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| Photo credit: Kirsty Bennett |
This weekend was held 26-27 November 2016, organised by Larry and Larissa of El tango de mi corazón. The milongas were in the Ramsbottom civic hall. Entrada for each of the milongas was £10. DJs were Kirsty Bennett and Ricardo Peixoto.
Foreknowledge
In April 2014 I had attended a milonga by these organisers in Bury with visiting teacher Demian Garcia and songs by Adrián Durso. We had not met before. I felt the very opposite of welcome. This was long before any milonga review blog. It puzzled me and put me off returning at the time but now I do not think it was deliberate. I think it is just how it is. I found the workshop unhelpful and pointless and had felt ignored at the milonga - which was poorly attended. I danced I think once, which was fine, given the dancing and that is before I became as choosy. Thereafter, I avoided their events.
El tango de mi corazón started running festivals in the north of England which looked workshop-heavy. Still, I thought at that time about going to the milongas, but the DJs did not tempt me. The same venue at Ramsbottom was used and also the grand palais ballroom in Swinton. Numbers were I think 250 said one of the hosts at Ramsbottom. I don't know if that was the main milonga or the whole weekend. Big numbers, anyway was my impression.
This time I felt that I could not pass up the opportunity of a milonga weekend which, like traditional milongas did not feature classes, nor dancer selection by the organisers and did not require booking. It was only a few hours drive from me. From what I had heard from the DJs previously I guessed I would like most of the music. The fact that Kirsty Bennett was DJing was a big draw, being one of my favourite UK DJs.
El tango de mi corazón started running festivals in the north of England which looked workshop-heavy. Still, I thought at that time about going to the milongas, but the DJs did not tempt me. The same venue at Ramsbottom was used and also the grand palais ballroom in Swinton. Numbers were I think 250 said one of the hosts at Ramsbottom. I don't know if that was the main milonga or the whole weekend. Big numbers, anyway was my impression.
This time I felt that I could not pass up the opportunity of a milonga weekend which, like traditional milongas did not feature classes, nor dancer selection by the organisers and did not require booking. It was only a few hours drive from me. From what I had heard from the DJs previously I guessed I would like most of the music. The fact that Kirsty Bennett was DJing was a big draw, being one of my favourite UK DJs.
Welcome
At the door in Ramsbottom there was a sign-in sheet and I was asked for my name for that purpose.
Nothing was said about where to put my things or get changed. I was about to go looking when, saying hello to DJ Kirsty, she told me. She is also an experienced milonga host.
Venue
The venue was fine. The seating that people used was at the far end with the tables. No one used the table-less solo seating on the right. “The seating was more "social" than good for invitation by look but people got by. There was a bar. There was an adjoining room for food which seemed shop-bought and though plentiful and nicely presented was somehow not enticing and few seemed to partake.
The floor was slippy but good for me.
Invitation
...was mostly, but not exclusively, by cabeceo.
Numbers
...at Ramsbottom were astonishingly low on Saturday afternoon. There was a handful of people - a couple from the Isle of Man, a couple from a town in the north and me. There was initially one other guy, a new local dancer who bailed on the afternoon and came back later, then a local friend arrived mid-afternoon.
At the end of the afternoon the organisers, DJs and the northern couple went off together, the couple from the Isle of Man went somewhere and so my friend and I met up a little later for a happy supper in The Hungry Duck. But if you had known no-one you might have been having a solitary Saturday night dinner.
At the end of the afternoon the organisers, DJs and the northern couple went off together, the couple from the Isle of Man went somewhere and so my friend and I met up a little later for a happy supper in The Hungry Duck. But if you had known no-one you might have been having a solitary Saturday night dinner.
On Saturday night numbers were heading up to about 30 by 9pm. Most people stayed until the end. On Sunday afternoon numbers crept up to about twenty, including some local organisers of other milongas.
It was sad to see how the UK seemed to shun a milonga weekend though interesting to consider why. We all wondered what could make such difference compared to the big numbers at the same organisers' festival. The milonga weekend was a different time of year and there were no classes. One friend said there were a lot of non-tango things going on that weekend in the area, but then there always are other things one could be doing. There were other milongas on too but I find different events (and their hosts) tend to appeal to different kinds of dancers. That is a good thing.
And yet the Manchester Pop-up Milonga which is also a class-free event attracted when I first went more than double the maximum numbers at Ramsbottom, even though the floor of the Whisky Jar is small. That was in November. In February at the Pop-up numbers were possibly a bit less. I can't think that geography would make the difference. Ramsbottom is only 15 miles from central Manchester, with much easier (and free) parking. The most obvious difference between those two events to my mind, was the hosting which at the Pop-up was particularly good. I asked around a bit more. Someone said they were away. I asked someone else who travelled for the Pop-up but not for the milonga weekend. They said they reckoned it would be poorly attended based on the hosting; one problem feeding the other.
Music
Music
The ronda
..was mostly good, but there was plenty of space. A teacher tailgated me a bit. So did another man. There was a random sort of guy. I was never sure if he was in the ronda or not. Someone told me he was also a dance teacher in central Manchester.
Dancing
“I danced with 5 guys over the weekend which I thought a lot. I was in a bad way with my knee/right side and being so worried about damage from guys I didn't especially want to dance with made me tense. One guy asked me to lead him and then used it for a swap! But I didn’t mind. Some of the women were lovely though."
I did chat to one of the organisers briefly towards the end. I felt sad for them for the disappointing numbers and they must have lost a lot of money. They put in effort to organise these things and are still doing so. In March they are running a Spring Milonga with Cream Tea: DJ Kirsty Bennett. But someone told me they thought the hosts might have been put off after the Ramsbottom experience because the spring tea had moved - the previous event having been cancelled.
You don't necessarily need big numbers to have a good time. Baratxuri aside, the best thing about this trip for me was the chat with the irrepressible Kinky Boots, dancing with Bill who is so fun and such a good dancer and who refuses me dances to my delight and temporary consternation. And dancing with Paris who also gives real dances, who is tall and easygoing and big-hearted and with Paul who is warm and careful and has a great embrace and with Lindsay who is such a gorgeous dancer and just the new people I met, the new women I danced with and the general exchange of milonga chat. It was the people, the dancers. That is why I stayed to the end.
You don't necessarily need big numbers to have a good time. Baratxuri aside, the best thing about this trip for me was the chat with the irrepressible Kinky Boots, dancing with Bill who is so fun and such a good dancer and who refuses me dances to my delight and temporary consternation. And dancing with Paris who also gives real dances, who is tall and easygoing and big-hearted and with Paul who is warm and careful and has a great embrace and with Lindsay who is such a gorgeous dancer and just the new people I met, the new women I danced with and the general exchange of milonga chat. It was the people, the dancers. That is why I stayed to the end.
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