Stuttgart Milonga Weekend, personally: Saturday and Sunday

Originally published 5.6.16

I had had a lovely morning and was a little reluctant to run the gauntlet of the milonga. I arrived at the start to find it very quiet and considered perhaps I ought to have stayed out in the city and the sun, but remembered I often have a better time when a milonga is quieter.  Deciding to see about dancing with women I wore flats.  Yet I found myself accepting - inexplicably - a couple of guys I had avoided the day before, mostly I guess because they invited very respectfully, yet still too near for the quiet conditions.  The downside of a quiet milonga you don't know is it can be harder I find to refuse  invitations you do not really want.  I accepted a couple more in conditions that were nigh on impossible to get out of but were my own fault. Then I accepted someone who looked good yet I suspected was too forceful which was true. After this I felt tense and stressed from dancing I did not like and knew it looked that way both on and off the floor. My knee hurt from the floor becoming sticky and from being manhandled into pivots I did not want to do, in flats, by dancers with whom I had no good connection, nor one that was truly mutually desired. 

However, I had sought by mirada across the tabled area and got a nice, traditional Buenos Aires type dance with a guy older than me. He did a double take perhaps because I had not seemed to want to dance for so long. Look. If he keeps looking, smile. (Maybe) an invitation.  I think it's how it works. And I had a simply lovely dance early on.  I was on the stools watching the floor while there was no wall of women. Exceptionally, I had not seen him dance but at the time this did not even register because from the quiet, fun way he invited at a distance I just knew he would dance well. It happens like that sometimes. 

On Saturday night, fuelled by the type of music, the atmosphere felt busier and pumped. I had had a nice, relaxing evening in the park prior to arriving quite late perhaps 2330. The milonga had started at 2200. I soon felt uncomfortable and could not settle in any place I chose to sit. I did not find partners nor expect to and quit after two hours. I saw others also leaving before me especially after 0030. I think I danced once through direct invitation I had found hard to get out of but again that was my own choice and the dance was fine.

On Sunday afternoon the weather was lovely again. I figured the way things had been I was probably going to have a better time out of the milonga than in. I stayed out in the good weather and did not go to the dance until the last 90 minutes, around 1730. I sat near the front of the little used seating with tables to watch the dancing with only the floor in front of me, inexplicably well out of reach of all invitation which would happen to the left. Under pressure my gaze narrows. Absurd pride and much experience of seeing the desperate covert and less covert gazes of women who are not dancing ensures I will not turn my head to the side to seek invitation. Don’t be perverse I scolded myself, moving to the quieter side of the bar where I fell into easy conversation with Kenneth.  I was surprised then to be invited by one of the good dancers and the only guy in fact with whom I'd chatted hitherto.  So those theories I mentioned I suppose were borne out - knowing people and becoming relaxed/distracted seemed to work.  It was the swooping, elegant and athletic European style. It was my first dance since the previous afternoon and I was not warmed up.  I felt as stiff and awkward as the Tin Man. I have found that style tends to make fewer concessions to the conditions of the woman than other styles.  In similar circumstances I often have a sense that I must, I must, I must try to keep up.  But it was one of my best dances of the weekend.

So I had three good tandas over the four milongas at the Tango Loft milonga weekend which, proportioned against travel speaks for itself. The conditions surrounding seating, lighting and invitation just were not right for me personally and during the weekend I felt stuck between the guys who wanted to dance with me but with whom I did not want to dance and the guys I wanted to dance with who did not want to dance with me.  Even so although there were plenty of good dancers I did not have much sense that I wanted to dance with many of them - or perhaps that is just what happens when you feel guys do not want to dance with you. Who after all would want to dance with someone when, apparently invisible to them, the feeling is clearly not mutual? 

I am glad I went to Stuttgart.  Tango Loft is an attractive venue, Kenneth is a warm host and there was plenty of good dancing and from the milongas the weekend offered much for reflection. As in Cambridge, in Nottingham and this weekend at Dumbarton Castle rather than at the new milonga in Glasgow with which I combined that trip my best time was outside the milongas, exploring and being shown the city.  As so often in life friendship makes all the difference.

