 euros. There was a bar outside, provided by the hotel and a restaurant inside. A very small glass of wine was I think 3 euros, a European sized bottle of water 5 euros. Though the water was expensive I thought as an overall package it was good value for what was nearly 5 hours of dancing in a wonderful setting. 


The music was mixed, probably 70% trad. It started with a wholly great Donato tanda which got me immediately in the mood. I’ve noticed that before when rhymthic upbeat Donato starts a milonga. There were good trad tandas in e.g. Biagi, D'Arienzo, Donato, half good Lomuto, mostly good Fresedo and some repeats of all those orchestras (and some tracks) at the expense of other orchestras. There was very late De Angelis vals with singers which style I also heard at the Waterlelie milonga in Leiden. When my friend arrived later, I said: 
- "You said the music was traditional!" 
- "If I had told you it was a mix you wouldn’t have come", he said, probably correctly and I was very glad that I had. 





Amazingly, I kept my seat, though for a while people came and went from it.  A woman appeared and shared the table, then moved. Another woman arrived with whom I became and remain friends and after that it became definitively ours for the duration. With the chat and the fixed place although I knew next to no-one there it became very relaxing. She and I danced Biagi, under the sun, beside this capacious river, beneath huge skies and to this great music.  Dancing in these conditions with this nice person and others there I became aware that it was one of the closest ways to heaven I expect to get. It was during this afternoon that I started to think I wanted to come back to the Netherlands again. 


I only wanted to dance with four guys besides the guy who had told me about the place.   One was a scruffy, trendy young guy. I heard he was a teacher but danced well. I didn't try to dance with him.  He looked like he was out to have a relaxing afternoon with a beautiful girlfriend and some cool friends.  I didn't dance either with a much older guy because I was told he was shy/reserved and mostly only danced with one woman. Of the two guys I did dance with one was heavenly, matching the day.  I thought he had tried to invite for ages, but I was not yet convinced. Eventually he walked up to invite me during an alternative track and I said no thanks.  Later, when the choosy lady had joined me, she told me he was gorgeous. Still, I waited until I saw him dance. I was sure it would be great but now I had refused him directly.  When I happened to be passing behind his seat on impulse I went up during the D'Arienzo and asked if he still wanted to dance. This guy was quiet and playful, great for me.  He was my guy dance of the weekend. 


In general the guy dancing wasn't great with many couples in a simulacrum of an embrace. Rotterdam apparently has a reputation for a nuevo style (see the website image for a clue) and while the DJ, Hugo, danced that way almost no others did. 

I only danced with three women that day through choice but am still friends with two of these. One walked up to invite me towards the end of the milonga to an alternative track.  I was surprised but realised I recognised her from chat in Leiden.  I don't like turning down women in circumstance like these but I cannot dance to this kind of music.  I tried to dance it, failed and apologised.  Then it was late De Angelis vals which were a bit better.  Later still we danced D'Arienzo tangos.  Finally, we were dancing properly, "intuitively" she said.  "What a difference!" we agreed.  Another woman said another time that this partner was a very sensuous dancer and I realised it was true.  Of all the women I have danced with, few fit the description better. I was astonished and delighted to discover she is a grandmother!


The ronda was busy at times especially later on and hard to move. The photo is taken when it was quiet.  Generally though floorcraft was, despite the style of dancing, amazingly good, better in general than I could manage. I bumped into a Latin looking guy who was very kind about it and there was a slight collision with someone I couldn't see. I automatically waved a "sorry" hand to the couple I couldn’t see and - adorably - an invisible someone caught my hand and stroked it which must rate as one of my top moments on any dance floor.  


I had dinner nearby with a friend before getting the train back to Amsterdam.  All told, it had been a simply lovely day.