Time to move on (Berlin)

Setting off from Berlin. 

Although I like the city itself, my previous trip to Berlin three years ago left me feeling truly inadequate as a dancer and uninteresting as a person. Because of this, I was curious about how I would feel now, when my dancing experience has increased so much. Often, upon returning to a place one sees it in a completely new light, and I must say I was hoping this would happen to me and Berlin tango too.

Unfortunately, despite the nice experiences at the High Noon Marathon, this time around has not proved much better. The moment the marathon was over and I was visiting local milongas, I was confronted with the same, seemingly quite typical Berlin attitude that local tangueros have towards strangers. In most places, even bigger tango cities like Amsterdam or Paris, there is always at least some curiosity when a new tanguera walks in to a milonga. True, it may take a while for her to be invited, but once she has danced with someone, it will usually result in many others inviting her as well, even if just for curiosity's sake.

Here, on the contrary, there is a marked indifference, hostility even, towards anyone new. And even after one has danced with a good dancer for several tandas in a row, something that should make the others see one is not hopeless, there is still no sign of interest. If the locals were busy dancing with their favourite partners, I could understand this, but to me it seems that most are just sitting idly for most of the evening, staring listlessly into air. Even people I saw every day at the marathon show no sign of recognising me, and there is no such thing as friendly hellos unless you actually spoke to the person before.

Frankly, this puzzles and tires me, as it is dinstinctly similar to my experiences in Zuerich earlier this year. It is true that many of the locals have never danced with me, and that Berlin is probably the biggest tango city in Europe (bearing in mind that Istanbul is only partly on this continent of course!). But still, why should it mean that people have no interest in anyone new, even a person they have seen repeatedly in the course of the past days beats me.

When one adds to this the local embrace that is far from what I am used to, there is actually not a lot to make me want to stay any longer. It is a real pity though, as Berlin is such a vibrating, creative and buzzing city and otherwise people here seem pretty laid back.

With my wonderful host James, the best reason to like Berlin.

In any case, I do have to make a move if I want to make it in time to Brussels. Have had my bike fixed, bought a new map and checked the money situation (yep, still some cash left) so am now ready to ride on.

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