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| Entrance to Clärchens Ballhaus |
Clärchens ballhaus (Auguststraße 24, 10117 Berlin) I heard referred to as a student milonga (it's free), a tourist milonga and as sometimes great, sometimes terrible. But for the cool crowd, regular Tuesday an Thursdays are not the most popular day for dancing in Berlin. I imagine Clärchens brings in a mixed group which changes from week to week.
I wasn't at all sure what sort of set-up I'd walked in to when I arrived. I got a drink at the bar off to the right and wandered around the restaurant at the back of the room. I had to get changed. There was an adequate ladies room but I do not remember a cloakroom for coats and shoes. There were no free tables around the floor so I went to join a couple of women who were sitting by the stage (and DJ station). This is the first problem at Clärchens. There is no obvious single seating and no-one to seat you with other women, say. Unless you go to sit on the stage with other women then you could have a lonely night. The trouble with sitting, displayed on a stage, while others are at civilized tables, is that I can't help but think of Amsterdam street windows in the red light district.
I had expected a much older style room. But in fact the room has silver streamers hanging from the walls so I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in an old room that was decorated in the seventies. It certainly had a sense of history. That picture is fairly realistic if less flattering to the place. Here is another, taken from the entrance. The restaurant extends into the room at the back.
The lighting was "functional" which is to say if it wasn't exactly atmospheric it's certainly bright enough for invitation by look. It needs to be because the room is quite large. This was the next problem. All the women I danced with I chatted to, around the stage first. I found the room big for cabeceo across it and no way in that setting could you go and stand nearer the woman you have in mind without being horribly conspicuous and potentially too indiscreet. So I didn't and I didn't see guys doing it either. I know guys so good at cabeceo that they can make discreet invitation clear at long distance but I cannot. A guy did try insistently to invite me from a bare metre away where he sat at his table but it just felt uncomfortably close and odd. Many people were there I think to eat not to dance and the seating did not clarify who was there for what. It is not such a fun or easy place to go alone whether or not there are free tables.
There were two or three couples on the floor when I arrived. I realised it was a lesson, run by Felix, the DJ from the night before and his partner. The milonga began at 2115. I was astonished how different the music was from the previous night. It was all great classics but much softer, slower music. My musical memory from here is not good, but there was certainly Canaro, I think some excellent Laurenz, perhaps Donato. It was all good though there were no cortinas initially. Felix said he played them from 10pm. I asked him which music (of the two different nights) was the "real Felix". He said both of them which was nice to hear.
The ages of the dancers were completely mixed. I danced with three women two of them visitors from abroad like me, and one recently returned to tango. Of the visitors one was brand new that night to dancing and one was experienced. While I was in Berlin several people made the point that there are always many visitors dancing tango in Berlin. There was only one guy I wanted to dance with and I could see he would be in demand. I danced with him the next night and he was also a frequent visitor from elsewhere in Germany. My impression at Clärchens was of a crowd of new dancers, holidaymakers and visitors on business. It got a bit busier and it was very mixed social dancing. I liked the music but I had a sense it was going to stay soft and I wanted more variety - a mix of the music from Clärchens and Milonga Popular would have been nice. I also wanted better dancing with guys so after an hour I went on to...
..."Alma" in Tango Loft
This is a monthly milonga held in Tango Loft (Gerichtstraße 23, 13347 Berlin). This is another I found out about by word of mouth. Its events are published on Facebook. I found out later that this particular milonga apparently has a reputation as one of the top places for dancing. It was not particularly busy.
Tango Loft is a bizarre place, or rather the contrast between how you arrive there and what is inside is marked. See the notes on safety
I wasn't at all sure what sort of set-up I'd walked in to when I arrived. I got a drink at the bar off to the right and wandered around the restaurant at the back of the room. I had to get changed. There was an adequate ladies room but I do not remember a cloakroom for coats and shoes. There were no free tables around the floor so I went to join a couple of women who were sitting by the stage (and DJ station). This is the first problem at Clärchens. There is no obvious single seating and no-one to seat you with other women, say. Unless you go to sit on the stage with other women then you could have a lonely night. The trouble with sitting, displayed on a stage, while others are at civilized tables, is that I can't help but think of Amsterdam street windows in the red light district.
