[Tango-L] Good Dancing at Milongas in Buenos Aires

[Ron Weigel]

On 11/30/06, Christopher L. Everett <ceverett at ceverett.com> wrote:
>
> Did you ever go to Canning on Wednesday afternoon?
> El Arranque, ever?  Gricel Monday Night?  El Beso on
> Tuesday or Thursday night?  Maipu 444 on Wednesday
> afternoons?  Viejo Correo Friday afternoons?  Plenty
> of old farts, but some of the best dancers you'll ever
> see.

I would like to echo Christopher's observation. These milongas (plus
Lo de Celia on Sunday) were where I saw the best dancers during my BA
trip in May of this year. The dancing was not as good at some of the
popular milongas for tourists (Ideal, Nin~o Bien, Sunderland).

There has been a stream on Tango-L lamenting the detioration of
quality of dancing in BA milongas. Loss of the older milongueros and
influx of tourists has undoubtedly contributed to that. Nevertheless,
there have been very few milongas in the US that I've attended where
the quality of dancing approaches that of even the mediocre BA
milongas. The Denver festivals and last year's St Louis festival in
December have been the only US milongas I've experienced that I would
consider good dancing by BA milonga standards. Perhaps there are
others I have not attended that are of the same quality. So even the
mediocre BA milongas are better than almost all of the US milongas in
quality of dancing. US milongas are typically characterized by poor
navigation, bad partner connection, and musical deafness. Sometimes
the selection of music for dancing borders on atrocious.

Another thing to consider about dance quality in Buenos Aires. Tango
has been growing there as well as the rest of the world. In a growing
tango community, there is a pyramidal skill level structure - lots of
beginners, fewer intermediates, even fewer advanced dancers. With a
strong social tango scene in BA, many of these beginners will advance
in skill level and at some point the average skill level may rise
again (assuming saturation in recruitment). However, what may be lost
are the unique skills of the aging milongueros.

The best social tango dancing is still in Buenos Aires and this won't change.

Ron