Category Archives: Socialising

Milonga, Socialising

The opening night of Milonga Abrazáme

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Regular readers will know that I mostly dance outside London these days, but when a new milonga opens, and it’s just 20 minutes away, it seems reasonable to at least give it a chance. Wednesday night, then, saw me at the opening night of the city’s latest addition, Milonga Abrazáme.

It could easily have been a very bad idea. I’ve danced once before at the same venue, and the combination of a very sticky floor and a wall of lights that makes it impossible to cabeceo across the room was enough to deter me from a repeat visit. Both issues were still very much present …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Socialising

My farewell milonga, El Abrazo – and a surprise lift to the airport!

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Once again, I feel like I’ve been here forever, and I feel like I arrived ten minutes ago.

After a final early morning’s work, it was off to El Abrazo for the last milonga of the trip. This was once again at El Beso, my fourth visit this week. It was a wonderful way to end my stay …

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Buenos Aires, Not Tango, Socialising

A day without dance! But a great deal of tango talk …

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Sunday’s primary task was to change time zones – which is to say, prepare for a week of 6.30am starts as I returned to work for my final week here.

I resisted my favoured Sunday evening milonga, and instead had a relaxing day: a leisurely lunch with a friend, followed by a visit to the nearby cultural centre …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Socialising

The departure of La Tiñaorita, and arrival of Los Italianos

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Today we were sad to bid farewell to Tina. Not being overly keen on doing this at 7am, I did so at 4am before going to bed.

But I was very happy to welcome Maria and Antonio, who I hadn’t seen for a very long time! They arrived at around 9.45am, but were kind enough to go drink coffee around the corner until we’d crawled out of bed …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Socialising

“Sorry, I’m really tired: I won’t be coming out until after midnight”

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There are certain things which only make sense in Buenos Aires. To anyone who has visited, this will make perfect sense: you’re tired from lack of sleep due to last night’s milonga, so you go for a nap in the evening and wake up around midnight ready for your next one. Repeat daily. Or on Fridays and Saturdays only, in my case!

That was Diego, in this case, but I entirely understood the sentiment. After four hours of sleep, I thankfully returned to sleep a little later and emerged around noon. But still went back to bed at around 7.30pm ready for a nap before we left at 9pm …

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Buenos Aires, Socialising

A Chiquéless day, but La Brigada for dinner

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Everything in BsAs takes longer than you think. Getting cash. Picking up trousers that should have been waiting for me on Friday. Recharging a SUBE card. You name it.

All of which explains why I didn’t make my planned visit to Nuevo Chiqué, making this a milongaless day … !

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Buenos Aires, Socialising

Way too little sleep, way too much food – and doing some technique exercises

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Yes, that photo does look exceedingly tilted, which is an entirely accurate impression of how I felt after dragging myself out of bed. (For the avoidance of doubt, those are not my toes: Tina took the photo.)

I fully intended to sleep in until around noon. I instead slept from 4.30am to 7.27am. The mystery of why this might be was solved when I realised I’d been so tired last night (well, this morning) that I’d put the shutters up instead of down. That’s about the state of my brain right now …

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Group class, Milonga, Socialising

Dancing at the first milonga in london after lockdown

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Tuesday night saw the first London milonga re-opening after 14 months of lockdown, one day after ‘freedom day’ in England and Wales. I was of course there, despite the 30C temperature!

The evening began with a one-hour mixed-level lesson that turned out to be more mixed-level than expected …

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Group class, Socialising, Theory

A really fun lesson, and a great evening socialising

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Socialising.jpg

Tonight’s tango itinerary was the Thursday intermediate lesson with Luis and Natalia, and then … a dilemma! It was the monthly Tango Space drinks, which I always enjoy, but also Tango Terra.

It wasn’t feasible to do both, so a decision needed to be made …

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Group class, Milonga, Progress update, Socialising

They make long hours at this time of the year

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Why does no-one ever believe me when I say I’m only staying for the first hour of a milonga?

Today was the final Tango Space workshop of the year, a one-hour one billed as lessons Pablo and Anne had learned from their students, followed by Prosecco and mince pies – then the monthly Browns milonga …

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Milonga, Socialising

Los Angelitos, and my best ever reaction from a new follower

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Hello.jpg

As I mentioned last time, I’m no longer writing full blog posts for milongas, just a few snippets of things that stand out.

