News

… has anything much happened?

the search for new venues for our Milongas has continued non-stop. There’ve been lots of helpful suggestions and ideas, and an incredible amount of support.  We could never have dreamed that so many dancers were behind us and wanted to help out.  If there’s one thing that has come out of the recent changes, it’s discovering what an incredible community has developed around our events!

In May we tried out a possible venue, at St Bernards Convent in Slough, with a ‘pop up’ charity night, and it went really well. We learned a lot about the hall, and how to make it right for Tango; for future events there’ll need to be changes to the acoustics and layout, and a hundred other small details.

And in the meantime we’re waiting for another local venue to have a new dance floor installed before we give it a try too.

Don’t worry; whatever happens, we’ll be continuing with monthly milongas and extended events at Christmas and Easter.

It’s all change here at Thames Valley Tango this month.

A few months ago we heard that the Trustees of the Baldwin Hall in Eton wanted us to stop using the Hall.  Well, that certainly was a shock; we’ve been using the hall for 11 years but apparently they felt able to just give us notice without any discussion.  There were letters and emails and, eventually, face to face discussions, but all no no avail. We are out, and the work of developing the very best lessons and milongas in Eton has to end.

Naturally, we were totally gutted by the news. And I mean GUTTED.

We immediately went on a voracious hunt for an alternative venue. But that ain’t easy. Weeks and weeks of searches and visits showed that decent dance venues in East Berkshire are as rare as rocking horse sh*t.  Good venues are either wildly expensive, poorly maintained, or totally booked up 7 days a week.

The hunt continues …

Christmas and New Year can be a hectic time for anyone, but for us it’s extra busy.  There’s 11 milongas in 17 days.

We start with a Christmas party on the Wednesday before Christmas. It’s our most casual evening, as everyone mucks in and brings food and drink to share.

Our special Christmas Eve milonga is a couple of days later. Ever since we started running Tango events there has been a Christmas Eve milonga in Eton, and it gets more popular each time. We spend all afternoon setting up the Tree and the Christmas lights, the decoration and the drinks, and there’s a small and regular band of helpers sharing the work, and the highlight is the massive Christmas Tree that we set up in the middle of the dance floor*.  For me, and many other dancers, it really marks the start of the holiday season.

Fast forward past Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and we’re back at Eton for the famous ‘Etonathon’ event; 4 days of dancing every afternoon and every evening. Getting together the team of DJs has been a challenge this year; I’m very particular about the standard of DJing at Eton, so there’s a limited number of candidates for the DJ team and this year I’ve been kept waiting by someone for over a month, by which time most other good DJs had committed to other events. But in the end we’ve got a great team together, so it has all worked out well.

Then the first event in January is a big annivesary celebration milonga.  After all, it has been 11 years since we started our Tango lessons and events, so we deserve a party!  Last year we had 10 DJs over 10 hours.  Will we do 11 hours and 11 DJs this time?…

*we still get some dancers complaining that the tree takes up the space in the middle of the dance floor, but there is still sufficient room for 2 lanes of dancers, so it tells us something about their style of dancing 🙁

Cynthia Barlow Marrs came along to the Eton Milonga, but not to dance.  Instead, she quietly took a seat above the dancers and started to sketch. Most people didn’t even know she was there, watching them dancing and capturing the moments. To be honest, I had forgotten she was there, too, but the end of the evening she showed me the results, and they speak for themselves.  We’re used to photographs of dancers, but her sketches have an extra quality, and I love them! see more of her work at www.cbarlowmarrs.com

Sunday afternoon. Eton.

I’ve just put out an appeal for help setting up for the afternoon’s Matinée Milonga. It’s a job that usually takes me 3 hours, but today we have just 30 minutes to do everything. Yikes!

And there’s a lot to do besides putting out tables and  chairs.  Every table has to be decorated with fresh roses. Water and cups need to be put out for everyone.   All the audio cables, speakers, and laptops have to be connected, and the hall itself has to be decorated with drapes, curtains, and rope lights.  The toilets need fresh towels. The tanda display has to be set up.

Everyone springs into action, and we get stuck in.

25 minutes later, and I can’t quite believe it; everything has been done!  The doors are open and dancers are starting to arrive.  The hall is looking great and the music is playing.

Thanks David, Russell, Phil and Maxine; you worked a miracle!

When I first started going to Tango events the music really didn’t matter to me; frankly I was far too busy concentrating on stringing together a few dance steps to worry about anything apart from not making a complete fool of myself.

