Yes, for my tango peeps, I have finally gone out dancing for the first time.
This afternoon I checked out a milonga which the organizers sweetly described as "por la mañana" even though it runs from noon to 15:00 (I do love this culture). I had found it on the internet, and recognized the location as being right along my side of the river, in the Plaza San Pol. That meant it was all downhill or flat going, and mostly flat with only one serious hill coming back, and also that it was pretty far from the nearest metro, so it was an obvious bike milonga.
Twenty minutes picking my way through the Parque San Isidro and down past the Tanatorio to the river, and another twenty rolling of necessity slowly along the banks of the Manzanares among the hordes of people strolling, biking, skate-boarding, scooting, etc. through the warm summery sunshine brought me to the "Sala Cha3" a ballroom located in the basement of a theater that seems dedicated to putting on fairy tales for children. (The side of the building is painted with larger than life Disney characters, and the flyers above the box office advertise A Christmas Carol, The Wizard of Oz, and similar.) I locked my bike by the trash containers, and headed in the side door and down a red carpeted staircase to the "Sala Cha3." (I was there one evening to dance years ago, but I don't think I've ever heard it pronounced, so I don't know if it's pronounced "Cha Tres" or "Cha al Cubo" (Cha cubed) or "Cha Cha Cha." I'm assuming the logo Cha3 is to suggest the latter.)
There's a bar along the wall where you go in, and then steps down to very plush red padded seats set around low tables, all around a nice wooden dance floor. The lighting is quite low, and the dance floor is illuminated only with colored spot lights (and two halves of disco balls, fixed to the ceiling). It's all very dramatic, perhaps too much so for a Sunday afternoon, although it must be super cool for all the formal dance evenings. (They have another milonga on Thursdays, as well as salsa nights, and other nights with a mixture of ballroom dances.) When I got there salsa was playing, but when I asked the nice woman at the counter she said it was just one set, and a tango tanda would start in a moment, which indeed it did. (Actually a milonga tanda, which must have been quite something after tangos.) It was a mostly older crowd, generally not showy dancers, but quietly musical, and friendly in a calm way. (I got invited to dance almost immediately after the milonga tanda, and no one in their right mind invites unknowns to warm up with a milonga.) After a few sets, at about the halfway point of the milonga, the announcers said they were doing a chacarera set, and would couples please take the floor. I didn't have a partner to do chacarera with, and it's been a while since I've done it, so I sat it out, and went to get a drink (which one gets with the price of admission). When I returned to the dance floor, after about ten couples had formed two chacarera lines, and happily danced (a couple of the women had skirts almost full and flowy enough to use in the classical manner, and a few others cheerfully did tacones, because this is Spain, and anybody can do footwork here), the announcer said "seguimos..." and then obviously after someone interrupted changed his mind, and said that due to popular demand they would be playing a sevillanas, so if people wanted to dance that, to please take the floor. So after salsa and chacarera, a number of people unselfconsciously danced Sevillanas, with none of the flowing skirts, or tortoiseshell combs in the hair of the women, and no high-waisted pants and silly bullfighter costumes for men. Just fairly nice, generally colorful summer dresses, and and short sleeved dress shirts with slacks. (And actually seeing Sevillanas right after Chacarera, you really do see how close the two of them are. Sevillanas is pretty clearly a direct ancestor, complete with the palmas and tacones.)
[Update: A loyal reader informs me that there are a bunch of terms here unfamiliar to non-tango people. Briefly: palmas and tacones are respectively clapping (literally palms), and heel stamps (tacon means "heel" in Spanish, as in the heel of a shoe). Milonga is not only a gathering where tango is dance but also the fast, non-pausing version of tango played to quick 4/4 music that sounds more like military marches. Chacarera is an Argentine folk dance, from the countryside (not Buenos Aires, like tangos and milongas), traditionally danced in long flowing skirts that women play with in the dance, similar to the way flamenco dancers do. Here's a link to a concert performance of a very traditional chacarera which is kind of slow and boring, but gives an idea of the classical costumes (aka rural 19th century Argentine daily clothing). Here's a link to a chacarera done at a milonga, by people who don't have the proper swirly skirts and are less accomplished but generally much more fun to watch. Truly traditional chacarera was a dance of the rural poor, so it was frequently done barefoot, and that tradition more or less survives at some milongas, where women who don't want to wear heels, either so that they can do tacones or just for balance or comfort will hastily tear off their shoes and then run for the dance floor while the set is forming and people are clapping. That did not happen in Madrid, but it's a cute and traditional sight at milongas generally.]
Spaniards are adorably matter-of-fact about flamenco. But they're also cheerfully eclectic, and danced in the cortinas, as well as for salsa, and probably any other sets that could have been played. The ballroom has large tango argentino posters on it, but there are movie stills of Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse over the bar (along with a photo of Duke Ellington at the piano), and the walls are covered with posters for the "Canal Street Jazz Band" and the Cotton Club, as well as (for some reason) big black and white photos of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. So in this land of music and dance, where ending a dance like the chacarera by hugging your partner is the most natural thing in the world (actually ending just a meeting by hugging people is pretty normal), there are lots of New York memorabilia! Weird.
As I say, it was an older crowd, so I may explore other dance options, but this one is a pleasant and easy bike ride away, and it is a nice way to spend Sunday "morning." So another piece of settling in has occurred.
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