Stuttgart, Friday: a personal experience

Originally published 2.6.16

After what happened in Berlin I was wary about seating and chose cautiously a very quiet place to sit. It was true I knew no one.

In Buenos Aires this year on suggestion:  if you don't start dancing you'll have come all this way for nothing, I had for a few days accepted guys not far off randomly and wished I had stayed true to my first instincts.  The trouble is in the first few days you don't know the guys, the whole culture shock takes a while to get used to and I couldn't distinguish the men so well.  I'd track one I liked as he escorted the woman off the floor, I'd track him back to the guys section in the crowd - and suddenly I'd lost him.  You scan a sea of men roughly the same age, same height, same grey hair, same pale shirt, same specs and either you don't accept until things start to fall into place (my initial and regular approach), or you accept randomly and regret it.

But I was soon back to my normal self and planned to be as careful in Stuttgart. I sat - and stayed - at the back of the bar on the seating side. I had a glass of wine and a prosecco on an empty stomach. With so many new faces I found it difficult to keep track of who danced how and where they were sitting. Few had any base and moved from spot to spot to invite but mostly on the mobbed side of the bar. 

The physical conditions regarding seating/lighting/proximate invitation were some of the most difficult I can remember and at night, with lower lighting, about the worst imaginable for me personally.  Most people did not seem to need this though or feel the same about the conditions. There was none of the culture shock of Argentina but I found the conditions for dancing far harder in Tango Loft. I had not, however, found separate seating or at least, as in Gricel, same sex tables difficult in Buenos Aires. I found them in fact often a welcome relief from the European way. 

All in all once in the milonga besides tired I felt overwhelmed, ill at ease, defensive.  I simply wanted a quiet place to relax, listen, watch and take it all in. I wanted time to try to adjust to or at least understand conditions I shied away from.  Yet many guys expect you to want to dance very soon and are puzzled when you do not. I saw one or two other girls in the area with tables and chairs near me who looked as though they felt the same.  It was clear like me  they wanted a table, but apparently felt ill at ease, alone at it.  I would have too which is why I chose the bar.  The others not in groups or couples were around on the other side of the bar in the wash of guys and girls coming and going from the floor, some girls staying beached on the stools.  So until things became clearer I did not seek and actively avoided some invitation I sensed from guys coming too near or who I had not seen dance or who I did not want to dance with, or when the music was not what I prefer. Unsurprisingly, I was left alone and did not dance. 

But in Tango Loft, although usually happy in my own company I did not feel peaceful. Knowing I was observed not to accept guys added to the pressure.  Was I sealing my fate for the weekend? In some cases I think it proved so. Guys I thought had hovered on Friday were not interested the next day, or perhaps they never did hover. I knew it was right not to mind or care about such guys but it still bothered me. 

Indeed, the next day a guy from whom I foolishly accepted a too proximate invitation said he had seen me the night before not dancing, only watching - all night. What had I been doing? I felt obliged to explain myself but did not want to even if, like him, I had been inclined to chat while dancing.

After changing my shoes to leave I stood near the entrance and felt the wave of heat, expectation and atmosphere hit me as dancers left the floor at the end of the tanda to drift in that partnerbörse in the hope of catching a ride out to the dance floor.  It was powerful stuff, but it isn't how I like invitation to happen and so I hadn't had the inclination to join it.

Stuttgart - El Amateur milonga

Originally published: 27.5.16

I loved the name, long before I saw the place.  That alone is a call to those who prefer traditional social dancing to events centered around the professional tango dance industry with workshops and shows.

Access

The location of El Amateur is wonderful with great views over the city.  It is not in the city centre but it felt to me like a place doing its own thing and unapologetic.  I was told there is no public transport to get there, that taxi was best. I see that public transport will only take you so far.  You would have to walk at least 25 minutes on foot and it is uphill. 

