Flavours of milongas
After attending a variety of milongas during my brief stay in Buenos Aires (from the ultra traditional to something from the left field), it seems that there are two types of “milonga cultures”, for lack of a better term. By the way, I am not suggesting that they are mutually exclusive, but only that some milongas are more conducive for one or the other types of behaviours, and they do tend to co-exist within the same milonga, to a more or less degree.
The first type is where people – mostly going alone – go for the sole purpose of dancing Tango. Apart from few simple greetings when people first arrive, there is really very social interaction except on the dance floor at the start of each song – especially less so among the ladies. When people feel moved by the music, they cabeceo, dance, separate to return to their seats and the process is repeated all over again when the next “good” tanda comes up. Some examples are the milongas at Plaza Bohemia and El Beso.
Then there are the milongas where people tend to go with a bunch of friends and where more socialising/dancing among friends occur. In general, the mood tends to be more informal. Some typical examples include Niño Bien, Salon Canning, Sunderland and, well, La Viruta. From my experience, these milongas also tend to be more (single) visitor-friendly than others. Naturally there are still many more in between the two extremes.
Putting aside stylistic considerations, it’s therefore not surprising which types of milongas the young people (Argentinian or otherwise) preferred…
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Hey, you were in BsAs and I only just saw so on your blog 🙁
I am sorry because I’ve been so busy recently trying to complete the ‘guide book for tango travellers’ that I talked of months ago and so I have been a bit out of touch with the blogs I normally read, including yours…
This morning noticed your link to me about the tango show La Ventana and came to find out if you had enjoyed the show!
It has been interesting to read your experiences in BsAs, and I’m glad that broadly speaking they support the content of my guide. What a shame you weren’t able to try out a prototype version of it while you were here! I would have loved to get your feedback.
Sorry we did not get to dance this time,
(Or maybe we did, and I didn’t realise it was you?! What do you reckon?)
Next time do please let me know you are coming!
Un abrazo, SC