Risky Rendez-Vous

My dear readers. I have not written for a long time, because I‘ve been busy with so many things, especially my Yoga-Teacher-Training. So I hope that you have not forgotten me. But now I‘m back to normal and will continue writing about my encounters in the Tango community and other stuff.

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So last weekend, I was at the Rendez-Vous-Milonguero in Bologna - an event organised by our friend Michele Sottocasa in it‘s second edition. I don‘t want to write a general review, but just focus on the one thing that made it very special to me.

As you know, the Encuentros and Festivalitos have been developing immensely over the past few years and a faithful group of international habitués are frequenting them. So whenever I visit one of these events, I meet a lot of friends, students and my favourite dancers. I never walk alone!

But this was not the case at the RDV.

Why?

Well, Michele targets a different audience, wanting to make Tango more accessible to everyone and avoiding to pre-select „friends and good dancers“ as it is done by several other organisers, including me. (Please no discussion about elitism, I think, we‘ve already exchanged all the relevant arguments in other threads here and on Facebook.)

The result of his policy is, that the audience at the RDV was much more mixed. Local dancers, many Italians who had so far not visited one of the more established Encuentros, some „new“ travellers from foreign countries... Sure, there were quite a bunch of people you also meet at the other events: some of the French connection, a couple of Germans, some of the Italian habitués, but most of the international „Milonguero“ crowd and all my favourite dancers were missing. No Saso, no Richard, no Nady, Philippe, Pascal, Andreas, Ionut, Ketil or any other of my close(r) friends... Two of my Italian favourites where there, but only for part of the Milongas. And as Detlef spend most of the time in our hotel room sleeping or surfing on the net, I only danced with him 2 or 3 tandas over the weekend. He missed the first Milonga completely, so I was prepared to sit lonely on one of the women‘s tables... I really doubted, that I would amuse myself a lot... 

As you know, I‘m a tad picky, when it comes to choosing a partner. It has to be the right person to the right music in the right moment and very often I prefer sitting to risking a bad or even mediocre Tanda. Call me a snob and I won‘t contradict you!

But on this weekend - I don‘t know how and why it happened - my usual sense of critique got somehow eradicated and I was willing to take risks. Lots of them actually!

From the first moment on, I danced. And kept on dancing until the end. Well, almost... The stone floor killed my feet, so I had to leave the night Milongas a little earlier. But this was the only thing that could stop me!

I danced with guys with whom I had had disappointing experiences in the past and I danced with men whom I knew for a long time, but who were never on my radar as possible partners. I made so few pauses, that I did not even have the time to check out the  unknown faces in the Ronda, so I embraced total strangers without scrutinising them beforehand. I even accepted two non-cabeceo-invitations because I was not in the mood to refuse someone. I danced to D‘Arienzo, to Troilo and to Laurenz. I even risked some Vals- and Milonga-tandas with not-very-advanced dancers - a complete no-go on a normal day. 

It was as if my hard-disc had been formatted anew. Or as if I were possessed... And I had a hell of a time!

Apart from two rather annoying Tandas, I enjoyed myself during the whole weekend, which you can clearly see on the photos on Facebook.

So what happened? I really can not tell you. But it reminded me, that good things can happen, when you don‘t expect them to. And when you‘ve got an open heart and mind.

Mind you... I will surely return to my former critical self in no time and look at you disapprovingly, if you dare approaching me to the „wrong“ music. 

But until then: No risk, no fun!