Milongas

Sunday evening we went with Lina and Wendy from South Africa to a milonga. We had a little problem getting a taxi. The driver of the one we eventually got said that everyone was watching the futbol game. Seems like DC isn´t the only place where sporting events can screw up traffic.

The milonga was in a building with a restaurant on the ground floor and the milonga on the second floor. The ceilings were so tall that each floor looked to be 2 stories tall. It was a grand building with marble stairs and columns. The wooden features were dark and richly carved. It had a faded opulance to it. There was even a lift like you see in old movies. Like a metal cage in the corner. The lift was roped off. This was probably a good thing; it looked scary.

There were tables set around the dance floor. Normally, the ladies sit on one side and the gentlemen on the opposite. The gentleman will ask the lady to dance by making eye contact (milonga eyes). If the lady declines she simply looks the other way.

Milongas are danced in sets with 3 different types of dances; tango, milongas and vals. There will generally be 3 tangos, a break when a completely different type of music is played like a hustle. Then 3 milongas are played. Then a break. Finally, a set of vals are played. Then it starts all over again.

A couple will dance all 3 dances in a set. If they stop in the middle of a set, something untoward has happened.

We danced a couple of sets together. When we finished our last dance, a cheer went up. For a split second I thought it was an indication of our dancing ability. However, it turned out that Argentina had made the winning goal against Columbia.