[Tango-L] Review of the Milonga at Viejo Correo

[Shahrukh Merchant]

As promised in my recent review of Práctica X, which is thought of as a 
young, "modern" Milonga, here is a narration of my visit to Viejo 
Correo, a very traditional milonga, by some measures at the other end of 
the spectrum, the very next day.

There are actually several milongas at Viejo Correo, organized by 
different people. This is the one on Wednesday nights, organized by 
Jorge del Solar. Here is the logistical information:

"Matiné de Tango" at Viejo Correo (usually just called "Viejo Correo"), 
organized by Jorge del Solar. Every Wednesday from 6 pm to 3 am (we got 
there for the "night shift" at around 10:45 pm). (He also has milongas 
at the same location on Fridays and Saturdays, but this review strictly 
speaking only applies to the Wednesday milonga, since the weekend 
milongas may have different dynamics.) Reservations: 15-6800-1277. 
Address: Av Diaz Velez 4820 adjacent to the Parque Centenario (this is a 
huge stadium-sized park, so you can't just tell the taxi driver to take 
you to Parque Centenario and start walking around--you should know the 
exact address and also that it is between streets Campichuelo and Otamendi).

Unlike my visit to Práctica X, where I went alone, I went to Viejo 
Correo with two pretty Colombian tangueras. I had not been to Viejo 
Correo for well over a year. "It's a very traditional milonga," I warned 
my compañeras, but they were up for the adventure so off we went.

The salon is relatively long and quite narrow. The first thing you 
notice upon entering is that the first half of the total space (closest 
to the entrance) is occupied by several rows of tables for two, 
stretching from the entrance to the dance floor. The left half has all 
men from the entrance down to the dance floor; facing them off on the 
right side are the women's tables. This is the "singles'" seating area 
or, more accurately, the "available to dance with other people" seating 
area. Both sides were about half full; the men's side had fewer people 
than the women's. Everyone (on the singles' side at least) was in his 
60s and 70s. The only thing missing to complete the picture was a heavy 
cloud of smoke hanging over these tables (smoking has not been permitted 
in Milongas in Buenos Aires for a while now). This "men and women facing 
off" effect is more pronounced here than at any other traditional 
milonga I can recall having been to--I can see how it could even be 
intimidating if you're not used to it.

Then is the dance floor, which is smallish and tiled (and one corner of 
which is occupied by an emblematic life-size statue of Carlos Gardel), 
followed by another seating area, less than half the size of the first, 
which is for couples and groups (who intend to dance amongst 
themselves). There were fewer than a dozen people in this "couples and 
groups" section.

Admission was $15 pesos each. Jorge greeted us at the door, and I 
confirmed that we had a reservation. He was momentarily confused as he 
had reserved a table for us in the group section, thinking we were going 
to be two couples, but then (appropriately) accommodated us in the 
singles' section (on the ladies' side) AFTER confirming that both the 
girls would be dancing. This sounds like a lot of detail back-and-forth 
on a seating location, but it's precisely this kind of attention to 
detail that makes a good milonga host. That is why, at most traditional 
milongas, the host is the one who greets and seats the guests (the 
person who takes the money is well, the person who takes the money, 
though not "just" the person who takes the money because very often they 
have been working there for a long time and know all the clients by name 
and greet them as well).

[An aside: Why did he seat us at the ladies side when there were more 
empty tables on the men's side? The obvious-sounding answer is that 
there were two women and one man in our group, but that's not really the 
reason; there was one other couple who chose to be seated in the 
singles' area (presumably since they wanted to dance with others) who 
were also seated in the more-crowded women's side. There are at least 
three reasons: (1) The girls were definitely going to be more 
comfortable seated amongst the other women, with whom they could chat 
occasionally (without feeling like they were being chatted up), rather 
than having a feeling of "being in a lion's den" (I guess I was not 
considered threatening enough to be considered a wolf among sheep, to 
extend the animal kingdom metaphor ... need to work more on that 
grizzled macho milonguero look, I guess :-)); (2) It would not have been 
appropriate to force a woman to turn her head way to the side or even to 
look behind herself to make eye contact (to cabecear) as it would make 
her appear aggressive in seeking a partner; (3) When I got up and danced 
with one of my companions, as I was surely going to be doing, there 
would be, inappropriately, an "unprotected woman" on the men's side. So 
the host seated us on the women's side (who said chivalry was dead?).]

