In my quest for afternoon milongas which run some way into the evening, I seem to be sampling every milonga El Beso has to offer! Today it was Tango Camargo, which was very much like El Abrazo: older crowd, relaxed, friendly, simple dance.

Antonio wanted to ease himself in gently with a group class and practica, but as this was also at El Beso, I persuaded him to come with me to at least watch and soak up the atmosphere …

Milonga 16: Tango Camaro

I’m now used to bumping into familiar faces everywhere I go, but it’s still a new experience for Antonio, so he was rather surprised when I held the door open for a group of women leaving the milonga and one of them greeted me by name.

We were able to get a front row table, providing good cabeceo opportunities for me, and a good spectating position for Antonio.

It was a very traditional tanda structure, with one faster rhythmical tango tanda followed by a slower more lyrical one (plus the usual vals and milonga ones, of course). That meant I could reliably predict when I was likely to want to dance – though I did also dance a couple of the more rhythmical tandas too! I also danced vals, and had urgent and important discussions on weighty matters of state with Antonio during the milongas.

The dancing was delicious. I enjoyed watching the tandas I didn’t dance, and loved all of the tandas I did.

One follower in particular does stand out. The room was thinning out, so there was plenty of room to walk, and she had the most gorgeous walk! She met my forward intention with an absolutely equal amount, and projected fully before transferring her weight, enabling me to take really long steps, and to completely control the pace. That was an absolute joy. Then when I led a parada, paused and relaxed the embrace, she took full advantage!

That, then, became our dance. We would walk for a phrase or two, when I was in charge, and then hand over to her and simply follow her in the pivots. It was such a lot of fun, and we were both laughing as she tried more and more things and I just turned, matching her direction and pace.

We danced the penultimate tanda too, at the end of which we hugged and she told me where she would be dancing the following day, and I considered it a firm appointment! Antonio shot a short video clip, from which this frame-grab is taken (and I would like to place it on record that we are not actually snogging, despite appearances).

But all the dances were lovely!

Of course, the tango gods had to extract their price for this, and decided to amuse themselves by presenting me with the most challenging mistaken cabeceo yet! I cabeceod one woman sat with empty seats around her, so it seemed pretty unmistakeable to me. She nodded, I nodded, and we maintained eye contact as I walked across the floor. However, just as I reached her, and she stood up, so did another woman from a position which was by now behind me, as I turned to face the line of dance. For that reason, I didn’t even notice at first, but my intended follower did.

On previous occasions, when I’ve been intercepted before reaching my follower, I’ve either done the cowardly thing and danced with the interceptor, or the adult thing and explained and apologised for the mix up before continuing on to my target follower. However, I’d never before been in the position of two followers standing next to me simultaneously!

I apologised to the mistaken woman, then danced with the right one. However, I vowed to put things right by cabeceoing the other woman for the next tanda. This was not successful. Antonio, who had witnessed the whole thing from a better vantage point than the man in the middle of the mess, said the other woman had looked super-offended!

I am, as regular readers will know, a huge fan of cabeceo. I like it for practical reasons (it’s possible to invite someone from quite a distance away), for social reasons (the inviter risks no embarrassment, and the invitee isn’t put under any pressure), and for poetic reasons (for me, the cabeceo is the beginning of our dance). However, it does require both parties to follow the rules! In particular, that the follower (in the traditional roles) remains seated until the leader is in front of her, and there is no longer any possibility of error.

While Antonio wasn’t feeling quite ready to dance in an unknown milonga, he stayed for the class and then the practica, which seemed an encouraging sign.

Salon Canning photos

I hadn’t succeeded in tracking down the official photographer, but two friends sent me a link after spotting a photo of me.

Tomorrow, another 6.30am start, and my official appointment at the next afternoon milonga, El Maipu at the Lo de Celia tango club.