Adventure
I had left the Sunday afternoon milonga in Tango Loft less than an hour before.  By the time  I had returned to the hotel, showered and changed it was nearing 8pm and the milonga would start in half an hour.

As things turned out my friend - a local - decided to come to this milonga.  Though we had never danced he had had three failed attempts to learn to dance tango in class and was now very into the contact improvisation dance scene.  He suggested given the hour he pick me up and we go by motorbike.  I agreed after much hesitation and only after establishing his last crash had been several decades previously.  He promised “bicycle speeds”.  In childhood or teenage years my father had said I would be disinherited if I ever got or perhaps even rode on a motorbike.  The force of that statement more than any genuine threat had stuck through life.  I have had friends affected by serious and fatal motorbike accidents and seen them on the roads so have had every inclination not to get involved.  In the circumstances though it did seem like the best way - so I thought until, rigid with fear, I had to get on the thing.  He told me my skirt could not catch but I nevertheless hitched up my dress beyond I felt - once astride the machine - what decency required. Though it can hardly have been further than 3km distant and we apparently never topped 40km/hour I think it was thrilling but terror, especially on bumps, curves and acceleration overpowered most other sense. Trying to take my mind off things I wondered if I had control issues and decided if not on the salon floor then certainly as regards personal injury.

The setting 

...of the venue is casual.  You can sit outside with a drink before the milonga but I just sat down to get over things, revive feeling to my tense limbs and to remember about breathing. 

Bar

Inside there is a bar for which at that stage I was extremely grateful.  Apparently the restaurant is closed just now but there was nevertheless good value African food in the adjoining room served by a lady from the Congo to whom we spoke in a mixture of English, French and German as she spoke them all. This room also serves as the bar.

Host

Though we did not really speak I understand the host was Otto. Johannes who I believe is the regular host was on holiday. Entrada was by donation. We gave 10 euros apiece. 

Conditions

My quick photo makes the room look less nice than it is. It is true it is not as jazzy or as stylish as Tango Loft but the conditions for me were superb. Seating, lighting, floor, room shape and size were all ideal.  You could see all potential partners from wherever you were in the room without moving, though some guys did.   As in many Buenos Aires venues you need only move your eyes.  I feel  especially in unfamiliar places or where I am less at ease the more you have to turn your head, still less crane your neck, you start to leak discretion and the milongas for me are all about that.  We got a table and were able to keep it. I already knew this milongas has existed for twenty years. Seeing it I was not surprised. 

Attendance

I am poor at estimating and did not count but there was enough for a good evening. The lower end of thirty to forty perhaps. It seemed to be mostly locals who sat for the most part down the left hand side from the door with the better dancers toward the further end towards the DJ spot.  There was a handful of dancers from the milonga weekend: a group who came together including DJ Stephan, his wife with I guess their friends and one other. 

Atmosphere

It was just...quiet and focused on dancing. One or two of the Tango Loft group did not seem to dance much so perhaps they did not like it or were just tired. It was a very different atmosphere to Tango Loft.  Despite that it was all new to me and I was dancing for the most part with a brand new beginner guy and in swapped roles I felt much more relaxed here. Otherwise I found the atmosphere hard to judge partly I did not know the place, second because my friend and I were so unusual in that setting dancing the way we were. 

Music

The music was probably - eventually - the best I heard all weekend. The DJ was Mohamed of Sydney, possibly this guy, friend of DJ Stephan Resch. When I walked in though I thought I had made a terrible mistake. The music was simply awful: heavy, plodding Guardia Vieja.  I was shocked and disappointed.  It went on for at a guess two, perhaps three tandas. I went to change my shoes in the Ladies, we paid the entrada and the music was still terrible.  At this stage I had not realised the DJ was a dancer from the milonga weekend. To escape it we went to see about food and drinks next door. I started to feel euphoric but I think that was more happiness at survival than the sekt. 

