Start of the week but the portenos do not rest when it comes to dancing. For most of them it just means the start of a brand new week of dancing.
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Best Place to Go: Salon Canning, located at Scalabrini Ortiz 1331, is a place to see and be seen. The name of the milonga is called Parakultural. The organizers of this milonga have made it quite a success, attracting both seasoned milongueros and a hip young crowd. Bright lights, modern european styled dance salon, beautifully decorated with pictures and the famous milonguero photo montage of Monteleone ( www.photomonteleone.com/v2/home.htm ). Classy without being too posh.
For tango lovers who come to Buenos Aires, this is a beautiful place to immerse yourself into the tango scene, due to the good mix of locals and foreign tango lovers; the young and old; the milonguero and the nuevo.
Plus every monday night there are always high quality performances from great dancers or renowned orchestras. Julio Balmaceda and Corina De La Rosa, Javier Rodriguez and Andrea Misse, Cecilia Gonzalez are some of the great dancers I have seen perform on a monday Salon Canning night.
Dancers: Mixed level of dancing. There are some really good dancers that frequent the place, and I do not mean just the locals, seasoned tango dancers from other countries love to hangout at that place, for example Ney Melo and Jennifer Bratt of New York love to hang out and dance there, when they are in Buenos Aires.
But it is also plagued by many tourists who came to Buenos Aires without a decent tango dancing background, those who wants to see 'tango' because just they are in Buenos Aires. As such there are times when the dancefloor is unbearable to dance to in peace.
Well known dancers frequent there. Besides old milongueros like Tete, Dany, Julian, you also get the younger generation dancers; the beautiful Geraldine Rojas and her current partner Ezequiel Paludi are amongst the regular dancers.
Floorcraft: Not so good. When it is not crowded it is at least bearable. But for the nuevo dancers who loves to make complex figures, they need space. Even if they cut back on the figures, they way they go back and forth always gives me great fear to dance with them around.
Then you have the tourist who knows nothing about tango, jumping in just to join in the fun; they practically dance with a rose in their mouth. There are milongas where the codes are still pretty strict, where the organizers will keep a look out for badly behaving dancers on the dancefloor. This is not one of them.
But you do get nights when its not so crowded and the energy is calmer. I had some great dances with very good dancers, monday nights Salon Canning. You just need to know who to look for and when to dance, and a little bit of luck.
Music: The deejay is Silvia, teaching partner of Tete, she knows a lot about music and has a very good taste. But sometimes I think the technical issues of deejaying is preventing her from doing a perfect job. There are times when the music stops in the middle of the tanda.
What I Like Least: Definitely the crazy dancers. There are a big mix of people in Salon Canning. Of course the very good dancers dance amongst themselves. But bad dancers get to dance here too. As such, the floor can be quite messy, and for someone like me who enjoys a shared moment of intimacy and tranquility within the embrace, bumping into people really bothers me.
Memories: Geraldine giving Javier a big hearty applause when he finish performing with Andrea on one of the nights. Glad to know that they have each moved on in life.
Another night I was approached by Australian TV channel doing a documentary on the foreigners in Buenos Aires doing tango. Got interviewed by them. Feels weird to be on camera again after a teenage stint with TCS (Television Corporation of Singapore).
And of course, dancing with Andrea Misse to that special D'Agostino tanda!!!
Other Nice Places: Club Gricel (La Rioja 1180) where an older crowd dances. It is very good to dance there too because the floor is much calmer and the dancers really know how to enjoy peaceful simple tango. If you just want to tango, and know how to tango well, Gricel is a good choice too.