And, to be honest, the art of Tango DJing wasn’t much evolved back then; all kinds of tracks were mixed together by DJs who didn’t know better, and we just carried on regardless.

Then I got the chance to DJ at our milongas, and it suddenly I had a new responsibility; what music to play?  What order to play in in? How loud? I had to navigate through a strange foreign land of orchestras, singers, and styles.

In a panic I spent hour, after hour, after hour amassing whatever Tango music I could find and listening to every single track. And I’m still at it (right after posting this blog I’ll be spending a couple of hours reviewing my collection of tracks by Juan Maglio).

You’d have thought that by now I’d be used to it.  After all, at the last count I have been the DJ at over 300 milongas.

But I STILL get really nervous before DJing at a milonga.  Will the tracks that sounded so great together at home work OK in a big venue full of dancers? Will I get the energy right?  Will the tandas flow? Have I missed an obvious choice?

There are so many potential pitfalls, problems, and chances that might not be worth taking.

And then the dancers start to arrive, the floor starts to fill, and the night takes on a life of its own.  I get absorbed in watching the dancing, mulling over track selections, making notes, planning ahead and trying to guide the dancing.  Then all of a sudden it’s time to announce the last tanda, and the evening is over.

aaand relax!

Brian Fowler has written this short story, prompted by a competition on Radio 2 for children to write a story with no more than 500 words:

The Final Word

It was Saturday; again. There was never a reason to smile on Saturday. He awoke always with an immediate feeling of disappointment.

Monday to Friday had a purpose, not always good, but at least a reason to catch the train or head to the shops for the week’s essentials. Sunday was not necessarily a day of rest but taking it easy on Sunday was still an acceptable plan to be achieved, perhaps even savoured.

Saturday, the day, was too full of other people going to too many places in too much of a hurry and wherever possible places and people to be avoided. It was Saturday evening though that left a feeling of almost anxiety, an evening when for so many it was a time for anticipation, preparation, the excitement of going somewhere special with someone special.

It had not been like that for him for so long that it was well nigh impossible to recall the excitement of a night at the theatre or a favourite restaurant. Saturday evenings now were evenings of seclusion and television programmes that were designed with the knowledge that there were few people at home to watch them: Except people like him.

Surely this Saturday needn’t be the same and if it was to be then what of all the other Saturday’s to come. He was not old: He might reasonably be described as middle-aged and while it was not likely that he would be considered athletic he felt that he looked okay; walked with a jaunty step and, most days, with a smile not too far below the surface.

Perhaps that was what he needed to get him out of this slough of despondency. Not depressed no, but with a feeling that this could not be another wasted evening. The weather was fine and warm and he knew the river would be at its most enticing at this time of the year; so that’s the plan, a walk by the river. Into town, take the steps by the bridge and go where the towpath will take me.

Why not make it a special occasion. On the return journey stop off at the wine bar in the high street and enjoy watching those other people enjoying themselves. Why not?

It would take a bit more effort if the walk was to have an objective and a wine bar would surely demand a clean shirt and, against all the usual Saturday tradition, a shave too. Go for broke; shower time.

Strange how such a simple plan lifted him as he took time in selecting what he considered the best shirt which required the best trousers and jacket and a fresh shine on his shoes.

The jaunty step? Oh yes that came too and one or two he passed seemed to notice his self-satisfaction and smiled as he went on his way.

He turned the corner approached the church hall and he saw it; the banner over the door – Tango.

The beginning

‘The complacency of competance’

Well, I would say this, wouldn’t I, but everyone who is interested in the standard of their dancing needs to have regular lessons from a good teacher.

Without work your dancing will naturally deteriorate.  Those bad habits and technique weaknesses aren’t going to cure themselves.  Left unattended they will get worse, and become a permanent fixture of your dancing. Your regular partners might not notice the gradual decline, but  other dancers will.

I see it in people who’ve been dancing for a long time.  They may have lots of friends who’ll dance with them, but their dancing is getting slowly worse. They are off-axis, have unhealthy posture or weird embraces, and aren’t exploring the beautiful music. And they’re starting to wonder why it’s getting harder for them to get dances.

We all like to think that we’re good dancers, and it is uncomfortable to consider the weaknesses in your dancing, but just sometimes it’s worth swallowing your pride, leaving your ego behind, and accepting that someone might be able to help you improve.

As for which teacher to choose… well that’s up to you, and should probably be left for another Post!