The first of which is what definitely counts as my best ever reaction from a new follower …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson, Socialising

An amazing private, a lovely dinner and two last milongas

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Laura

Private lesson 3 with Laura Heredia

My third and final private was another with Laura, and it was an absolutely amazing one! Half of it was devoted to technique, the other half to more simple tools for use in crowded milongas and to give me more options for expressing the music.

We worked on the first step of the walk, aiming to get a vertical diagonal feel to it – pushing down into the floor with the standing foot while creating a rising sensation in the chest. Laura also had me try the Argentine style position with my left hand …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Socialising

La Catedral and El Tacuari: not much dancing, but there was applause

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la-catedral.jpg

Milonga 12: La Catedral

I first saw this venue in a performance video rather early on my tango journey, and have wanted to visit it ever since.

Here’s how Wander Argentina describes it …

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Buenos Aires, Group class, Milonga, Socialising

Milongas 4 & 5: Two very different beasts!

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Floor shot.jpg

Many friends have claimed I don’t understand the concept of holidays. There is some truth to this. With my background in business travel with extremely limited time off, I’m used to making the most of the time, so there isn’t much lazing around. I’ve always taken the view that you can do that with greater comfort, convenience and economy at home.

However, this morning was a relaxed one. I did nothing more than visit the two tango shoe shops directly opposite the hotel …

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Group class, Practica, Socialising

Trying Tango y Nada Mas for the first time; a lesson in levels

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A couple of my Ms had both suggested I try a new school: Tango y Nada Mas. They run three classes, all on a Monday evening: fundamentals, improver/technique and intermediate/advanced – followed by a one-hour practica.

The plan was to try the improver/technique class, have a drink with M while we sat out the intermediate/advanced one, and then do the practica. This, it turned out, was a very sound plan …

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Group class, Socialising

Feeling at home in the Thursday intermediate class

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feeling at home

I’ve long said what I really wanted from intermediate classes was not additional vocabulary, but work on technique within my existing vocabulary. Quality, not quantity, of movement.

Tonight’s* Tango Space class seemed to be promising exactly that …

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Socialising

When dancing in a pub is an achievement rather than an embarrassment

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Dancing in a pub

Tonight was the monthly Tango Space drinks, when students and teachers get together to drink wine, talk tango and– Well, ok, we pretty much just drink wine and talk tango.

The pub plays a pretty eclectic selection of music, but I’d never before heard any tango music. On this occasion, however, it was playing something that sounded like a pretty convincing impression of a milonga …

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Group class, Milonga, Socialising

One lesson and four delicious tandas

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delicious tandas

Tuesday was the second improver class of the week, with more calesitas. I really like the balance of the Monday and Tuesday classes: the Monday one is always more complex but introduces me to new things, while the Tuesday one is simpler and focuses more on technique.

Tonight, we both entered and exited the calesita via ochos. You could exit with either a front or back ocho. The back seemed to work best when I had enough momentum, while the front was plan B for when things were slower …

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Milonga, Outdoors, Socialising

Venturing once more into the great outdoors

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Tango@Spitalfields.jpg

After the Hyde Park bandstand milonga, Sunday provided another opportunity to dance outdoors. Rene and Hiba from Tango Fever organise Tango@Spitalfields, held in the Amphitheatre Canopy outside Patisserie Valerie.

It felt strange to be going there to dance: I’d passed several of these milongas in my pre-tango days, and always thought of them as a really fun idea. I never imagined I would one day be participating!

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Group class, Socialising

Endless ochos of the useful kind, and the social in social dancing

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infinity.jpg

I’ve mentioned before the ‘endless ocho’ issue I’ve encountered, where I either fail to lead an exit, or followers go onto auto-pilot, or some combination of the two.

I think Diego gave me a solution that should work regardless of the cause, but tonight I got to enjoy endless ochos of the useful variety …

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Socialising

Achievement unlocked: drunk tango

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drunk tango.jpg

I’ve never drunk alcohol at a milonga, partly because wine-breath doesn’t seem a great idea in a tango embrace, and partly because I have a finite quantity of coordination available even when stone cold sober.

But I had dinner with a couple of good friends last night, one of whom was a follower who hadn’t danced for a long time. So after way more wine than is reasonable between three people, she and I danced …

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