I considered leaving in the time we were eating next door except that I could not just then face getting back on the bike.  I heard two or three bearable tracks, heading towards good. Had it lasted any longer I might have left or gone outside for drinks and to watch the sun go down. 

Suddenly the music changed, became and stayed wholly good, which is to say, mainstream, until near the end of the milonga. I asked the DJ about the start and he said he often started that way and that some people like it.  Some do but not I think the same people who stay for most of the rest of what he played. It is, in my view, a common DJ error.  De Angelis came up in the conversation and he said he rarely played that orchestra, I don’t know why. I think many people find De Angelis hard or hardest to “get”. It was the last orchestra for me. Not everyone likes it perhaps because some DJs can play such terrible tracks by him. I remember hearing only one (good) De Angelis track played the whole time I was at the Stuttgart milonga weekend but heard it often in Berlin. 

There was another change at about 2340 to I think possibly Varela/Ledesma Qué tarde que has venido which I did not want to dance. I felt it a shame.  I know some like this but it was so different from everything that had gone before and to which everyone had happily danced.  Many had left already I guessed because it was a school night.  I waited to see what was going to happen. It turned to I think Pugliese which was OK but I do not dance that in swapped roles and decided to call it quits.  I noticed someone else doing the same.  It was nearly midnight in any case.

Dancing

The outer ronda seemed fine. Inside the ronda were the beginners, weaker dancers, people who overtook and one or two wilder dancers though in fact we were not so many. If I had not been dancing with a complete beginner I would not have wanted to be in the middle there. 

I danced with three guys besides my friend and enjoyed them all.  Two appeared to be visitors.  “Viel sonne” remarked one, wryly, of my British, sunburned back.  I agreed in English and squirmed, still Britishly.  It was clear I had been outside incautiously that afternoon.  Then, in German: Did I not speak German? Again, I squirmed. Not enough to converse.  Like many tolerant, accomplished Europeans he repeated what he had said this time in English and agreed to my remark that his accent his was not German, telling me his country.

The women nearest me were not looking my way and given the spectacle my beginner friend and I must have made I can’t say I was surprised.

Three other guys, locals I think, I would have danced with but they did not seem to want to dance with me either. I felt rather shunned. I considered they found our dancing so awful in swapped roles that they couldn’t face me as the girl, or to an objection to women dancing in the other role, or simply an objection to a beginner guy dancing at their milonga. But with so many variables and plenty others besides it is not worth guessing. So there were some OK to good guy dancers there I had not seen at the Tango Loft weekend and the same in girl dancers.   There were also the kind of average dancers you find everywhere at local milongas in Europe.  Some local dancers stayed only for a couple of hours, arriving and leaving early or arriving later and leaving later - another reason to DJ buffet style - which the middle part was - as opposed to as an arc or mood DJ.

Second Stuttgart Milonga Weekend: Music

Originally published: 26.5.16

As far as I remember everyone played tango tandas of four tracks and vals and milonga in three.

DJ Photos.

Friday: DJ Martin Lutsch (Stuttgart)

I heard nearly four hours of music.  Up until after midnight there was enough that was nice for me. I remember though being disappointed when the lights went down during the Demare and then stayed down.  The milonga and probably most vals I remember as classics.  I wasn’t dancing and paid more conscious attention to the music.  Of the tangos there was for example:

D’Arienzo of type - Cicatrices, La Morocha, Charamusca; Fresedo/Ray of type Ojos muertos, Vuelves; the famous Castillo vals often played together as here: e.g.. Unitaria. La pulpera de Santa Lucia, Violetas; Demare e.g.. Telón, Igual que un bandoneón, El aguacero, Malena; great Troilo of type Una carta - Cautivo - En esta tarde gris; Canaro vals of type El día que te fuiste, Cuando estaba enamorado and something a bit less well known to me, Di Sarli, type: Tú, el cielo y tú, Déjame, no quiero verte más

