I’d intended to go to the Tango on the Thames lesson and milonga on Sunday, but my BsAs sleep deprivation finally caught up with me, a week later. I think I’d largely been running on adrenalin since our return, riding the high!

I had a lazy day Sunday, and was in bed by early evening yesterday, so now felt rested – if not entirely relaxed due to a bit of a frustrating end to the day. I trusted that tango would take care of that, and indeed it did …

I always listen to tango music en-route to milongas. Well, in truth I almost always listen to tango music en-route to anywhere. It unfailingly gets me in the mood.

A new approach to blogging my regular milongas

I decided some time ago that I was no longer going to write tanda-by-tanda descriptions of milongas as it felt too intrusive. Which raised the question: what do I write?

I’ve so far had a reasonable answer: I’m always learning, and there hasn’t been a single milonga when I haven’t been able to draw lessons from the experience.

That remains true, but mostly it’s small details and very gradually closing the gap between what my mind knows and what my body does. Useful for me, but not terribly interesting reading.

And beyond the learning, I think there’s simply less to say now without getting repetitive. When it came to last week’s milonga, I had a lot to say about the DJ and exactly one paragraph on the dancing.

I’d concluded that a mix of great music and my favourite followers was most of the secret to a magical time, and that was indeed the case. But I was also incredibly lucky when dancing with some new followers. Literally every tanda was lovely – and that’s, as I say, when dancing almost non-stop all night.

It really was a fantastic night, but without getting into the tanda-by-tanda specifics, that’s as much as there was to say.

So … here’s my plan for future ones: I’ll share any snippets that seem interesting or amusing, but not attempt anything like a full account of the evening.

I’ll almost certainly continue to write full blog posts about first visits to new milongas, where I’m likely to have quite a lot to say. But otherwise, expect a few sentences if anything notable or amusing happened – or nothing if it didn’t.

Tonight’s abbreviated blog

I wrote about a ‘shoulderceo‘ while I was in BsAs, and learning that this was not a good sign. Tonight, however, demonstrated there are exceptions …

I was chatting to a friend, when one of my new-ish-but-now-regular followers walked up to us from behind, tapped me on the shoulder and apologised to my friend with something to the effect that my presence was required on the dance floor. That was a shoulderceo leading to an excellent dance!

…

Also in the ‘new-ish but now regular follower’ category are two women who are friends with each other and were sitting at the same table. I’d danced with one and then cabeceo’d the other – with the assistance of the first one in a kind of indirect shoulderceo: she tapped her on the arm to point out my cabeceo.

As we danced toward their table, her friend was pointing to something on the floor. I couldn’t see anything, and my follower said it was fine. We danced on until the end of the song, when she revealed that she’d caught her heel in her shawl, but as it wasn’t affecting her dancing, she decided she’d wait until the end of the song before she fixed it!

…

Pablo noted I’d been there ’til the end both times since my return from BsAs, and said I was clearly now on Argentine time, where 11pm is early …

Image: Shutterstock