As we sat down, one of the girls whispered to me, "Everyone's staring at 
us!" (What she meant was that all of the men were staring at the two of 
them, which I guess was true, though we did get some curious 
did-they-walk-into-the-wrong-place type of glances all around.)

"Well," I whispered back, attempting to put her somewhat at ease, "They 
probably want to dance with you ... cabeceo, you know."

"They are NOT doing cabeceo," she whispered back fiercely, "They're 
STARING at us!"

A woman regular seated nearby, who didn't hear this exchange, but 
probably sensed the gist of it, added helpfully, "Well, it's been a long 
time since we've had niñas at this milonga, you know." [I would hasten 
to add, in case anyone is wondering what I'm doing escorting niñas (a 
term usually reserved for pre-adolescent girls) to milongas, that the 
aforementioned "niñas" were quite solidly in their late 20s!]

Everyone settled down, though, and the staring stopped (as the cabeceos 
started ...). Both Colombianas were good dancers, and they proved to be 
quite popular (just as well that I had direct-asking privileges!). A 
couple of men discreetly asked me "permission" to ask the one sitting 
closer to me to dance, but others probably felt it was OK to skip this 
nicety, perhaps because we had all chosen to sit on the singles' aside, 
or perhaps because there were an odd number of us, or perhaps just 
because they (correctly) assumed that I wasn't about to challenge them 
to a knife-fight over it!

I danced with three women other than my two compañeras--one of whom was 
really excellent. Another of the three was seated behind me and actually 
asked me by signalling one of my compañeras to nudge me into asking her!

There was table service, with the usual selection of wines, champagnes 
and mixed drinks available. Food was "comida rápida" only, i.e., 
empanadas (good), cheese/ham/olive plate (OK), toasted ham and cheese 
sandwiches (OK - somewhat scant on the filling).

Music was (just as in Práctica X ...) 90% golden-age Tango. The 
non-Tango-family tandas were chacarera, paso doble and rock 'n' roll 
(rather than salsa as in Práctica X)). Lovers of non-traditional music 
for dancing Tango will be gratified to know that even at such a 
traditional milonga, they played Haris Alexiou's "To tango tis Nefelis" 
(although it was towards the end of the milonga when there were just a 
few couples left dancing).

Navigation? No one was doing anything wild or fast, and most people had 
been dancing for many many years, so were well versed in navigation. 
There were a few occasions of back steps against line of dance, but just 
one back step at a time, and not a very long or fast or hard step, so 
not hard to avoid. There were no dirty looks for bad navigation being 
exchanged.

I had fun, the girls had fun (they certainly drank lots of champagne, if 
that's a measure!), and we had a good mix of eating, drinking, chatting 
and dancing. They reported that a couple of the dancers they danced with 
were very good. The girls also reported receiving several marriage 
proposals, two invitations for trips to Paris (well, from the same guy, 
so maybe that just counts as one), and one invitation to dance as the 
said gentleman's partner at the next Tango campeonato mundial. Those 
were the invitations they told me about, anyway. :-)

In summary ...

What you get at Viejo Correo:
----------------------------
A traditional Milonga
Golden-age Tango music
Golden-age "regulars"
An opportunity to be called niña/o, jovencito/a, bombon, etc. (even if 
you thought you no longer qualified ...)
Feeling of being in another time period
Made to feel welcomed
A Tango experience you cannot get in any other city in the world
Cabeceo
Piropos (and then some, apparently)

What you don't get at Viejo Correo:
----------------------------------
Young dancers (unless you BYO :-))
Volcadas, colgadas, back sacadas
A lot of technically skilled dancers


Shahrukh