Tormenta Tango: Altrincham practica (south Manchester)

"I came out to Altrincham on the tram, 20 mins from central Manchester. Found The Craftsman, a modern nondescript bar two minutes from the station. Went upstairs to see through the plate glass window 3 people and obviously the teacher holding their stomachs and going across the width of the room pivoting. It was so earnest, so typical, I nearly laughed but at the same time I can't tell you how my heart sank. I remembered something from the website about 'exercises' at the start but hoped I could skip those or watch. I couldn't bring myself to stay though and it wouldn't have been right. I noticed the blurb on Tormenta Tango website sounds like it’s veering towards classes. But it is already happening. I suppose this is the "practice" phase of teaching before the actual charging. I nearly took a photo, but couldn't bring myself to in the end and thought it would be mean.

I walked up to the door as the guy pivoted with his class crab-like back towards it. He asked if I had come for the tango. I said yes, hesitantly and asked when the dancing began. He said about 2030. So here I am in the Slug and Lettuce down the road, on a hunch it might have been fractionally less loud than the Craftsman bar (it isn’t) - killing time. On the upside, food is half price on a Monday. The barmaid is sweet and got my order in less than half the 40 minute wait time she warned me about. On the downside, the music's terrible and the food isn't up to much.

*

So I was rather dreading it although I wasn't too worried about what happened here. Still, I thought I should come clean upon introduction. It wasn't an issue and I was glad I went. A number of people had already said Mat's a nice guy.

The room is spartan: seats down one side, a heavily talc-ed floor, bright bulbs.

I found 3 older couples taught by Mike and Leander of Tango Cheshire with whom I danced yesterday in Pant. There was also an interesting lady two years back after spending forty in California. She volunteered in day centres for seniors where she met a polyglot Ivan Shvarts who also runs free tango for veterans. Apparently he believed a lot in dancing tango for health. When we had a conversation about guys treating girls well she said Ivan said that too.

Much later, after I’d danced with four of the people there, Mat invited me. He is tall and I liked dancing with him enough to want to put on heels for the first time since August. Before that was probably over that May bank holiday weekend. Heels three times in six months. All that trust felt strange. Heels make a huge difference to the sense of trust but I think he understood. He said he likes to swap in the practica (like Esquina Porteña for 'tango work') not in the milonga. Different guys have different feelings about this - I get that.  It's good when people are clear although he is probably the first guy I've met who wants to swap only outside the milonga. Anyway, we did swap and danced swapping for maybe the last hour when all bar one couple had left.

Mat commented we had a voyeur. Someone was leaning out the window opposite smoking and watching, behind them a darkened room.  I waved at them to come over :) Then I took the guide role in heels. I was surprised at the end to hear clapping!! Whoever it was had got a friend to watch and might have been filming. Mat called out the window for them to come over but they didn't :)

He said something like he'd just pulled the music together for the practica, that it wasn't proper DJing but a lot of the music he played was nice, the best I heard that weekend including the milonga in Pant (review) and the Manchester pop up milonga (review). He let me choose. I suggested we skip the ?second Pugliese or similar and he agreed. There was nice standard Laurenz instrumentals, nice Calo instrumentals, OK Pugliese, nice Fresedo songs, quite nice Tanturi. 

By the sounds of things he is thinking of cancelling the practica which has been going since February I think because of numbers or perhaps he is just busy or has gone off it. I’m not altogether sure. People there said they usually have 15 and sometimes it is quite busy. But I asked around beforehand about this practica and met virtually no-one who had been though the ones who said they had were good dancers. 

His milonga - 'El huracán' - had 48 the first time, 34 the second and they need that to break even. It's £12 and includes cake, prosecco and there's a bar. Someone from outside the area said me they thought the price a bit steep. I thought not, with prosecco included but had forgotten it is £16 if you want to reserve a table. I imagine it is a £4 supplement for the table, surely not each. I don’t know if you have to pay to reserve in BA. I never heard that. The milonga is in a dance school in I think Sale. He said they don't do it for the money and I believe him. After seeing the lovely pictures of first one I wanted to go to the second one but it was advertised at too short notice for me to make arrangements. I hope to go to the third.

