Longa Milonga @ Providence Tango - Oct 28 2006

Update: Robin posted the pictures she took here .

Saturday was once again that time of the month. The "Longa Milonga", an all night milonga at the Providence Tango (for those of you still hangover from the weekend, that is in Providence, RI). This was a special one because it was costumed (Halloween being just around the corner).

For those of you who never been to Providence Tango, I'll try a short description (and you can check their website, they have some pictures there as well). It's an old brick building which I assume it was a factory of sorts some time ago. All the tango events I attended took place in a very large studio, which has tables, lounge chairs, love seats, couches and even a ... bed (which comes in handy at some of these all night events. Take your mind out of the gutter now, people use it to take a nap). The wooden floor is perfect for dancing, the decor is tasteful and the whole thing has a warm intimate feeling, quite appropriate for tango.

I was there at opening (9PM) . People started arriving soon after that at and by 10:30 it was pretty lively. That is when I snuck in the bathroom with my bag and change into my costume. It was a "ninja" costume, dark blue silk chinese style costume, complete with two swords on the back, black gloves and a hood that completely covered my head (and mesh covered the face, so I was completely unrecognizable). For the next hour or so I had a lot of fun. Without a word, I asked women to dance, you could tell they were amused and curious about whom they were dancing with. I heard people asking each other "who's that?". It was a lot of fun. Robin took some pictures and I hope I was in one of them. I'll add it to this blog entry later if it turns up.

After about an hour I went and changed back, as it was pretty hot with that hood on. The dancing went on for the rest of the night. I left around 5AM (well, it was actually 4AM because the hour changed) and when I left, there were still a couple of people still dancing. I had a very nice time. I got to dance with quite a few great dancers, from both Providence, Boston and Western Mass, the music was pretty good and the deserts served around midnight were awesome. There is food served at this milonga, but I didn't have any since I ate before I left home so I can't comment on that. People went back for seconds though, so I'm guessing it was pretty good.