Traveling Tango

[As this is a lengthy survey on tango in Barcelona, will be published in two sections.]

We live in this city and dance almost nightly and just finished a wonderful visit with friends from Istanbul and Seattle.

Living here makes it exciting to share the parts of the city that we have grown to love. The old city is always my favorite, but we spend time in many different barrios and we are trying to figure out where we want to live in the future.

In the city of Barcelona, it takes 30 minutes to get anywhere in the city. It’s about the same time for Buenos Aires but for Istanbul it’s a bit different it takes a minimum of an hour.

The city is thick with bars, restaurants, music clubs a plethora of nail salons, and tourist trinket vendors but the good news is almost every night there is a tango Milonga.

Tango has proliferated in the last years, as 25 years ago there was only the Thursday night Milonga at Casa Valencia which was started and continues under the original organizer Antonia Barrera. The quality of dancing is usually very nice with a mixture of open and closed embrace. There is a tango class before the milonga taught by various teachers. The mixture of people from different countries especially Francia and Italy attests to the proximity of those countries.
Argentina is well represented in this tango community as many folks emigrated to Spain in the past.

Before I give my perspective on the Milongas here, I have to disclose my tango preferences. I will start by saying that to me, tango is close embrace. Tango is listening to the music. Tango is the embrace of your partner. Tango is listening to each others hearts, listening to the music, and keeping in contact with the floor. That’s how I like my tango. Add some fantastic golden age orchestras, ie Di Sarli, or Pugliese…and I’m in heaven.

With that said, Tango for me is not endless giros on the floor in open embrace. In Tango it’s important to listen to the music and dance to the music. If you can’t hear or understand the music, that’s what a musicality class is for!!

So now that I’ve disclosed that…here are my thoughts

On Mondays for many years was the Sagrada milonga, which is in a small space. Here there usually are more women than men. The embraces are mostly closed but a few insist on open embrace and doing many giros. The music has been excellent both times we visited.

Unfortunately at this time they are on hiatus for the summer and are not sure of their return.

On Tuesday there is Tango Mia. This is a small club with couches around a rectangular dance floor with a small bar in the corner. The DJ has a small table on the opposite side of the room. This milonga has rotating DJs and the dancing is as varied as the world of tango. This place attracts a good caliber of dancers but as the space is intimate and can be a bit clicky….but worth a visit. Especially if you can get a dance with the co-host Eddy. He’s a lovely dancer and very nice man and a good TDJ.

On Wednesday there is a milonga but we have not gone there. We take the night off and go listen to live music.

Thursday is Casa Valencia Milonga which we always have to go to. The dj here is always excellent, but the floor is crowded. And the crowd is mixed with the older dancers and lots of younger ones too.

Friday has a couple of selections. La Yumba run by a couple of Argentinas Graciela Y Osvaldo. The club is the size of El Beso with not as many seats. Reservations are a must here. The music is traditional and the co-host Osvaldo will sometimes sing the songs in a rich baritone voice. Again the dancing can be varied in quality, but mostly the middle-aged milonga crowd is friendly.

There are other 2 milongas on Friday that we have yet to visit.

There are many milongas on Saturday and Sunday too. Outdoors too. Plus lots of marathons and festivals nearby.

Part 2 on the Milongas in Barcelona will be published in a few days.

Then we are off to Rome to dance at the Amor d’Rome Encuentro.

We have lived here for 4 weeks can’t believe we are half way thru our time living here.

The things I have learned about living in the city. It’s a beautiful safe city as long as you remember you are living in a large urban area with lots of pickpockets and people who will rob you of your telephone and wallet.

Last night, we went to dinner at this great Vientamese restaurant we discovered. While having dinner, I turned and noticed this rather odd young man had joined the neighboring table. He was unkempt and bleeding from a cut next to his eye.

He was definitely not part of the large group of woman that occupied the table. In an instant, he tried to steal the telephone of the woman who was closest to him. We all were aware of him, and screamed at him to leave before he could steal her stuff. He immediately ran out of the restaurant, surprising the staff as well. As they were not expecting this person or this type of behavior at the restaurant.

In our time of living here, we are very careful where we put our bags and other stuff. Apparently robbery here in Barcelona is very common now.

The buses make announcements about holding onto your possessions as does the train. Similar to Buenos Aires, if you see a woman with an open purse, you say something.

We take the buses now. Mostly because the visual references help me connect the dots of the city; how Carrer Laietana divides the sections of old city and Gothic Quarter and how streets at certain intersections change their names.

For getting around the city quickly the Metro train is great, but for getting to know how the different districts connect, the bus is the way to go.

The Metro trains run daily until 12 am except for friday until 2am and Saturday all night long and Sunday 12am.

But the buses run very late all weekend long, but you have to watch this as the numbers change and at night start with an N. The routes are combined making long bus routes, but they do run pretty much on time.

We notice late at night when returning from a milonga that the streets of Barcelona have a mixture of people walking about.

There are the drunken Germans and Brits, speaking loudy and not walking quite upright. The beautiful and not so beautiful young girls wearing all the latest fashions from the almost invisible dresses to long flowing dresses. Quite the fashion show at 2am.

Then there are the street cleaners, the garbage trucks and the restaurants workers taking out the garbage. All cleaning up.

Am so grateful to these workers who clean up the piss and puke of the late nite party goers. If not cleaned then on a hot day the city stinks of piss.

As with any large urban city these days, there are many homeless people. They sleep under the pórticos and on the small streets. They beg for money as they do elswhere. They are drunk or high, but usually always very smelly and very dirty.
Am sure there are many different stories as to how they came to be sleeping and living on the streets.

And I think to myself, what a wonderful life we have.

We worked all our lives to enjoy these years. We have been traveling for a few years now, and continue to enjoy getting to know new cities. We love with our hearts, we think with our minds and we dance tango as we live our lives with a passion for life.

Because we know how hard life can be and how lucky we are to have made the decisions that led us discover to each other.

Traveling Tango

Tango Barcelona:Part 1

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Traveling Tango