Re numbers at the practica I said how I'd often noticed people treat practicas like social dances probably because they like social dancing and why not. So rather than struggle with a practica, why not meet the market demand and make the milonga monthly as opposed to every second month especially as there is nothing on a Saturday night locally. I’m not sure he liked the logic. He had wanted to do a proper practica where people practice and 'work' because apparently there are other practicas around that are really ‘just’ informal milongas.

When we swapped roles he joked to his students that they could correct the teacher now. I said “Are you a teacher?” knowing he isn’t, officially. “No”, he said a bit sheepishly. And then he said the loveliest thing I heard all evening: “Just a dancer who helps.” "

Note: as of this week, this practica no longer runs. Also, the website has been down a lot at this week and still is but the same page says milongas are still planned.  The note I made of the next milonga when the website was last accessible is Saturday 19th November.

Manchester Pop-Up milonga 5 at The Whisky Jar

On Sunday 16th October, the day after the milonga in Pant, I went to the Manchester popup milonga run not, as I thought just by John Tan and Stephanie but also by Paris and Helen as a team of four. It ran from 1300-1800. I love a milonga of five or six hours duration. The times meant people could travel quite far and still get home on a Sunday night.

Accommodation

Wonderfully, this milonga says it will try to host you if you need to stay over. I usually stay with my brother now local after relocating with the BBC, but couldn’t this time. The post said don’t be shy but I wasn’t that brave. Besides I was staying four nights and made other arrangements.

Location
The milonga is very central in the basement of The Whisky Jar. It is in the trendy Northern quarter which my brother described as “hip and bohemian”. On the way, I got a bit lost down some back alleys and came across this:

  

It presaged the afternoon well.  What I felt about that milonga was a bit like the feelings I had from that graffiti:  surprising, a bit glam, a bit underground, creative, exotic, unusual.

The bar upstairs is spacious, the decor is brick and wood with leather sofas. 

At the foot of the basement stairs are closed black doors. It felt like entering a sort of cave. I thought it quite magical.  Before I went someone said they had heard it described as ‘enchanting’ and it was.

Fairy lights were everywhere. Orchids decorated the bar. The glassware gleamed, strawberries glistened. There were bowls of picture clips for your drinks, beautiful fans, little baskets of chocolates and I think chewing gum. If it was I would have swapped it for mints because I don’t dance with people chewing gum and don’t like to see it in the milonga. Really, though there was just such attention to detail.

Welcome and hosting
The welcome from Stephanie and Helen on the door was quite lovely and included a glass of prosecco with strawberries.

There is an adjoining room at the far end for coats/changing shoes etc, which I am pleased to find increasingly standard in most of the milongas I visit.  I was early and put down my drink on a table while I went to change my shoes. I was surprised though when evidently one of three or four people at that table had swiped my drink - so drink up then get ready! 

Perfect hosts, Helen and Stephanie greeted and said goodbye to everyone. The guys said hello too. I danced with Paris soon after I arrived. Entrada was very reasonable at £8. I know from my own experience and from talking to hosts that most of them especially those who run occasional milongas with visiting DJs who charge can struggle to cover costs.

All the hosts danced which is good because they can feel what sound and dance conditions are really like. The floor is small and towards the end I saw Paris and Helen dancing beautifully in the difficult conditions, he using his body to protect her, both taking small steps, using little space. 

Sometimes I took time out to watch, removed a bit from the bar. On these occasions both Stephanie and Helen asked if I was OK.

A day or two later I received a message to say thank you for travelling. I had come to Manchester for various reasons but the timing was because of the popup. It reminded me of a story from decades ago that my parents had told me about a wealthy, charming man with lovely manners who had invited them to a party and then he had written to his guests to thank them for coming.

Lighting

Paris apologised to me on arrival and later on to all for the dim lighting caused by an electrical failure. This was when he made an announcement for the host of another milonga who was there about the new, permanent change of venue for their Wednesday night milonga (has classes beforehand).

