Tango del Sur (Stockholm)

Last night was another night of tango for me, and in a very different kind of atmosphere from the previous milongas I have been to. The venue, Cafe Tjärlek (those of you who know Swedish will recognise the word play) was a small cafe a little bit outside of the city centre, in Södermalm. For some reason, the people at the milonga in Buena Madera had been strangely unaware of the existence of this Monday night milonga, and the only person who told me about it was not even sure if it was indeed on Mondays. However, when I rode into Södermalm (itself a really pleasant part of the city with lots of bars, restaurants och small shops, I immediately felt more at ease than I had in the city centre. (Later on, I was told by the milongueros at Cafe Tjärlek that for some reason there seems to be little interaction between people who go to these ´two milongas, no more than 15 minutes' bike ride from each other.)

The place is really small and cosy, with a front room that serves as a cafe and a backroom that is cleared of tables for the twice-weekly (Mon and Thurs) milonga. The people were decidedly more mature (I was definitely the youngest person present), but at the same time, the attitude to the music appealed to me much more. Who knows, maybe it had also been due to Sunday being the season's closing milonga at Buena Madera, but there I had sensed much more tension and effort to impress in the attitudes of the dancers. For sure, there were some really good dancers (especially towards the end of the evening), but at Cafe Tjärlek I could sense a lot more joy of dancing, along with a very welcoming and accepting attitude towards strangers.

Jurgen leading me to a happy tune.

I spent almost the whole 4 hour milonga on my feet, dancing, which must be a record it itself for me. The music was quite a lot on the traditional side, but it really suited the venue and the people. Some of the leaders were really quite experienced dancers too, which obviously made it very pleasant for me. Most importanly, however, something marvellous had happened to my dancing during the night, and all of a sudden all that stiffness and tension was gone and I was a lot more able to really follow than ever before. You can imagine my happiness, when ever since the beginnign of the milonga I felt incredibly calm, happy and accepted! Normally, I tend to need quite a long warm-up before I can start to relax and trust myself.

I am just about to go to another workshop, this one will have a slightly different approach to tango as it is organised by a 'Queer Tango' centre. What that means, remains to be seen, but the teachers are Argentinian  and the topic (how to use space more creatively while dancing) sounds really interesting.

Will let you know how it went.

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