Tangocamp (Düsseldorf)

 The Düsseldorf riverfront on a beautiful summer afternoon.

After a few days' total immersion in the world of tango, I am back amongst the 'real life'. During the weekend, I danced in 3 milongas, in total for about15 hours, which on top of the 4 days of intensive cycling to get here was more or less all I could possibly have done. Indeed, I quickly realised that  I was actually lucky that the tango workshops that took place during the days were all full and thus I got to rest at least a few hours every day!! :-)

The festival itself, TangoCamp, is part of a chain of events that takes place in four different countries in Europe during the summer. At each event, there will be intensive courses and workshops as well as drop-in classes, and obviously, milongas. The teachers, accomplished tango dancers, are mostly Latin American (although by no means only Argentinian), but there are also some couples from Europe. The whole idea of a 'camp' is that people gather from all around Europe and practice, dance, eat and sleep in the same place for the duration of the long weekend that each event lasts. And, believe it or not, some people actually follow the show to the next city, which in this case is Rome, to do it all again the following weekend!

For me, not participating in the courses, the main reason to attend was twofold: first, I was really interested to see what the level of dancing is in such an event, as well as experiencing the atmosphere of such a large gathering of tango enthusiasts from diffenent countries. And secondly, I was obviously hoping to get to dance a lot, to feel a part of the event, to learn from every step as I continue doing at this stage of my life with tango. I was also planning to take a couple of drop-in classes, but in the end took only one as the soles of my feet really were so sore that I had difficulties standing up in the mornings!

The participants of Tangocamp waiting for a performance to begin during the last night`s milonga.

Now that the weekend is over I can fairly say that it was a great event that I am happy to have attended. Especially the first night's milonga was truly impressive, as upon reaching the venue, Tanzhaus NRV I was immediately struck by the fantastic premises and the incredible crowd. As a matter of fact, at first I found myself thinking that there must be some other event taking place here at the same time, as all this people could not possibly have come here for tango! :-)

There were two dance floors, one of them with more traditional music and the other one playing the so-called neo-tango or electro-tango that is a kind of fusion of tango melodies with elements of other music genres. As could be expected, the room with traditional music was by far the fuller, and when I first walked in it was as if entering another world: literally hundreds of people dancing, the dance floor (the size of a normal stage) full to the brim, and lots of onlookers as well, waiting for their turn.

Unfortunaltely, that first night was a bit disappointing in terms of people mostly dancing with their regular partners, and thus were not really asking others to dance. I suppose there was a fair amount of showing off too, at least amongst the more advanced dancers. As a result, the opportunity to really enjoy the atmosphere and benefit from the variety of dance and leading styles was kind of wasted, at least for me. I did dance a fair amount though, mostly with Karri, a Finn who had actually suggested the Tangocamp to me in the first place and who was here for the weekend to participate in the courses too. In addition, I was glad to see a couple of familiar faces from my earlier milongas during this trip: a lady (or, to be more precise, a trans-gender person) whom I had met at the Queer Tango event in Stockholm, and someone I thought I had met at the milonga in Copenhagen but never had the chance to verify as I lost sight of her. Still, it was great to feel that already I can go to a tango event in a new country or city and still meet people I have met or danced with before!

Back from a funny tanda with Karri.

After the first night, I relocated to a more affordable hostel just round the corner from hotel Diana, as all the money from the saved on accommodation means more money that can be spent on tango :-). As the milongas all went on until 4 am and I then had to ride back to the hostel (an easy 10-15 min bike ride, if you knew where you were going which wasnt always the case with me ;-), my weekend passed in a bit of a blur. I saw almost nothing of the city besides the ride from the hostel to Tanzhaus, and spent most of the days resting my feet that really were quite sore. Miraculously though, by the time I had to start getting ready for the next milonga, they were almost back to normal!

Luckily, the last two nights' milongas were more relaxed and easy-going, and people were finally letting go of their regulal dancing partners to ask others too. On Saturday night, my fist few tandas were actually quite disheartening, as nothing seemed to work and I had huge difficulties, once again, with both maintaining my balance and truly following, not anticipating, the leading. This did not bother me too much, as I was still enjoying the event very much and have been in extremely good moods for a long time now, but obviously it made the dancing a bit of a chore. However, after watching the midnight performance by a few of the teachers, something just clicked and I was once again back on track. I think it may have been that I was simply too tired to be 'trying' too much, and this created just the right kind of setting for being able to really follow. I wonder if this means that from now on, I should always ride my bike for 500 km's and sleep only in 4-hour shifts before going to a milonga???

Last night was the final milonga, and although a lot of people had already left, those who were there were all in really good moods. It had clearly been a very succesful event for most, and probably due to exhaustion the dancing was by far the most relaxed, musical and intimate of all the nights. Now, there was also time to just watch others dance instead of wanting to be there amongst them all the time. Myself, I don' think I even sat down (except for watching the performances) in any of the milongas before last night!

Despite dancing with literally tens of leaders of different skill levels during the weekend, I found once again that the most important ingredient for a truly enjoyable tango experience is the deep, almost meditative connection between a couple that sometimes occurs although they know nothing about each other and have hardly exchanged a word. In this event, I was lucky to experience it too, as ever since the first milonga my tangos with Marco, a Dutchman, were truly memorable. It is this element of unexpected, deep connection that keeps me so hooked to this dance. I think it even gives tango some deeper healing power, as it restores my faith in people being able to understand, respect and appreciate each other, instead of focusing on differing expectations and needs.

The final tango with Marco.

As I am writing this, I am still in Düsseldorf, trying to decide what to do next. I know that I am not ready to start heading home yet, so it is more a matter of choosing amongst many appealing possibilities. I think I will first go into a bookstore and look at maps, as I am one again at the southernmost corner or the ones I have.