Venue and seating

As you enter, to your right is a long bar with stools. The bar is not staffed but there is the bar upstairs and it is nice to go up for a breather now and then. There is a corner seating area and low table which would fit maybe eight people. There was a long bench on the opposite side of the floor, parallel with the bar but if you sit there your feet and legs are right on the edge of the line of dance. When I sat there, it was cross-legged.

The temperature became warm but there were lots of fans. It was not unpleasantly warm for me but had I liked the music more and danced more, I suspect it might have been.

The loos weren’t as in Buenos Aires (what could be?!) but just as there, the locks on two out of the three loos were broken, so - as as is de rigeur in the ladies in Buenos Aires - one is extra-circumspect about closed doors.

Floor 
...was OK for me, better than I'd expected from seeing photos. One or two people described the floor layout as it had been previously, where people had danced out to the bar. Crates in place now prevent this so the floor is rectangular. There was a packed outer circle to the ronda and an often much freer inside space. John must think if the space is there, use it because I often found him there, giving the lie to the idea that only poor dancers dance in the middle.

Music 
The music was by DJ Benedicte Beauloye, aka Bomboncita. It was not what I personally prefer. I heard two great tracks of a D’Arienzo tanda as I arrived near the start - type El internado (1938). Then there was Di Sarli sextet but of the type DJ Solveig played in May, and that sort of choice I unfortunately heard several times that bank holiday weekend. In the first part of the afternoon I recall some Guardia vieja but not endlessly. I remember much later there was great Biagi tanda but there were lots of "specials" for me that I have never heard. There was probably a whole Garcia tanda I don’t think I knew.  I remember a Laurenz tango tanda composed of what I think of as second rate Laurenz - Yo quiero cantar un tango and Como un hornero - not awful but not the best for me; Laurenz to get through more than to dance. There was rhythmic music for a while. Eg. milonga, then rhythmic instrumentals (good Troilo I think) and other strong and rhythmic tracks also adjacent which I thought at that point too much of one thing, especially given how busy it was.

Generally I found the vals good although there were some that were very unusual. One, Amante soñador by Orquesat tipica porteña (1930) of these was clapped which rather astonished me. I thought it more bland than sweet but perhaps it will grow on me. Admittedly the sound quality was better than this but I couldn’t help thinking I would almost rather have heard the waltz from Aram Khachaturian’s 1944 Masquerade Suite that turned up on the radio on the journey south. Certainly for listening I would rather have heard that What a magical waltz though to play for children in the run-up to Christmas.

Later there was a slide into more dramatic music. I suppose you could say there was “something for everyone” if you were to try to cover all corners of the kind of tango music you might hear rather than trying to please a majority most of the time. Still, the floor was usually busy. The penultimate track was Dizzy Gillespie's Vida Mia (1956) which I find later he did with Fresedo. I watched a full floor and - surprised - found myself enjoying it. Gillespie, wholly steals the piece. Musically, it felt like a reprisal just as the tango era was giving way to something else, the soaring trumpet like a glorious farewell.  It got rapturous applause.

Invitation
...I found not the easiest because:

- there were a lot of people I didn’t know and knowing people is the main thing I find that increases one’s likelihood of dancing. As in most places, I suspect the thing here is simply knowing people. 

- invitation happened mostly all down the bar and at the seating area. This means that options for inviting women were either at close quarters - too close for me, really - or that you had to look down the bar. Even at 6’ I couldn't see down to the end of the bar because of the crush of people. 

- being so busy, it became more natural to invite in conversation. I prefer not to invite this way but like many I don't want to be ridiculous about things and it depends on the conditions too.  

I also invited successfully:

- from the bench or the bar across the floor width-ways.  All the same, I could see and was told by people there that invitation at the bench was hard that day because of the lighting. 

- down the length of the room - but only after moving on to the edge of the floor so I could see. 

So I invited all these ways but if you need or prefer certain conditions for invitation, you may find this venue difficult. If I didn’t get the girl I wanted to dance with I did not then usually try for another because apart from anything else that would invariably mean re-positioning oneself which was difficult in those conditions and would contribute to an unpleasant scrum if everyone did it. 

