Tone of the milonga

Over at Tango Chamuyo, Janis reflects on her stay in Buenos Aires upon the tenth anniversary since her arrival.

While most are subjective opinions and perhaps more particular to Buenos Aires, there is one thing I can personally relate to, when she said:

“The organizer sets the tone of each milonga.”

Over the years, apart from Singapore, I have been fortunate to be able to dance a little in Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Tokyo, Montreal and Melbourne (note that Berlin is absent from this list since I was too fresh to be able to make good observations 🙂 ). While the quality of music is important for me, I think the enthusiasm as well as the level of hospitality (or indifference) displayed by the milonga organiser can often compensate for deficiencies in other areas (such as small venues, lack of dancers, etc.) and set the mood for the milonga. In fact, I was reminded of this again when a friend related her experiences at a recent milonga where people stuck to their small groups and reluctant to start dancing until the wee hours, while the organiser was totally oblivious nor cared, but that is another story for future…