Hosts: Vanessa Leamy and Naomi Head; DJ Antonella Cosi (Edinburgh). Performance: Damian Thompson and Mariana Ancarola. £10 entrada including snacks. Saturday 6 February, 2016 2030-0100
This milonga is not currently a regular fixture. It was organised by the hosts as the social dancing for a weekend of workshops given by the performers. The venue is in a suburb of Glasgow.
I hadn't intended to go. I had danced some that afternoon at the Glasgow practica and gone on to a wine tasting, planning to go home afterwards. But after several glasses of gewürztraminer I found myself in the car of friends en route to the milonga. I was glad to be accompanied because although the venue is conveniently opposite Kinning Park subway station the entrance was round the back of a building and alone I doubt I would ever have found it. Someone said the area is rough and that you wouldn't want to walk around on your own.
We arrived probably towards 2200. I had planned to stay for an hour or so then get a train but after perhaps a couple of tandas there were performances (shows/adverts for classes) of four tracks cutting down the time for social dancing. Luckily, another friend said I could stay over.
There was a table of snacks - quiche I think, cold empanadas and other things. The arrival of hot bacon butties later on was a very British twist on the idea of hot Argentinian empanadas. Indeed they vanished quickly. There was always plenty of water.
There were several announcements - one for various thanks and introductions of the performers, one announcing bacon rolls, one asking whether anyone wanted more bacon rolls, one to announce the last 5 tangos.
The best thing about this venue was the smooth, newly sprung wooden floor. It is quite a long room for invitation by look from one end to the other. I wasn’t paying attention to how others were inviting. Given the way the tables were arranged I just assumed that it was by look. Glasgow dancers certainly seem to have gone that way at the Crypt milongas in the time I’ve been going and Glasgow used to have a reputation for not inviting by look. Somebody said they thought the lighting a bit harsh but with a room of that size you need good lighting. Somebody else had said previously the venue could be cold. I noticed Mariana, who wasn't dancing much, wore a wrap but I felt fine.
There were tables of the large, British, trestle style. There was I think sufficient seating. Coats and belongings seemed to have "bagged" most of the chairs. But you couldn't guarantee your seat would be there when you came back from a tanda because of seat swapping.
A few people stayed on the floor during the cortinas blocking line of sight for invitation by look across the room. The cortinas were occasionally danced.
The ronda was mixed though there was in theory plenty of room for a good ronda. The actual ronda was a single circle of couples. There were several new or just poor, experienced dancers who stuck neither in the middle nor in the ronda. A few times I got frustrated with being crashed into by these and to avoid them cut across the ronda to an empty space or circled back. As people left though, things improved.
I watched the professional, Damian and the host Vanessa dancing in the ronda. I met the very charismatic Damian and had a private lesson with him a couple of years ago. I found him polite, professional, respectful and helpful. I seem to remember he has been dancing for decades and as you’ll see in any video he has a lot of very well polished moves. I also know Vanessa as a social dancer who now teaches locally.
Their social dancing was more in the tango nuevo dance style - with a hold more than than embrace. Vanessa is small and Damian is a tall guy so the hold might have been for that but I think Damian’s style is acknowledged as being more towards the nuevo end. Also most recently, last year. Vanessa and Damian were fun to watch, more fun for me than the performance. There was a lot of play and jokes in their dance I rather felt I was watching a show in the ronda which many dislike though I think they are both sufficiently experienced dancers not to cause harm or invade the space of others. The trouble comes when less able dancers trying to ape that are mixed in a ronda with people who want to dance more modestly. Generally I feel that where a local area has diversity in milongas like will attract like and people who enjoy the same dance style and the same kind of music will gravitate together.
Mariana is very beautiful, smiley and seemed nice but watching voleos which in performance for me become repetitive and mechanical is not how I would choose to spend those twenty odd minutes. I prefer to watch accomplished dancers socially and when they are being wholly themselves, rather than a projection of something else for people to watch.
Attendees - Someone told me a table of people I mostly did not recognise were from Newcastle. There was a scattering of regular Glasgow dancers who I see at other events. There were several beginners, and most of the rest I think were partners and friends of the organisers/performers/DJ including a few people from Edinburgh. I danced quite a bit with women and swapped back and forth between roles with one guy but I didn't feel I danced well and found myself apologising at the end to my partners who were all very nice about it.
The DJ, Antonella Cosi, is the head DJ in Edinburgh and (seems to be, with her partner who is also part of her DJ crew) general organiser or at least announcer of happenings in the Edinburgh Tango Society. They also host El Tango Club milongas in Edinburgh. She has played in Carablanca tango club in London several times and I believe at several festivals. The giveaway to the type of music she plays is in the shibboleths of her own DJ advert: “undiscovered” and “gems”.
