TangoTerras aan ‘t IJ - Tango Train Edition

Salon of TangoTerras aan ‘t IJ

The milonga TangoTerras is held in the Muziekgebouw aan t’IJ in Amsterdam.  I remember thinking what a complicated word that was when I first saw it, but it just means Concert hall on the IJ (water).  It is a modern building a short walk or cycle from the central station. I believe the milonga is usually held on the fourth Sunday of the month and is ordinarily in that location. There seemed to be more direct access from ground floor level but when I came here a few years ago I had crossed the bridge to get to a room on the upper level.  The TangoTerras milonga is not on bridge level but I spotted dancers I recognised and found the way easily enough.

Crossing the bridge to the Muziekgebouw (top) and exterior from the city side (below)

Wil and I must have arrived around the same time because she introduced me to Walter on the "door", which was just a table beside the dance floor.  This was the same Walter apparently who had the restaurant operating at El Cielo. I understood that is his name but I see on the website it might be "Wouter".  He is in any case “the dancing cook”, a lovely, warm, open-hearted guy. Perhaps Wil mentioned that I had wanted to meet Bennie Bartels because the conversation turned to him. Bennie is a dancer and teacher well known in the Netherlands and beyond. Before leaving for Amsterdam I had on recommendation  tried to arrange to meet Bennie, but he was away. I don’t know why I was amazed to hear that apparently he works sometimes in Walter’s kitchen. Walter said Bennie was the only guy he can truly embrace. My impression from that was that his dancing is that good. 

The salon was an open area inside the building. It was a lovely setting and there was a good view of the dark IJ and the Amsterdam lights.  It also had a bar but I did not think the place ideal for a milonga. Like the Manchester Pop Up milonga it is probably a great place to go and meet dancers.

There was very little seating. For me the floor was too rough and uneven and the DJ Toufik Cherifi from Brussels - who seemed to be friends with that guy - though he did play some lovely tracks also played music so unlike what I like that I had to quit dancing (switched) first with one friend, then with another. I danced with Wim again too but in those conditions did not feel up for new adventures with people I did not know beyond the one I have already recounted.  Have some of my wine offered Albert, perhaps thinking I could have done with it, but I declined. 

The dancing was again very mixed. I could sense that as much as I was left alone I also had dancing options but I was not sure of the lie of the dancing land and flitted round the room from bench to perch, a word with a friend here, an acquaintance there, a stranger in a third place but I was unable to settle and therefore unable to relax and wait for things to become clear. I find it easy to chat to people and should have used the cocktail party type atmosphere to meet the Dutch just for the pleasure of that.

The danger is, I was told and saw, many Dutch seem to invite people they don't know for dance, after conversation.  That is not always contrived and can be fairly natural and fine I think as long as one is prepared for it.  It would not do to feel ambushed.  But one can easily enough get out of a dance one does not want and that has arisen in conversation.  It just requires a non-committal, gentle "Perhaps later" which might be a polite way of saying "No, thank you" for the more squeamish among us but which might also be code for "Give me a while please.  I am not in the mood just now / don't like the music / haven't seen you dance yet / am just not sure ".  Something I like about the milongas is how much they show up sensitivity or lack of it to one another's feelings and the skill with which one sees the experienced dealing with the heavy-handed approach. 

One highlight for me was catching up with a friend again. We sat on the quiet side, away from the crowd. What’s he like? I whispered, indicating with my eyes a confident looking guy who could dance, and was passing by. He seemed to me not atypical of a type of dancer there. Likes to look at himself in the reflection of the window she whispered back. I had noticed that attitude generally among a swathe of Amsterdam dancers (and sometimes in Berlin). On cue, that is just what happened. I wrestled with a laugh that was easy to turn in to slack-jawed amazement.  The guy glanced at us though not a jot I felt in embarrassment that we had caught him at it, but rather as if he was checking to see if we had indeed seen his dancing - not that we I think were at all his type. 

Another highlight of this milonga was the jolt from the unmistakeable half-smile and narrowed eyes that I saw once or twice from a quiet girl.  She was from Rotterdam I heard.  She looked quirky and out to play.  That is another great thing about travel - you take people just as you find them, without preconception or gossip or any influence. Later in the ronda I saw her looking trapped and uncomfortable in the arms of some guy. Her eyes caught mine for a moment, and she looked, despite her predicament, nothing so much as amused.

Another highlight was nearly accepting a well built guy whose interest was as plain as his lack of presumption, zany clothes and quiet, mischievous grin. But although I had seen him before and was to see him in Arnhem, I had not seen him dance enough and the conditions were not good. I wasn’t ready then and later we did not find a moment that suited us mutually  It is all about that. 

I saw both of them at two different milongas but neither invited the one nor got to the point of acceptance with the other.  Even so, it is just for split second moments like these that I love the milongas.

Months later, another guy would tease me in mock disbelief: "So it has to be right guy, right music, right floor?" "Yes", I shrugged. And actually, the right moment. But the hit from that is what makes it worth the often long wait for those circumstances to alchemically combine.