A lot of dancers turned up for the live music but we all agreed it was too short. Last year, Jenny Surelia was involved and also gave a performance and it was a whole afternoon of very good tango.

They played a good number of very danceable tracks, I personally don’t like dancing to live music as music as recorded golden age tracks but Tango Siempre are one of the groups that play danceable music.

A lot of people turned up for the event, not only dancers but the general public and it was clear that everyone enjoyed it. Lets hope that next year there’ll be another set and whole afternoon of fun again.

Grandmaster Ipchun is now 86 years old, this is a clip of him a couple of years ago.

If when you get to 80, you have to change what you’ve been doing significantly, you’ve not been learning real skill.

Now to the nuevo dancers out there, can you do what you’ve been doing when you’re 80?

Adrian and Amanda’s musicality classes are different. They first introduce the double bass which plays the most obvious beat to dance to. But then the other instruments in a tango orchestra aren’t there to look pretty, they can be there to dance to as well. There are other instruments such as the violin, piano, bandoneón and the singer all contribute to the music. There are layers to tango music. They all contribute to a different feeling inside you and you can choose how you wish to express the music when you dance.

Adrian and Amanda’s musicality classes are the best I’ve been to. There is no dancing, just sitting down and discussing the various possibilities about tango music. What to listen for various ways that music can be interpreted. If you’ve not been before watch out for them again next year on Brigitte’s website. Its a shame noone in London teaches just the music.

However, none of this is real kungfu.

The word kungfu and martial ars really only became popular due to Bruce Lee’s films. But the real meaning of kungfu is the perfecting of skill through had work and practise.

For example, when I first started to cook I would’ve chopped vegetables like this: chop … chop … chop … chop.

Five years ago it would’ve been like: chop .. chop .. chop .. chop. And recently its more like chop chop chop chop

My kungfu in cooking has improved.

And a professional chef would probably like it like this: chopchopchopchop

His kungfu is better than mine.

There are no secrets to chopping vegetables – maybe the chef went to one or two classes on handling knives but that would’ve been it. His skill came from repeated practise and hopefully a passion for cooking.

The word kungfu can apply to tango. Tango is a skill that requires practise and dedication. The milongueros have good kungfu – they have danced for so many years and become one with the music when they dance. That is real kungfu.

We were both at Negracha and she’d just been dancing downstairs where they play nuevo, pop and stuff I can’t quite tell what it is. In the past Negracha hasn’t been known for great music (or floorcraft or dancing), however, I think you can get lucky and on some nights, there are decent DJs.

My friend had come up during the last song of the tanda and a cortina came on. “How do you dance to this? Its strange music” she asks. “Well, this is a cortina, you don’t dance to this” I replied as people started clearing the floor. She had admitted that she didn’t know what a cortina is. They just don’t play them at her regular milonga.

I can’t believe someone can be dancing in a Tango scene for three years and not quite know what a cortina is. I must admit, sometimes I get confused when the salsa or nuevo tanda comes on but it never surprises me. Some DJs only play cortinas when there a change from Tango to Vals/Milonga and vice versa. Not ideal but better than those that just random mash songs together.

“I can’t believe this, I’ve only danced with four or five women tonight. I come here to dance. I’m going to Negracha.”

(Yes, please do – floorcraft would improve if you did)

I don’t know how to respond. I’m certain any honest response would’ve fallen on death ears. I think I had only danced with two women at the time I spoke to him. But at least they were good dances.

If I can get one good tanda then I think I’ve had a good night. I find that getting a really good dance in London is quite difficult. There are plenty of women who are brilliant dancers that I enjoy dancing with (and are willing to dance with me). But trying to get them to the right orchestra is always a challenge. Whats even harder is getting a dance when the floorcraft isn’t so bad. Its that combination of partner, music and floorcraft that makes the or breaks the night for me.

If I can get one really good dance where everything falls in place, then I’ve had a good evening, anything else is a bonus. I’m not sure how some people can use the number of people they’ve danced with to gauge how good a night they’ve had.

I later found out from that Tanguero’s Facebook that Negracha was just as quiet that night – what a pity …

Why do you want to cabeceo someone? Well, its the traditional way of inviting someone to dance in Argentine Tango.

Its useful for the man because he can get rejected without everyone else in the room noticing. Men will always be men. We hate being rejected and we certainly don’t want the world to know about it! So I use the cabeceo where and when I can.

However, if you’re at a milonga where its so dark that you can only see half the width of the dance floor, eye contact is very difficult. Not to mention that half the ladies aren’t even looking out for the cabeceo because there are so many men that don’t use it. Those men are happy for the whole dancefloor to see that they got rejected.

I was at The Light’s Saturday night opening. It was a nice venue but the lights weren’t very powerful and it was a blue-ish tint which makes it even darker. It was quite difficult to see very far in terms of trying to cabeceo someone. BUT – what I noticed was that I could barely make out who was who anyway. Except towards the end when most people had left and you could guess who was who, but earlier in the evening, even if you got rejected, people across the room certainly wouldn’t have known who you were.

So who needs lights and cabeceo when milonga organisers can just off the lights and make it as dim as possible so you can’t see people being rejected?

The Dome is one of my preferred milongas – the crowd is younger, theres usually a number of good dancers and music is never terrible. Basically, its a not a hit or miss venue and at worse, it will be an average night. Most my nights there are good to excellent.

Providing the Northern Line is working, the venue is not too hard to get to.

Entrance fee is on the website and rarely changes so theres never any surprises or significant fee increases due to some visiting teachers or live bands.

There is usually a pre-milonga class and the resident teachers are Rene and Hiba. Occasionally there are guest teachers. As with most pre-milonga classes, the standard is open and you can get a variety of skill. Very few couples stick together but I can understand why they choose so. The number of men and women are usually differ by no more than four (in my experience – extra men!)

The music is mostly traditional golden age but there could be the occasional nuevo track (not every week as far as I know). I’ve not heard salsa or other dance music at The Dome before.

Class finishes a little after 9pm and the dancefloor is very nice to dance until about 10:30 when it gets really busy. By about 11:30pm, it gets a bit quieter again and if you still have energy, is a nice time to dance.

Floorcraft varies but in my experience, it is quite difficult to navigate during the busiest hour 10:30 to 11:30pm. You do get all sorts of dancers at The Dome, some dance larger than others while some think they’re on stage. But the majority are social dancers and prefer to limit their bumps throughout the night.

Currently, I’m not aware of any significant competition to The Dome on a Wednesday night. Perhaps thats why the floor can get so busy.

I’m not a regular at The Dome as its on a Wednesday night but I certainly do recommend anyone visiting London to give this Milonga a try.

I’ve always considered Homer and Christina nuevo teachers and only ever seen them on youtube.

They were in London recently teaching musicality and like most teachers, they explain a concept and then get the student to dance a song with that concept in mind.

After dancing just one song in their musicality class, they paused for a bit and mentioned two things about floorcraft:

1. Always try to reach the corners of the floor and not cut corners (or the corners of your lane)
2. When entering the dancefloor, try to get eye contact with the couple you’re going to dance in front of, let them acknowledge that you are there and they’ll give you space.

Obviously theres a lot more to floorcraft but it was a lesson on musicality and after just one dance, they had to stop for a bit to make these comments.

I guess I’m wrong about Nuevo teachers not caring about floorcraft. Now I hope some students got the message and try a little harder to maintain good floorcraft.