It’s a cliché to say that things have to live up to the expectations. In fact, things have to live over the expectations created. It happens with cinema, music, and tango is no exception. La Negracha had to punch really high.
First things first - the music. It doesn’t work having one room playing clasico for the most skilled dancers and another playing neotango for the walls; walls don’t dance. Nevertheless, the music selection was quite nice. I knew Ivan’s good taste for tango from previous milongas in Edinburgh but, hombre, if you’re reading this, give up the bottom room and bring some neo upstairs!
The level of dancing was quite high. I had many sweet dances and I saw some lovely couples dancing really nicely to the tracks, trying to enjoy them as much as they can. However, it was painful (literally, I got a heel on my foot at some point) to have to constantly dodge away from Pablo Verón wannabes. Watching the very last three minutes of Assassination Tango where Pablo Verón & Geraldine dance on the empty floor should be forbidden before a milonga – you start getting murdering thoughts. Furthermore, those people 1) weren’t Pablo Verón, 2) their companions weren’t Geraldine and 3) the floor was crowded. They are the living proof that clean quick moves don’t make you a good dancer.
The bar was an absolute rip-off, even considering that we were in Holborn.
And I share with you a story that a friend of mine came across, in the same milonga (sorry J!). He went to a lady and asked her to dance, she asked him, very pretentiously, “Are you good?” to what he said “no”. Then she asked him “How long have you been dancing for?” and when he told him that he had been dancing for four years she said, patronisingly, “Ok, I’ll dance with you.” These are the kind of people that should be barred from milongas.
We walked back to City Road and realised how lucky we were to be tango-raised in Edinburgh.
And if you want another opinion about La Negracha, read mshedgehog's review.
5 comments:
Not sure if my previous attempt of leaving a comment was successful or not. But yes, the last story was so hilarious I continued laughing for at least 10 mins after J told us the story. If it was a professional dancer from BsAs it would have been understandable (not necessarily agreeable), but...
I agree very much with what you're saying.
Also, just debating on whether I should write a full article or leave one comment, but on the subject of "level" of dancing. Yes, I thought generally it was above Edinburgh. But, there were very few dancers that put a lot of emotion into dancing, and very very few that were inspirational... Nobody really gave me the "urge" to ask them (well I would have been rejected quite cooly anyway, but hey) to dance...
If anybody asked me the same questions as J was asked, I'm very tempted to say something like, "I am phenomenal...!" and would like to see the person's eyebrow raised.
Here's my review of Negracha. There's not a lot of point, in my opinion, unless you stay till 3am, or you're there to see people you know, or you're feeling too competitive to go somewhere nice. Drinks too expensive, not very friendly, too many bumps. I think it's worthwhile for us all to review the competition.
Hi mshedgehog!
I'll put a link to your review in the post! I read it and quite agree in some points. A milonga is what an organiser wants it to be.
I read your review about the Dome and I am wanting to check it out. Indeed, I have been meaning to do it for quite some time now...
And yes, it's always useful to know what other people say about milongas.
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