Cachirulo at Villa Malcolm

After the much-loved Maipu 444 location had to close down, the Saturday-night Cachirulo moved out to Villa Malcolm.

There's doesn't seem to be any big effort by organisers in BsAs to make the lighting 'romantic'. Just whatever lighting is there seems to be acceptable. Maipu 444 always used to have good, clear light, but that was unusual. At Canning some units that look like big LEDs have been installed and give some coloured light, but otherwise don't make a lot of difference: Canning was always on the murky side. The lighting at Villa Malcolm is drab, and it's a fair-sized drab hall. But the sound is great: a lot of big speaker units give a big, well-balanced and powerful sound that doesn't interfere too much with conversation, if you have to talk. The Villa Malcolm hall is spacious, and probably a comfortable place in summer, but it's draughty when a cold wind blows in winter.

I've watched a lot of dancing since I arrived, and it's a wonderful sight, people deeply and intently involved in the music and each other. A few dance for display, to impress, but most dance with tenderness, energy and easy skill, and it's great to watch.

Tuesday night: Cachirulo at El Beso

I arrive during the rock'n'roll tanda. After Sunday night it's reassuring to notice that all the dancers are well-dressed and wearing high heels or polished shoes. No tee-shirts and jeans! It's all elegant BsAs jive. So life is back to normal; the flood of visitors must have been confined to milongueandoland. There are still quite a few visitors, but that's normal. The dancing is generally great to watch, effortlessly good: anyone who thinks of close-embrace tango as boring and old hasn't been to El Beso. It's just incredible how effortlessly and smoothly many of these people can move with energy to the music, on a crowded floor, without accidents. It's got flair, some flamboyance and attitude, and near-perfect control too. It's endlessly fascinating to watch, but a very different feel to Gricel last night: it feels more competitive.

A woman seated very close to me and a little in front looks very familiar: but of course, it's Myriam Pincen. Wonderful to watch her dance with her chosen partners. I don't try to get to dance, but at least I can reflect that Myriam Pincen spent two years watching. Just another 23 months to go and I might be ready.

El Beso was the first place I visited when I came here for the first time a few years ago, and I remember being mesmerised as soon as I walked in by the turns on the spot, turns so well centred that the dancers give the impression of hanging on a piece of string and rotating – three, four, five full turns, quite fast, but without any impression of effort or stress. & on a very crowded floor.

Music, just an excellent mix. Good to hear a tanda of Julio de Caro, and see how it results in a rather tender, thoughtful dance tanda.

Comments on comments

Sound systems: as I said in my original post, I'm sure many London sound systems are of good quality. The problem is the arrangement of the speakers, and it's no good relying on two speakers at one end of a hall. The volume has to be turned up to reach and to overcome the inevitable loss of sound, and then people who aren't dancing start shouting at each other to make themselves heard. I take Chris, UK's point about the limitation of house systems, but streamed audio is now possible, and I look forward to the day when neat, efficient speaker systems deliver adequate sound all over the dance floor, preferably without wiring. I agree with Charles Long that good quality sound is really important. If sound is well-focused it can change the dynamic of a milonga.

Several people have agreed that less teaching is good. My feeling is that London tango could do with many more practicas, guided or otherwise. After all, even in 21st century London, men can't dance on street corners with other men, and won't be able to until tango is vastly more widely known and accepted. We all need more secluded places to practice in. Then it should be possible for the dancers to invite in teachers to help and comment, rather than teachers running classes. Then dancers engaged in dancing would call the shots.

& Jantango tells me that Maipu 444 has closed. The upstairs room that housed seven milongas a week has been sold, along with the parquet floor that has welcomed the soles of many great names of tango. It's like losing a friend, even though I can't claim to be at all well acquainted with the place. No more videos on the Cachirulo YouTube channel with the familiar red and black tablecloths! Or maybe the tableclothes will move to Villa Malcolm, where the Saturday night Cachirulo Milonga will relocate, along with the house video camera.

PS: Melina has left a long and very interesting comment here as a reply to what Chris, UK said. There was a problem of emphasis in the translation, and she clarifies the kind of help she and Detlef try to give, to enable people to dance more easily together.