Some of the Rodriguez with Fernando Reyes I liked a bit less:  Alma en pena, La casita está triste.  Then there was an odd mixed tango tanda of Biagi (El recodo?) - Varela (Sábado inglés?) - De Angelis (Pavadita?) - Federico (Leyenda Gaucha). Soon after was I think a cover band (Solo tango orquesta?) playing e.g.Toda mi vida and Esta es el rey.   I should have quit at this point but did not realise this might be an arc/mood DJ possibly going into a new phase.  There followed Rodio/Serna of type Corazon Que Has Hecho, Rosa Celeste, Vieja Esquina, Esta noche en Buenos Aires. I rarely hear this music for dancing but hearing it again it reminds me of Maderna - nicer to listen to.  I think there was Biagi /Duval, of type: Alguien, Triste comedia, Espérame en el cielo then fast D’Arienzo vals, Cabeza de novia.  That vals is very nice but I felt the tangos were turning less mainstream and the general theme going into “passion mode” so I quit.  It felt like a style I associate with late night in Berlin or the more extravagant - usually younger - side of Buenos Aires. In memory it was also loud.  Something was loud that weekend, either that or an overload of overloud simultaneous KLM announcements in Schipol but my ear still hurts.

Saturday afternoon: DJ Stephan Resch (Auckland, New Zealand)

I heard all but the last maybe 1 or 2 tandas of the set.  It was not all what I think of as mainstream but it was mostly lovely music. I remember the set started really well which is always reassuring.  There was great Caló, then D’Arienzo - No me lo digas, Yunta Brava, Por que razón - how I love that track -  Derecho Viejo.  I remember thinking in that tanda that the sound wasn’t always great and certainly that it was too quiet at one point but that improved.  There was good milonga, good rhythmic Di Sarli, really great D’Agostino etc. At one point I danced tracks I couldn’t place and wondered if it was rhythmic Lomuto but knew something didn’t fit.  When I heard Dulce Amargura I thought: Fresedo - who has done one version - but knew it too was not right.  Upon request, Stephan told me it was early 30s Caló. Later there was Biagi with Saavedra and Heredia I didn’t know or know well.   I heard two of his Fresedo choices as I was leaving. They were not my very favourite but they were far from bad Fresedo and there is a lot of bad Fresedo.  This was the set I liked best in Tango Loft.

Stephan struck me as a smart, approachable guy. He and his wife were popular dancers. I noticed he danced very socially with a range of women which I somehow find particularly nice in a good dancer and DJ.

Saturday night:  DJ Gabriela Manea (Bukarest, Rumania)

I arrived sometime before midnight.  I cannot say I heard much of the set to give a representative picture because I quit after 2 hours. There was a Canaro which did not really grab me including I think Desaliento which I rather like  but I think it was the version by Rafael which is the weaker as I think is the case with all the tracks I have heard covered by those brothers. Then there were great tandas but very rhythmic, high energy,  strong Troilo, I think I heard another Canaro /QDP but rhythmic,  Biagi milongas that I love, superb Tanturi instrumentals, and a packed floor.  I loved those tandas. But it was too relentlessly rhythmic and the floor was a scrum.  I don’t like it when DJs whip up an atmosphere like that and I left.  People were leaving before me.

Sunday afternoon: DJ Alia Ramadan (Damaskus, Syria/Frankfurt, Germany)

I was only there for the last 90 minutes and I can believe that a DJ might feel pressure to try to explore new territory in a final milonga but I found the music on Sunday afternoon ropey.  I heard Tanturi-Campos - that irritating track Calla bandoneón. There was an unnecessarily mixed milonga tanda with tracks that were very different in style. I think it included Biagi and I think Biagi so distinctive and individual he never mixes well.   To be fair, I was chatting for a while so paid less attention to the music but was aware what I heard was not great for me.

