[Tango-L] Review of Milonga Andariega (Buenos Aires)

[Shahrukh Merchant]

You may recall that in my review of the Buenos Aires Tango Mundial & 
Festival a month or so ago, I had commented about Orquesta Típica 
Andariega, comprising 4 European women amongst its 10+ members, 
including the orchestra leader and all 3 of its bandoneonistas. (The 
rather obscure and hard-to-remember name "Andariega" means something 
like "one that gets around" ...)

I finally got to go to Milonga Andariega, where Orquesta Andariega 
performs most Sunday nights, at Buenos Ayres Club, Peru 571, in San 
Telmo (the site of a few other milongas as well).

The location has a nice cozy feel to it, with a stage at one end, a 
wooden floor in reasonable condition, and a small bar. Admission was 
only $15 pesos, low for any milonga these days and certainly one with an 
orchestra. The orchestra played well, though lacking some of the energy 
they had at the festival (admittedly a much more important and visible 
gig for them).

That was pretty much the good news. As a milonga, there's not much else 
going for it. There were few people, at most 15 couples on the floor at 
a time and usually less. The level of dancing was fair to poor. Dancing 
style was arms-length dancing for the most part, navigation was largely 
"Brownian motion," i.e., mot much concept of direction (though it didn't 
matter as much since the floor was not crowded) and there were at least 
two couples doing things like deep dips and so forth that even Hollywood 
has eliminated from its Tango scenes, so I assume the resident teacher 
must be teaching stuff like that. It seems to be more of a social 
hangout place for a younger crowd that's somewhat into Tango but not 
really seriously into the dance.

So would I recommend it for something? Yes, if you want to listen to 
good live Tango music, mostly danceable, on a Sunday night, you can't 
beat the price at $15 pesos. And it is somewhat of a luxury hearing and 
being able to dance to a full Orquesta Típica. (Torquato Tasso was my 
go-to place for that, but they no longer have live music for their 
Sunday milongas.) Note, however, that the orchestra only plays from 
about 11:10 pm to 11:50 pm (notwithstanding the Tanda playlist that had 
been printed out and set out on each table--nice touch anyway--that 
showed 12 tandas, which should have been at least 2 hours of music), so 
make sure you get there by 11 pm, since there's only about 45 minutes of 
live music.

And you probably want to bring your own partner or better yet come with 
a group of friends, since between the light attendance, variable quality 
of dancing, and the fact that there was not much dancing or socializing 
going on across groups, it's not really a place to go by yourself, 
unless you just want to listen to the music.

Disclaimer: This review is based on just one visit, and one woman I 
danced with did comment that attendance seemed to be lighter than usual.

Shahrukh