Private and video interview complete, it was playtime! I’d had a great time at Sueño Porteño last time, and was looking forward to a return visit.

There was a small administrative matter to take care of, and this didn’t prove easy …

Milonga 19: Sueño Porteño

Last week, I’d accidentally done a runner, leaving without paying my bill. I’d WhatsApped the organiser, Julia, to arrange to pay it this time.

But when I asked her how to do this tonight, she shrugged and said the venue hadn’t charged her. I then asked the waitress about it, who was equally bemused. She spoke to the cashier, who joined in the general puzzlement. We did eventually find the unpaid bill (all of £2.80!), but the general sense I got was that life would be a lot simpler without these idiotically honest Brits!

I was given the same table as last time. This looks like a rubbish table, right at the back, but is actually a great one. That’s because half the dancers walk toward that end of the room at the end of a tanda, and it’s common for some to hang around at the edge of the floor afterwards, ready to cabeceo dancers at the tables there. It’s also easy to cabeceo between the two rows of tables.

Maria and Antonio joined me, in what was our first joint venture to a milonga. Maria and I haven’t danced together for about two years. Our respective dances have changed so much during that time that it would be more like dancing with a new partner. Obviously you want to ease in gently when doing this. You also want to make sure that the first time you’re seen dancing in a milonga after arrival, it’s a tanda where you are at your best.

So, naturally, Maria cabeceod me for a milonga tanda. Italians are crazy.

But we done good! And when we later danced a tango milonga, it was fantastic: Maria’s dance is really beautiful, and we felt very connected. She also coped with all the sudden changes needed to cope with the somewhat crazy floorcraft, and we both managed to turn evasive manoeuvres into dance. I commented afterwards that we’d come a long way!

As before, I had lovely dances, and the same was true of Maria. We stayed 2.5 hours, before going out in the rain cab-hunting. We did eventually succeed, taking the cab to …

Milonga 20: La del Centro

By the time we arrived and settled in, joining Jean-Christoph’s table, it was 10.30pm – half an hour before my weekday curfew. I’d said I’d dance one tanda, then go home, and, for the very first time, I was telling the truth!

The dance level was very high, but the floor was rather empty and the floorcraft impeccable. There was, though, a very strong Cool Kids vibe, and the table we were at was pretty hopeless for cabeceo, so I’m not sure I would have stayed too long even without my 6.30am start.

It had stopped raining as we’d arrived, and promptly started again as Antonio and I left. We walked home, just a few blocks, and were soaked by the time we arrived, but I don’t mind warm rain.