Charles Long

Cynthia Barlow Marrs came along to the Eton Milonga, but not to dance.  Instead, she quietly took a seat above the dancers and started to sketch. Most people didn’t even know she was there, watching them dancing and capturing the moments. To be honest, I had forgotten she was there, too, but the end of the evening she showed me the results, and they speak for themselves.  We’re used to photographs of dancers, but her sketches have an extra quality, and I love them! see more of her work at www.cbarlowmarrs.com

Sunday afternoon. Eton.

I’ve just put out an appeal for help setting up for the afternoon’s Matinée Milonga. It’s a job that usually takes me 3 hours, but today we have just 30 minutes to do everything. Yikes!

And there’s a lot to do besides putting out tables and  chairs.  Every table has to be decorated with fresh roses. Water and cups need to be put out for everyone.   All the audio cables, speakers, and laptops have to be connected, and the hall itself has to be decorated with drapes, curtains, and rope lights.  The toilets need fresh towels. The tanda display has to be set up.

Everyone springs into action, and we get stuck in.

25 minutes later, and I can’t quite believe it; everything has been done!  The doors are open and dancers are starting to arrive.  The hall is looking great and the music is playing.

Thanks David, Russell, Phil and Maxine; you worked a miracle!

When I first started going to Tango events the music really didn’t matter to me; frankly I was far too busy concentrating on stringing together a few dance steps to worry about anything apart from not making a complete fool of myself.

And, to be honest, the art of Tango DJing wasn’t much evolved back then; all kinds of tracks were mixed together by DJs who didn’t know better, and we just carried on regardless.

Then I got the chance to DJ at our milongas, and it suddenly I had a new responsibility; what music to play?  What order to play in in? How loud? I had to navigate through a strange foreign land of orchestras, singers, and styles.

In a panic I spent hour, after hour, after hour amassing whatever Tango music I could find and listening to every single track. And I’m still at it (right after posting this blog I’ll be spending a couple of hours reviewing my collection of tracks by Juan Maglio).

You’d have thought that by now I’d be used to it.  After all, at the last count I have been the DJ at over 300 milongas.

But I STILL get really nervous before DJing at a milonga.  Will the tracks that sounded so great together at home work OK in a big venue full of dancers? Will I get the energy right?  Will the tandas flow? Have I missed an obvious choice?

There are so many potential pitfalls, problems, and chances that might not be worth taking.

And then the dancers start to arrive, the floor starts to fill, and the night takes on a life of its own.  I get absorbed in watching the dancing, mulling over track selections, making notes, planning ahead and trying to guide the dancing.  Then all of a sudden it’s time to announce the last tanda, and the evening is over.

aaand relax!

Brian Fowler has written this short story, prompted by a competition on Radio 2 for children to write a story with no more than 500 words:

The Final Word

It was Saturday; again. There was never a reason to smile on Saturday. He awoke always with an immediate feeling of disappointment.

Monday to Friday had a purpose, not always good, but at least a reason to catch the train or head to the shops for the week’s essentials. Sunday was not necessarily a day of rest but taking it easy on Sunday was still an acceptable plan to be achieved, perhaps even savoured.

Saturday, the day, was too full of other people going to too many places in too much of a hurry and wherever possible places and people to be avoided. It was Saturday evening though that left a feeling of almost anxiety, an evening when for so many it was a time for anticipation, preparation, the excitement of going somewhere special with someone special.

It had not been like that for him for so long that it was well nigh impossible to recall the excitement of a night at the theatre or a favourite restaurant. Saturday evenings now were evenings of seclusion and television programmes that were designed with the knowledge that there were few people at home to watch them: Except people like him.

Surely this Saturday needn’t be the same and if it was to be then what of all the other Saturday’s to come. He was not old: He might reasonably be described as middle-aged and while it was not likely that he would be considered athletic he felt that he looked okay; walked with a jaunty step and, most days, with a smile not too far below the surface.

Perhaps that was what he needed to get him out of this slough of despondency. Not depressed no, but with a feeling that this could not be another wasted evening. The weather was fine and warm and he knew the river would be at its most enticing at this time of the year; so that’s the plan, a walk by the river. Into town, take the steps by the bridge and go where the towpath will take me.