Ronda 

People arrived throughout the afternoon, which tells you firstly there is no point in a DJ playing an “arc” of music following the supposed arc of the afternoon - a DJ who simply plays a varied selection will suit those coming and going rather than playing for the few who stay the whole time who might well not notice anyway. 

The floor became very busy. If you are a dancer very skilled in the ronda with a great partner whom you know and you know the people around you maybe it's fine. But if you are not particularly skilled dancing in a tight ronda, and you are dancing with an average partner whom you don't know and you don't know the people around it might be very difficult. The problems came as usual I find, with guys who are or who pretend to be oblivious to others. Most people made an effort and were careful so it was probably better than the Edinburgh festivalito ronda. Still there was the escort of another organiser who had a thing about dancing very slowly. The empty space in front of him lengthened and lengthened. Oddly, he faced me against the ronda and stayed there but did not or would not acknowledge me. I couldn't move. He couldn't move towards me and he couldn't step backwards because he didn't know what was there so he had multiple “moments” with his partner while the ronda ground to a halt behind me. His arm was permanently stuck out awkwardly, poking people.  Another tall, very experienced dancer deliberately stuck his arm out in that tight space, claiming more space than was his fair share, though I rather think what one supposes that is depends on the size of one's ego and sense of entitlement.  My arm was tucked right in but ours still collided. A new dancer in front of me did a little to and fro jig on the spot while not using the empty space in front of him. My partner and I stopped dancing to watch that mini show until he decided to move on. There was a psychotic guy who was maniacal enough with good women dancers and terrifying when he danced with a diva in heels, alarming the dancers and those on the long bench. I saw, disbelieving, one guy dancing in socks in those conditions.  A partner of mine was grazed, just avoiding a major slicing and I am surprised there was no medical emergency that day.   

It didn’t help that the music was pumping on that packed floor, whereas I feel on a very busy floor with much variety in dance experience a DJ needs to be very careful with rhythmic music and intersperse those tandas with steadier De Angelis, D’Agostino, (I’m not sure I heard either of those in tango) good Canaro , OTV, Fresedo (I recall none of the latter) and music of this sort else the floor just gets too hyped.  I believe there is a strong link between poor floorcraft and the music DJs play. So between all these things I found it quite stressful and I don't want to dance with (especially new) partners in those conditions. If I go back it will be with the intention of dancing early.

On the other hand because it is so intimate it is very easy to chat. It is a great place to meet people from the area and beyond.

Dancing

The only other guy I danced with was someone I know.  I saw several good guy dancers but noticed no invitation from these.  I wasn’t really looking.  Women were in excess and there were many with whom I wanted to dance and who wanted to dance with me. After the floor got busy though each time we parted, in our looks and few spoken words I felt mutually conveyed the hope that we would dance better if we have the chance in easier conditions. I danced enough for those conditions, probably more than enough. I noticed a woman dancer great in both roles danced relatively little too.

What they said

I think everyone agrees the welcome is lovely. You are acknowledged and feel cared for. That is passed on among the dancers and is just one of many reasons why the welcome is so important. The feeling there was mostly warm for me.

Some like me, commented on the effort that had gone in to the decor. 

Some people said the lighting was quite dim even on occasions when the lights are restored. 

Some women I think didn’t feel danced but that is a common theme in milongas, especially trendy ones that attract young and pretty women. 

Someone said for a while they didn’t recognise any tracks at all. 

The main issue I heard repeated was about the ronda but many people liked or were curious enough about that milonga to go and to dance.

This milonga won’t be for everyone, especially those who like tables, seats, space and the formality that often accompanies that arrangement in British milongas  - and a different sort of formality that accompanies it in Buenos Aires. The popup is a different vibe.  Rather it is for those curious about different DJs, who enjoy the welcome and the aesthetic and who can manage or tolerate the ronda. And for someone - especially new people - who just wants to spend an afternoon meeting dancers and watching them dance it is ideal. It is especially good for solo dancers and if it is not clear why that is more about that maybe another time.  

Going there reminded me a little of visiting The Flying Duck vegan bar/diner in Glasgow, somewhere a bit surreal, a different world to the regular one.



