Last Saturday night was one I don't think I will ever forget: I got to dance to three live tango orchestras, on the Avenida de Mayo! There was a man filming who films at the milongas. What he told us was that he likes to put up videos to show HOW to dance at the milongas. His video of us dancing will be up on his webpage in a few weeks. This five-minute Aires de Milonga is a montage of things that were happening the night of the open-air milonga, along Avenida de Mayo. At 4:07, there is ONE second of me dancing :-)
A plug for Carlos Neuman, the videographer: this guy really loves tango, and he really wants folks to dance well. Also, since he regularly films in the milongas, he has some good footage for those of you who have not been here and want to see what it is "really" like. I don't usually take my camera along with me, and I usually just dance, so I am not very helpful in this category; he is.
There were 8000 square meters of dance space along the Avenida, according to the news (sorry if you don't speak Spanish). There were people everywhere, strolling, sitting and listening to music, dancing in flipflops, eating . . . I have never seen an area as stuffed with humans as the areas around the stages.
There was a pride and an energy surrounding the event that I have not felt before here. Dancers were discussing it days before. When I bought shoes, the saleswoman was talking with a guy buying shoes about their plans to dance. The tango world buzzed with excitement, and the the news coverage also had a tone that I usual hear reserved for futbol games!