Charles Long

The Tango world in our area has been strong and varied for many years now, and I’d like to think that we’ve been part of that story. Many good milongas help to sustain the community, and make it attractive to dancers from other areas too.

Cooperation is a big part of this. We try to support the other events going on locally; it’s great to get to meet up with other dancers and connect with the local dance community. So we know what’s going on and share our enthusiasm and support.

And we always make sure we avoid running events that clash with other Tango events locally i.e. not on the same day, and not within an hour’s drive.

Let’s face it, it’s just plain good old common sense all round, isn’t it?

Yes, I understand that nobody has the right to ‘own’ a date for an event. But to give events the best chance of attracting a good crowd, then it seems logical to not force dancers to choose between competing milongas. If there’s a choice of events, then obviously each of those organisers will attract will have a reduced number of dancers.

And obliging dancers to choose between events is divisive; it doesn’t encourage a cohesive local community.

You’d think that was obvious, but not everyone seems to think so. Over the years since we started running milongas several people have established local milongas that clash with our existing events, and the consequences have been predictable.

Despite that, it’s still happening *sigh*

Exciting news today about the venue for Etonathon 2017.

St. Bernards Convent told us they needed much tighter security arrangements for the event, which would have caused major headaches on top of the factors we had already discovered at the Charity event we held there in May.  But after the first milongas at Old Windsor Memorial Hall we’ve heard lots of great feedback about the Hall and its great dance floor, so it crossed our minds that Old Windsor would be the right venue for the Etonathon event instead.

There was just one problem; there were already some bookings at Old Windsor when we would want to be there.  Hmmm… So we sent a few emails and made a few phone calls, and over the next couple of weeks slowly the pieces started to fall into place. Then yesterday we got the news that the final hurdle had been removed and we could use Old Windsor Memorial Hall for the entire 4 days 27-30 December! Fist bumps all round!

We’re really pleased; the dance floor at Old Windsor is one of the best we’ve ever danced on, and it’s got a lot of other things that make it a better choice, too, including the acoustics, ventilation, access, and technical facilities.

And it looks like we might also be able to fit in an extra opening Milonga on the afternoon of Wednesday 27^th December too!

We used the Baldwin Hall in Eton for many years before our bookings were terminated without an explanation.  It took months of asking before we finally found out that it was because the Hall’s Trustees preferred to keep the Hall for use by locals only.

Now I’ve been hearing on the grapevine that other users of the Hall are having a hard time with bookings also. Yes, it seems that even minor bookings are being rejected if it doesn’t suit the Trustees.

OK, so I’m biased, but it makes me wonder quite why bookings are being declined even when the Hall could otherwise be empty. Are there really that many people in Eton who might possibly want to use the Hall instead?

And there’s the wider effect on the Eton to consider. Over the years we used the hall we brought in thousands of dancers to Eton who then spent money in the local pubs and restaurants and shops. I’m left wondering about a strategy that’ll leave a resource standing empty instead of having a facility bringing in visitors and boosting the local economy.

It’s comforting to know it isn’t only our Tango events that are being affected by this strange decision. Luckily for us, we’ve now found a new venue with better parking, a better dance floor, better toilets, installed sound system, plenty of power sockets, Wifi, and a friendly organiser. So we’re not bothered.

Well, hello again. What a couple of months it has been! The biggest news is the re-start of our milongas, as the new venue at old Windsor.

The opening night was a real heart-in-mouth moment for us; we had spent days and weeks preparing and doing dress rehearsals too. Sarah spent hours making bespoke bunting in beautiful colours and we created longs chains of fairy lights and rope lights to create a magical atmosphere.

The big unknown for me as the DJ was the quality of the sound once the room was full of people chatting and dancing on top of the dance music. There really is no way to predict how it will go, and I was really nervous – I guess it might have showed. The hall has huge speakers installed, but I chose to supplement them with an array of our own speakers just to give the best possible sound quality. Of course, that also meant miles of audio cables to connect and power cables too. As it turned out it was great, and I needn’t have been concerned about it.

Luckily we never needed to worry about the dance floor. It is absolutely fantastic; silky smooth.

The doors opened and we were amazed at the huge crowd of dancers that arrived; it was unbelievable! We hadn’t dreamt that there would be so many people coming along to support us and celebrate the new venue. The food was gobbled up, and the dance floor was packed all night.

So, that’s it; we are under way again in a great new venue that has happy reviews, and I can’t begin to describe how fantastic that feels.

… has anything much happened?

the search for new venues for our Milongas has continued non-stop. There’ve been lots of helpful suggestions and ideas, and an incredible amount of support.  We could never have dreamed that so many dancers were behind us and wanted to help out.  If there’s one thing that has come out of the recent changes, it’s discovering what an incredible community has developed around our events!

In May we tried out a possible venue, at St Bernards Convent in Slough, with a ‘pop up’ charity night, and it went really well. We learned a lot about the hall, and how to make it right for Tango; for future events there’ll need to be changes to the acoustics and layout, and a hundred other small details.

And in the meantime we’re waiting for another local venue to have a new dance floor installed before we give it a try too.

Don’t worry; whatever happens, we’ll be continuing with monthly milongas and extended events at Christmas and Easter.

It’s all change here at Thames Valley Tango this month.

A few months ago we heard that the Trustees of the Baldwin Hall in Eton wanted us to stop using the Hall.  Well, that certainly was a shock; we’ve been using the hall for 11 years but apparently they felt able to just give us notice without any discussion.  There were letters and emails and, eventually, face to face discussions, but all no no avail. We are out, and the work of developing the very best lessons and milongas in Eton has to end.

Naturally, we were totally gutted by the news. And I mean GUTTED.

We immediately went on a voracious hunt for an alternative venue. But that ain’t easy. Weeks and weeks of searches and visits showed that decent dance venues in East Berkshire are as rare as rocking horse sh*t.  Good venues are either wildly expensive, poorly maintained, or totally booked up 7 days a week.

The hunt continues …

Christmas and New Year can be a hectic time for anyone, but for us it’s extra busy.  There’s 11 milongas in 17 days.

We start with a Christmas party on the Wednesday before Christmas. It’s our most casual evening, as everyone mucks in and brings food and drink to share.

Our special Christmas Eve milonga is a couple of days later. Ever since we started running Tango events there has been a Christmas Eve milonga in Eton, and it gets more popular each time. We spend all afternoon setting up the Tree and the Christmas lights, the decoration and the drinks, and there’s a small and regular band of helpers sharing the work, and the highlight is the massive Christmas Tree that we set up in the middle of the dance floor*.  For me, and many other dancers, it really marks the start of the holiday season.

Fast forward past Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and we’re back at Eton for the famous ‘Etonathon’ event; 4 days of dancing every afternoon and every evening. Getting together the team of DJs has been a challenge this year; I’m very particular about the standard of DJing at Eton, so there’s a limited number of candidates for the DJ team and this year I’ve been kept waiting by someone for over a month, by which time most other good DJs had committed to other events. But in the end we’ve got a great team together, so it has all worked out well.

Then the first event in January is a big annivesary celebration milonga.  After all, it has been 11 years since we started our Tango lessons and events, so we deserve a party!  Last year we had 10 DJs over 10 hours.  Will we do 11 hours and 11 DJs this time?…

*we still get some dancers complaining that the tree takes up the space in the middle of the dance floor, but there is still sufficient room for 2 lanes of dancers, so it tells us something about their style of dancing 🙁