 I loved that feeling: as though you are entering another world, a semi-secret sub-culture. Because who would have thought that on a Sunday afternoon in the basement of a bar beneath the streets of Manchester a group of seventy-odd men and women of all ages were packed into an atmospheric room, dancing. 

Milongas in Manchester, Oxford and Bristol and the good conditions for dancing

Originally posted 18.7.15

Last weekend I went to three milongas in England.

The first was run by Tango Manchester.  It was in the Longfield Suite in Prestwich, North Manchester, DJ Alina.  This is a monthly milonga on a Friday.  There was a good ladies room for changing shoes.  The salon felt quite relaxed as people arrived.  Seating was at large circular tables where most seemed to be a mixture of couples and singles who knew one another.   There were about five solo seats behind the main tables in a corner and invitation by look is not easy there.   I did not  notice those seats at first and so stood at the bar for a couple of tandas.  Fortunately, I bumped into three or four people I knew, else as an unknown, solo dancer, things could have been difficult.  The floor surface was good.  Video.

The second milonga was El Arrabal, St Columbas, Alfred Street on Saturday in Oxford, DJ Dante Culcuy.  I went to this milonga because I had heard Dante's music was good and had heard a little of it at a Sunday evening practica at La Tasca in Leeds last month  For me, without good music, which is to say good traditional  tandas with cortinas within a well-balanced set there can be no good dancing.  I prefer 4 tangos, 3 vals, 3 milonga.  I particularly remember a marvellous d'Arienzo tanda:  Mandria, then Pensalo Bien and after that I was so lost in the music and dance I forget the rest of the tanda, but they were all similar and great.  The same thing happened on Sunday when I was dancing an OTV tanda and was asked who the orchestra was.  I could name the track, Mi taza di cafe but was puzzled when the orchestra stayed obstinately out of reach.   OTV is an orchestra with many singers.  I suppose once we start dancing, thought just switches off. Neither did I instinctively reach for the orchestra or rather the particular era of an orchestra that I play less often at home.

In Oxford I felt lucky I knew a couple of guys with whom I like to dance. Some tracks and tandas for me inclined towards the vocally dramatic, more concert tangos for listening, but there were some very good tandas:  a Biagi, a lovely Fresedo, a great Laurenz and others.  

The venue is atmospheric, in a church in the gothic style, with dark wood.  Seating is at small tables on three sides.  There are a couple of sofas at one end - used by groups of friends mostly I think, and a few solo seats at the door which is also near the refreshments. Invitation by look, or nearly, seemed the mainstay. Video.

My favourite milonga by a stretch was at Tango West, in the Redland club in Bristol.  DJ: Michele Tedder; 2pm-7pm

I am sorry there is no video.  More about video another time perhaps but you can see video from Andrew Oldroyd here.

Andrew is a lovely host. He welcomes everyone and says goodbye to everyone, sorts out the air conditioning and presumably many other things we don't even notice, and he also dances.  He even helped me with my musical education and he is very knowledgeable. He is the kind of musical dancer I for the most part only dream of.  Many of us who try to dance are sometimes vaguely close to the beat but a few dancers like Andrew are just suffused with the music, they pretty much are the same thing as the music and make you part of that too. 

For me, the conditions for dancing at Tango West are about perfect.  It was just lovely.  I had been once before two years ago but had forgotten quite how nice it is.

There is a separate room for bags, coats and plenty of chairs for changing shoes.

The room is square, so the shape and the size mean you can see everyone from wherever you sit. The advantage of this can hardly be over-emphasised.  

Good lighting, for me, is sufficient for invitation by look and will also contribute to a pleasant ambiance.  There is no point having a room of appropriate size and shape if it is too dim to see to invite or so bright it feels like a waiting room.  The lighting at Tango West that afternoon was great.  There is a wooden ceiling, soft but sufficient and atmospheric lighting and tables with cloths which all contributed to the warm atmosphere.  There were nice cakes etc included in the £10 entrada.

Here, invitation by look is evidently de rigeur.   Some guys, standing on the side by the entrance clearly wanted to invite women but I saw no guys who, not having managed to invite at a distance, approach to do so directly, as is sometimes the case elsewhere. I was never worried about a walk-up/hand-offering invitation from a stranger. 