Second Stuttgart milonga weekend

Tango Loft from the entrance side

Originally published: 26.5.16

I am recently returned from the second milonga weekend in Stuttgart. It comprised evening dances on Friday and Saturday and afternoon dances on Saturday and Sunday.  

I went for these reasons:

• It was milongas only and had been recommended as having no workshops, classes or shows
• It did not, in theory require registration.  This was still true for the second weekend but the emphasis had changed slightly.  Since the venue is limited by capacity though it made sense to reserve a place.   
• There was no list of rules. I find while I like events that adhere to traditional milonga etiquette I do not tend to enjoy the hosting or atmosphere of events that are explicitly rule-bound, either on websites or I have even seen rules on cards or posters in venues.  That implies the people coming need that kind of instruction so it is likely I won’t enjoy that kind of event.  On the description of this event it said simply that the event was for experienced dancers.  Given the other features and traditional music I expected dancing in the embrace to be the norm, people to clear the floor during the cortinas and invitation only by look and that is what I found.
• There was an opportunity to go to El Amateur milonga (different venue and host) on Sunday night
• I hoped to see something of the city.

Practicalities

Registration

I tried - late - to register for the first event last autumn.  However, I discovered in correspondence with the organiser that they were balancing gender.  I dislike waiting lists especially when I dance both roles and this tends to keep me away from events.  Also I did not hear back twice when I expected to and ultimately there was no space for me. I also heard reports of poor DJing e.g. DJ La Rubia - not for the first time in her case.  I had not therefore intended to register again.

I changed my mind especially as the advertising seemed to imply there may not be gender balancing.  I see now though the same statement was also made on the advertising for the first weekend when there was indeed gender balancing. I registered earlier and this time there was a place.

Entrance

Payment/registration was outside the salon, which I prefer. The welcome from the host, Kenneth was both warm and professional - that of an experienced host.

Garderobe

There was space to leave shoes and large bags.  One young liberal European guy used it to get changed… There were chairs to change shoes.  There are useful hooks under the bar for handbags.

Salon

When I saw the salon I thought it was lovely, a real dance club, with a bar, tables and chairs.  I was less keen on the mirrored wall - but you can close your eyes.  The salon reminded me in aesthetics a bit of Tango Loft in Berlin though that had for me a slightly more exotic/louche feel.   I am sure if I were a regular here who knew people, with its bar, its seating with tables for a quiet evening with a partner or friend, its gossip stools, I would discover this to be a much loved place.  

Floor

The floor was good but heated up and became sticky meaning dancing earlier on is easier.

Lighting

The salon has windows down one side which means it is light in the afternoon and much easier to see for invitation by look.  However, if you invite/accept with your back to the windows  (even when by the bar) it can be difficult to see because of silhouette.  I nearly missed a dance because of this.

The lighting at night was low.  Since most people crowded into one area for invitation lighting seemed not to be an issue for the majority.  Also I think many people knew one another which means low light is less of an issue than it is for strangers.  I asked if the low lighting was deliberately to create atmosphere.  I was told no, but that because the lights are stage lights they overheat the room and quickly.   LED lights which do not have this problem are being installed gradually.  

Refreshments

There is a bar selling alcohol, soft drinks and cocktails. Throughout the weekend there were snacks of pizza and cake which looked very nice and I understood ice cream on the Sunday afternoon but I did not attend until the end. There was also fruit, crudités nuts, olives.  Water was free.

Seating

There were tables  and chairs  under the windows next to the floor but this was used little or not at all because I think it is thought invitation by look is hard against the light there or simply that it is too far to invite across the room, though the distance would have been normal in Buenos Aires.

On one side of the bar there is a small stage with three or four tables and chairs and more similar seating in front of that in an area two or three tables deep.   This had a good view of the floor in front.   This main seating area was mostly used by friends, couples, a few single guys and a (very) few single girls who, like I suppose me, appeared noticeably uneasy.  I guessed this was because they did not know people or disliked the girl crush, or the seating arrangements or the proximate invitation on the other side of the bar.  Opposite is the mirrored wall you can see in the top photo.  Video showing the bar and seating area from the mirrored end.  Unlike at the milonga weekend the tables under the windows (left) are being used in the video.