Why not make it a special occasion. On the return journey stop off at the wine bar in the high street and enjoy watching those other people enjoying themselves. Why not?

It would take a bit more effort if the walk was to have an objective and a wine bar would surely demand a clean shirt and, against all the usual Saturday tradition, a shave too. Go for broke; shower time.

Strange how such a simple plan lifted him as he took time in selecting what he considered the best shirt which required the best trousers and jacket and a fresh shine on his shoes.

The jaunty step? Oh yes that came too and one or two he passed seemed to notice his self-satisfaction and smiled as he went on his way.

He turned the corner approached the church hall and he saw it; the banner over the door – Tango.

The beginning

‘The complacency of competance’

Well, I would say this, wouldn’t I, but everyone who is interested in the standard of their dancing needs to have regular lessons from a good teacher.

Without work your dancing will naturally deteriorate.  Those bad habits and technique weaknesses aren’t going to cure themselves.  Left unattended they will get worse, and become a permanent fixture of your dancing. Your regular partners might not notice the gradual decline, but  other dancers will.

I see it in people who’ve been dancing for a long time.  They may have lots of friends who’ll dance with them, but their dancing is getting slowly worse. They are off-axis, have unhealthy posture or weird embraces, and aren’t exploring the beautiful music. And they’re starting to wonder why it’s getting harder for them to get dances.

We all like to think that we’re good dancers, and it is uncomfortable to consider the weaknesses in your dancing, but just sometimes it’s worth swallowing your pride, leaving your ego behind, and accepting that someone might be able to help you improve.

As for which teacher to choose… well that’s up to you, and should probably be left for another Post!

There are loads of Tango DJs out there, but when you’re a bit of a control freak (me?) and very choosy about who you allow to DJ at your events then it can get tricky.  And preparing for this year’s Eastonathon event has been as arduous as ever.

I’ve visited a lot of milongas to check out DJs, there are always lots of suggestions from helpful other dancers, and some DJs got a guest slot at our Anniversary Milonga too.  But… let’s just say that I’m always amazed at the different approaches that people take to the DJ job, and how professional they are (or not!).

So the team that are coming to Eton to DJ at Easter have passed my closest scrutiny and boy, am I pleased with the line-up!

There are some well-known and much loved faces; Kirsty Bennett, Ricardo Peixoto, Antonio Martinez,

And some new names at Eton; Solveig Jansen, Hiba Faisal, and Anthony Cronin

Oh, and me.

We’ve had loads of messages of thanks and congratulations for our 10th Anniversary, but this one took the Biscuit – literally!  Kasia had it made in Poland for us, and brought it along to our lesson on Sunday, and we don’t know whether to tuck in to it with a mug of coffee, or just admire it!

The past couple of weeks have been the best ever for our tango events, and I feel like it’s the culmination of what we’ve been building in our tango community for the past ten years. We were absolutely bowled over by the huge number of people who came to Eton for the Anniversary event on Saturday, old friends and new faces too.

We get a real buzz from putting on milongas that people enjoy, and this was the best ever; a fantastic energy in the room and loads of smiling faces.  Somehow it seemed that we had arrived at the destination we set out for years ago, and I must have been walking around with an inane grin on my face all day.

Thank everyone for giving us back so much happiness and satisfaction.

We’ve just finished sorting everything out after our big events at Christmas time, and now there’s even more big stuff coming along;

Well, naturally, the first thing is the refreshed look of this web site.  there’s been a lot of work going on behind the scene for a few weeks now; we’ve kept our web site guru Nick busy!  He’s updated the site and make it easier to view with mobile devices.  The good news is that Nick makes a decent cup of coffee, so I’ve looked forward to the meetings to discuss the changes.  Nick is a dab hand at this kind of thing, and gave Thames Valley Tango it’s visual identity years ago.  Lots have people praise the site and so we’re in good hands.

The bad news is that I’m faced with learning a new system (what could possibly go wrong?) , so he’s got to expect to get a few calls for help over the next few weeks.