TANGO11: Tango Train Edition

Entrance is on the left of the bar

After that afternoon I went straight for a proper drink, bitterballen and canapes in the hotel lounge.  If there is an upside to a husband mostly away for work, occasional spousal access to the lounge must count as one of these though the reception usually has to be persuaded in to it.

I did not feel like going out on Thursday evening either but realised this not going out in the evening could become an easy habit.  If nothing else I needed the exercise after those lounge snacks. I reminded myself  that many of these milongas run only once a month and that it is rare to be able to explore so many local milongas in such a short space of time.  Many is the time I have gone out reluctantly knowing it likely I will end up having a good time.  Still, it is at times like this that one feels reason and instinct collide. 

I had been to this salon where the milonga called Tango11 was held before, during TangoMagia.  It is on KNSM island.  The building was the passenger terminal for KNSM: 

The KNSM Island is a man-made islandin the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam. It is named for the Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot-Maatschappij (KNSM), the Royal Dutch Steamboat Shipping company which used to have its headquarters and its docks on the island.  It is now a large residential area containing modern architecture with a mostly well-off population. (Wikipedia)

I crossed the icy road bridge by bike on to the island. It was dark and there was a beautiful, quiet and misty view of the city lights. 

It came back to me to take a sudden right on to a cycle path through a residential area. Google maps took me around the back of the building.  It was deserted, atmospheric and a straight, dark drop off the slippery edge into the freezing water.  I stayed, rather hypnotised by the loneliness of this place so near the city and thought of 'Young Adam'.  That film's brooding atmosphere plays out against a theme of dark water and an accident. I shivered and hurried round to find the front of the building.

I remembered at TangoMagia that an outgoing, glamorous acquaintance who had also been there seemed to have liked that salon and in fact everywhere.  I had not.  I had found it hard to settle and I felt those misgivings linger.

Building

The building is I think of fifties design and decoration.  I could see why it might be an icon to that style.  As I was leaving later on I exchanged a few words with a woman who was the only other person leaving during the show.  I asked if she had had a nice time.  She said she had and that she liked this building particularly because of the history - many immigrants had left from here to new lives in for example America.

Artwork depicting immigration inside the building.

Salon, seating etc

The dance salon is large.  The bar was nice, water was free and lighting was by no means dark.  There are white lines on the floor which make those bits sticky and I remember a weak spot in the floor.  The chairs on the left of the entrance, where the DJ was, were not used  being too far away from most invitation.

View from entrance (during show).  DJ spot was off to the left

Many people were spread out along the bar side (left hand side below) though much invitation happened around the bar and entrance area.

View towards the bar with entrance to the right of the bar

Some people used the tables at the far end opposite the entrance, shown on the right below but I noticed there were often very few people here:

Invitation

Because the room is so large and people are spread out it is not easy to invite quietly or be so invited from a distance.  There seemed to me to be a culture of some women, peacocking around the bar where the mirada are overt.  Sometimes I might enjoy watching this but that evening I felt it demoralising.

Then I saw my friend Wil who had a table near the bar.  I joined her.  It was a great spot.  I saw interest to the point of invitation from a few guys I did not want or had not seen dance but otherwise was not chosen.  Since I was for a good part of that time enveloped in a long black cosy wrap I was not surprised but had no intention of freezing on the offchance of an invitation I wanted.  Besides, with so many new dancers I was not sure which of those that was and the atmosphere was not conducive to relaxing in to the evening to see who that might be.  I danced though with  my friends Wim and Thierry.  Wim did not look surprised in the slightest to see me.  It was as though we had seen each other only a day or two before but it had been months. He left early as usual.

Dancing

There were good guy dancers and a number of people had told me this, along with La Bruja was a milonga with good quality dancing and an "in" crowd.  On this night I found even more of "a bit of everything" than at La Bruja that Tuesday and some dancing that was frankly awful.  It reminded me of the kind of milongas I had not enjoyed in Buenos Aires - the younger, more chaotic ones, though here there was a mix of ages. Even so, somehow I felt out of place.

Music

The music by DJ Stefan Ok was not what I think of as mainstream, well-known dance tracks. Like La Gata Negra he used headphones to pre-listen to the tracks he was considering playing. I was sad and shocked that a guy who seemed to dance so well would play music like that but plenty of people were both there and dancing it. 

Personally

I realised this frame of mind was not going to be conducive to even wanting dances let alone finding then. I tried to make myself a bit more sociable by asking the guy next to me if he had been to the milonga in de Duif the previous evening and how it had been? He looked reserved. I couldn't help but be reminded of something of the Cheshire cat. I had the distinct sense of a young(ish) guy or of a better dancer, or of a person who can do very easily without conversation indulging a (bit) older woman in one or more of these things. Still, he answered perfectly correctly and without giving anything away that he had enjoyed it. He was from Brussels but when I asked about the milongas there he was again reluctant to be drawn, saying again quite correctly that it depended what one liked. He it transpired liked a bar there on a Wednesday night and a Friday night. Eventually he said Patio de Tango was known as a beginner's milonga and he did not seem to rate Estar bien in Antwerp, which was a milonga I had heard mentioned. I sensed though that I probably would not like what he liked and since he did not seem inclined to conversation, I left it there with much relief. We sat adjacent in a silence that felt anything but companiable until a hot young chick came up and to my relief engaged his attention rather more successfully.

Wil wanted to dance and although ordinarily I would too, given the mismatch between me and this milonga I thought it better I leave. Besides, I did not trust the music and I did not want to give Wil a poor dance. I cannot really dance with any true feeling music I do not, well, feel. I went to ask Stefan what was coming up. He kindly showed me the tracks. I could see it was going to be mostly nice Canaro and then a show and I did not want to stay for that. So Wil and I danced the Canaro in a fairly wild ronda. But she said kind things and I felt the evening salvaged somewhat. 

Hearing the Piazzola which followed I could not understand why there was not a mass walk-out. Then I remembered I had been the one who did not fit in but then I had had a sense all evening that the kind of guy I was looking for was not likely to be here.