Nearly all other single girls were on the other side of the bar or around the bar and most good guy dancers seemed to invite there.  

Between the entrance and the loos was a long wall of untabled seating on stools.  This had  mostly limited or very limited view of the floor because of the bar and people standing.  It was also used mostly by girls waiting to dance.  A few guys sometimes sat here but generally they stood or danced. This is the area where most girls spent most time when not dancing but unfortunately I find no photos online to show it.  The photo I have taken was a single quick snap taken from the stools at that end of the bar with best visibility of the floor.  It was taken at the beginning of the Saturday afternoon which is why it is quiet.  There was a photographer taking many photos on at least two days though from very discreet distance.  Photos from the first event here.

Invitation

...was usually by look.  Only the least popular guys invited too overtly and even then it was more often that they just came too close more than they walked right up and asked.  

Still, most invitation even by good dancers happened at very close quarters at the exit to the floor and around the bar on the entrance side.  It is the space directly in front of the camera (i.e. to the left of the barstool)  in the photo.   Most guys did not invite - perhaps did not need to invite - at any distance e.g. across the room.  Couples would come off the floor, then many of both sexes who had just danced simply waited in that floor exit/entrance area to pick up their next dance. I heard it described as “one large partnerbörse”.   It did not seem to bother most people there, who often invited and accepted with a nod or a word to the person next to them. Conditions one may find problematic are also minimised I find if you know people and I think many did.

If you understand what invitation/acceptance can be like at the busy end of the hall at Eton milongas during the cortinas on a multi-day event then it reminded me of that.

Attendance

The place felt busy most of the time I was there except noticeably the start of Saturday afternoon when the weather was very good.  Saturday night was extremely busy. There were some who attended all or most milongas and many who attended one or two.

A local girl I met at El Amateur on Sunday had been to Tango Loft on Friday night but said since she knew most people it was less interesting for her so she went elsewhere at the weekend. Contradictorily I heard at the bar that there were many strangers.   Kenneth read out a list of the different countries represented. He also announced many local dancers had come out on Saturday but who had not registered for the full weekend itself.  

There were more women I think generally and on Friday there was a clear female majority.  

Dancing

There seemed to be many good guy dancers, some less good and not ones I enjoy but even these got plenty of dances.  There were plenty of very good women dancers of various ages.  More women seemed able to dance well than guys but I find this the norm everywhere.   Look though is not feel and I base what I say mostly from watching as I danced little.

Some women did dance together but not many or often.  I did so only once and early when there were few people there but sensed no disapprobation for others who did so in the ronda.

I think younger women had the majority of the dances but many older women danced often.  Age seemed only one factor of many in guys choosing partners and not necessarily the main one.   I liked that there was and think it healthy for milongas when there is a broad mix of ages.

The ronda seemed mostly good.  One guy bashed me into people (but repeatedly)  yet he always found partners.  I think that was unusual among the guys.

The floor cleared virtually always during the cortina.

Atmosphere

It is hard for me as a stranger to say, also because I personally did not find the weekend relaxing. Unusually I spoke little with people.  Equally no one initiated conversation with me except a couple of guys whose tables I sat at accidentally while they were dancing.  Maybe the better thing to do in those circumstances is in fact to chat to people but I was not in the mood.  I think generally for most people the atmosphere was nice and relaxed.  I sat little and not for long among the women on the bar stools and we did not chat but smiled on arrival etc. In contrast, in Buenos Aires where I felt secure at my table and relaxed I often spoke with women I did not know. I think some women in Tango Loft sometimes may have been unhappy with the gender imbalance.  All that said if this were my local milonga I am sure it would be very nice.  If I were to try to register again I would definitely go in company.  I think this might be less necessary for good guy dancers or anyone generally unaffected by milonga conditions.