Seating:  Other things being equal, I like to have a table for my drink.  Especially if I arrive at a milonga where I know no-one, I would like to sit with other solo people (ideally women) in an area with small tables, facing other solos (ideally guys) who have come to dance, so I can easily see the maximum number of my potential partners.  Times I would reluctantly forego a table might be if I arrive at a milonga with large tables for groups (as at the Longfield suite); I do not want to gate-crash one of these tables,  uninvited, where friends may be sitting together. Or if I arrive at a milonga with small tables (as at Oxford) I may not sit at one if I feel I will sit conspicuously alone throughout except for dancing but it all depends.

At Bristol, there are chairs with tables for drinks.  It seemed to be a popular milonga.  I am not sure if there were sufficient tables.  Obviously, it's also better when everyone has a seat but guys stood, quite naturally, for women when there were insufficient chairs on our side, which I think is how things should be, certainly in the milonga.  I can see why people do think men standing for women is different to people standing for the elderly or anyone who evidently needs a seat.  But for me, children standing for adults, men for women is a not-that-old-fashioned courtesy that I grew up with and I just like and appreciate it.

There probably was sufficient seating because I noticed empty solo chairs behind the chairs with tables on the other side.  Not surprisingly though, people do seem to prefer chairs with tables.  I got a table early on which people I didn't know joined.  That surprised me a bit but for me and I would guess the majority there, it was nice and it made for a warm atmosphere. You might not like it if you are a couple who, understandably, prefers to sit and dance with each other and I think there were one or two of those but I don't think anyone infringed upon them and everything seemed to work out.  At the table I met different people who came and went and had some brief conversations although generally I danced or watched the floor.  As a visitor you can't fathom the social dynamics so easily, but I thought it felt very relaxed with many people smiling and having a nice time.

Temperature:  It was a muggy day and the floor was busy but there was a lot of attention to maintaining a good temperature in the room with several welcome fans and cooling devices. 

Music: The music had been advertised as "Golden Age Tangos, Vals & Milongas selected for strong uplifting melodies and rhythm". I took this to indicate the set was going to be well-balanced between softer and stronger music because all great tracks have good melodies. There were a lot of wholly great tandas both strong and soft, composed of what I feel are the best tracks for dancing. The set was perhaps on the softer side and I remember a particularly great Fresedo tanda.   I don't remember a d'Arienzo or a Troilo tanda as strong as the one Dante played, but I remember great tandas of strong, rhythmic Biagi and Tanturi.  There were some tracks mid-tanda I didn't know but I still found them danceable.  I try to avoid dancing tracks I don't know or know but dislike especially in the other role, because I find I don't dance them well - it becomes movement rather than dance.  Elsewhere I have often had to excuse myself, embarrassed and apologetic mid-tanda from understanding partners. I hate doing this and so try to avoid milongas where the music will lead to that.  But at Tango West, whether it was the music, or the very relaxed atmosphere, I danced these unknown tracks, not unhappily.  I remember nothing over-dramatic and nothing leaden or "plodding" as Michele called it.  

I had some lovely dances here and some surprising things happened. More than one guy asked if I would lead him, and I did, with pleasure.  It is always a lovely surprise when a guy is relaxed and receptive in the other role because they are so used to "control". One lovely partner danced Di Sarli (La capilla blanca and friends) so softly I found myself won over to this music that I don't often dance and at last began to see its good side. He invited me into small volcadas (where women are usually given no choice) so gently I was persuaded happily into them. 

The sound was easily the best I heard this weekend. For the most part, the volume seemed either pre-normalised (an equal volume has been set beforehand on a collection of tracks) or was well-managed manually by the DJ. Sound was sufficient, for me, and not too loud, which I often find a problem.  Gaps between tracks were mostly fine. The cortinas were fun. 

A few people asked if I was going on to Halo, where there would be a milonga that evening. I have been to Halo once before and I'm sure it would have been nice but I was tired, I had to get to Manchester and most of all, I had had such a nice afternoon that I didn't want anything more.