These words or similar (“hidden” gems, “rare”, “forgotten”) I have seen used by other DJs to describe their music. “Vinyl” is of course a real term but also another shibboleth though indicative of something else. Wiser, in my view is her partner, Tom’s DJ advert, though again the word “entertain” suggests to me where the spotlight points. In contrast I have found that really good DJs generally like to be very low-profile. The non professional ones often seem to prefer to dance than DJ and none of my three favourite (professional) DJs in Buenos Aires dance tango.
Cards on the table again, Antonella gave me my first opportunity to DJ. It was at the Counting House in Edinburgh. Setlists here. These days however our approaches to just about everything of significance seem to diverge and we don’t tend to go to the same events.
The tracks listed below are correct to my knowledge but there was no printed copy of this set. Happily, it had few real hidden gems. Perhaps it was coincidence that she played a more traditional set than I have heard (often) on her home turf in Edinburgh. Perhaps it indicates a change of direction away from the “undiscovered gems” so typical of Firpo, Guardia Vieja and as mentioned on her DJ profile the late twenties. Closest to that “undiscovered” type music I try to avoid was the early Canaro tanda - I arrived during it. I know the third track but it is so unlike the Canaro I prefer that I do not know the name. The fourth was very similar though - El pinche (1935) which is heading towards my idea of a nightmare.
The only other tracks very like that was another Canaro tanda later on, with singer Roberto Maida (all from 1935) - I didn't dance it. Cambalache didn't get me up. It's alright but it plods, I don’t fancy it, for sure not at that stage of the evening and it's a bit comedic for my taste. It’s not El rey del bosque (1939), but my mind, searching for the name of the track, headed in that direction. Incidentally, if I’m going to watch a show, I like it in the vein illustrated in that video. The performance is for fun more than for showing something off. Besides, more than most performers the guy dances the music (but what music!). Back in the Canaro tanda there was Golondrinas (swallows), though a track less evocative of those birds I find hard to imagine. Noches de Buenos Aires on the hand, was nice. The trouble is the whole tanda clumps and labours. La copla porteña is just this side of comic but in combination with these tracks I found it all too heavy.
Similarly, the Donato tanda towards the end was a big miss to my taste. I’ve noticed this problem with Donato before at another event with the same DJ. Why that should be when there are so many well known, great Donato tracks I can’t fathom. I generally prefer the more playful Donato tracks but the opener El adiós (1938) is still lovely. I would have danced it but I was starting to feel I had exhausted my possible partners by this stage of the evening and I missed this track. I got up with a friend after the first track ended but decided to sit down again as the second track started and to stay sitting for the third. I don’t know the track names. We got back up to La melodía del corazón (1940) although of those I dance this is one of my least favourite Donato track. Earlier, the Donato vals, Con tus besos (1938) and Estrellita mia had been nice. I heard the change of orchestra to OTV’s great vals Temo (1940) and thought that odd and a bit unnecessary but I didn’t mind.
The milonga and vals tandas were mostly good for me. I have said before that I have noticed often that many DJs do a better job of the milonga and vals tandas than they do on the tangos which to my mind is a better test of good DJing.
One exception here were the Rodriguez vals Clavelito en flor (1937) with Roberto Flores, En el volga yo te espero (1943) and Brindis (1943) both with Moreno. There is quite a range of style in the Rodriguez vals. I am not very keen on even the better of them at the best of times. These ones I’ve been told are more like ranchera. They’re fun for listening but I find them a bit too slapstick, like dancing when you're not in full control of your faculties. I wasn't but still didn't dance them.
The best tanda for me was the strong rhythmic Troilo-Fiorentino El bulín de la calle Ayacucho (1941) and the marvellous headlong plunge into that music. It was well grouped with its famous friends. I liked the Laurenz-Podestá tanda and danced it but Como el hornero (1944) was the weakest track. The giveaway is also that it was in third place. I liked the Tanturi/Castillo but find Madame Ivonne (1942) weak and a disastrous opener though I heard it at least twice in London in November. Another very weak opener was Fruta amarga (1945) in the Caló/Iriarte tanda. The lovely Marion (1943) should have gone first not second in my view and the tanda would have been the better for dispensing altogether with Fruta amarga and Seis días (1945). As in the Marion clip the tanda finished with Nada, which was nice.
The Di Sarli/Rufino tanda was OK. In the Fresedo/Ruiz the second track Si no me engaña el corazón was the weakest. I danced the first two Pugliese/Chanel but gave up for El día de tu ausencia and Nada más que un corazón which aren’t my thing. La Cumparsita was one of the good ones. I think it was the Troilo 1943.
There was rousing applause for the DJ from those remaining at the end.
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