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Pre-milonga practica, Clärchens Ballhaus
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I had expected a much older style room. But in fact the room has silver streamers hanging from the walls so I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in an old room that was decorated in the seventies. It certainly had a sense of history. That picture is fairly realistic if less flattering to the place. Here is another, taken from the entrance. The restaurant extends into the room at the back.
The lighting was "functional" which is to say if it wasn't exactly atmospheric it's certainly bright enough for invitation by look. It needs to be because the room is quite large. This was the next problem. All the women I danced with I chatted to, around the stage first. I found the room big for cabeceo across it and no way in that setting could you go and stand nearer the woman you have in mind without being horribly conspicuous and potentially too indiscreet. So I didn't and I didn't see guys doing it either. I know guys so good at cabeceo that they can make discreet invitation clear at long distance but I cannot. A guy did try insistently to invite me from a bare metre away where he sat at his table but it just felt uncomfortably close and odd. Many people were there I think to eat not to dance and the seating did not clarify who was there for what. It is not such a fun or easy place to go alone whether or not there are free tables.
There were two or three couples on the floor when I arrived. I realised it was a lesson, run by Felix, the DJ from the night before and his partner. The milonga began at 2115. I was astonished how different the music was from the previous night. It was all great classics but much softer, slower music. My musical memory from here is not good, but there was certainly Canaro, I think some excellent Laurenz, perhaps Donato. It was all good though there were no cortinas initially. Felix said he played them from 10pm. I asked him which music (of the two different nights) was the "real Felix". He said both of them which was nice to hear.
The ages of the dancers were completely mixed. I danced with three women two of them visitors from abroad like me, and one recently returned to tango. Of the visitors one was brand new that night to dancing and one was experienced. While I was in Berlin several people made the point that there are always many visitors dancing tango in Berlin. There was only one guy I wanted to dance with and I could see he would be in demand. I danced with him the next night and he was also a frequent visitor from elsewhere in Germany. My impression at Clärchens was of a crowd of new dancers, holidaymakers and visitors on business. It got a bit busier and it was very mixed social dancing. I liked the music but I had a sense it was going to stay soft and I wanted more variety - a mix of the music from Clärchens and Milonga Popular would have been nice. I also wanted better dancing with guys so after an hour I went on to...
..."Alma" in Tango Loft
This is a monthly milonga held in Tango Loft (Gerichtstraße 23, 13347 Berlin). This is another I found out about by word of mouth. Its events are published on Facebook. I found out later that this particular milonga apparently has a reputation as one of the top places for dancing. It was not particularly busy.
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| Street marker for Tango Loft |
Tango Loft is a bizarre place, or rather the contrast between how you arrive there and what is inside is marked. See the notes on safety
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| Alley down to Tango Loft. |
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| Much less worrying by day! |
The bottom of the stairs seemed also to be the back of a kitchen for a restaurant on the ground floor. The walls inside the entrance was covered in graffiti. It was a dingy place. The photo of the stairs makes it look better than it is. I squeezed past people in overalls loading plates, hectically, and made my way up the staircase, wondering how on earth this could be the way into the venue everyone I'd talked to in the UK had mentioned.
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| Up to Tango Loft. But the interior is nothing like this... |
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| Into tango loft... |
I arrived at about 2315. There was great music from Ismael, perhaps the best I heard that week but in the way of the younger DJs I remember most of what I heard to have been fairly high energy. All though, or nearly all were great classics and not as dramatic as the music at Milonga Popular the night before.
I found the seating difficult. There are tables and chairs along the large window on one side. I watched a surprising number of dancers watch themselves in the reflection of this window! There are bar stools and tables around the bar and more relaxed lounge style seating in the other seating area (not easily visible from the bar). Invitation in Tango Loft happens mostly in those two areas. As there were far fewer people on Tuesday than on Thursday when I next went, the lounge area was not really used much. I sat by the window which was a mistake. I was too hasty in my choice of seat but I wanted to move away from the area where most people seemed to know one another. The better idea might have been to meet them.
The dancing was good. Just about everybody knew each other. No one was taking any risks with the unknown. There was a surfeit of good, young, known women dancers.
A few guys hovered but I hadn't seen them dance and no one I had my eye on invited me. I didn’t get on the floor and left about 0030 when I had started to feel conspicuously part of the furniture. Despite the lovely music I don't know that I would go back to Alma either unless I was going with friends.
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