Hi Armando: I saw your posting but I hadn't had a chance to post a comment: Here it is,
1) There are many milongas in the area you describe. My understanding is that if you look in the web http://www.milongas.com/activities.html (know as the Polo list) ( [email protected]) you will find a list that is the most complete/inclusive list I know of. 2) Since there are many milongas at any given time, you will find the same as in Buenos Aires (if you are familiar with the dance places there) there are milongas for all sorts of different tastes and different orientation. The range is wide. From an arbitrary point of view, none is better, none is worse. They are all just different; as different as in la capital federal you can see "La casona de Marta" in Vicente Lopez, being a nice neighborhood, almost family style milonga, to the other end of the spectrum, like "Parakultural" has been very popular, and Sunderland, being more traditional, etc. Fortunately, if you have time in the SF Bay area I encourage you to visit as many places as you can and then once you have seen several (or all) you can reach your own conclusions. I would say, if I may, do not make the mistake of visiting one or two places and make a hasty conclusion from a limited exposure. 3) The level and/or quality of dancers is somewhat a different story, because a fairly large percentage of the people attend a fairly large number of milongas; therefore you would run into a number of the same faces in most places; so the quality of the dancers does not vary dramatically from place to place. Of course each place has its own smaller group of faithful who attend only one or two places, but they are not that many, so statistically it doesn't change the outcome significantly. 4) The music: As usual a normal point of controversy. The music in all places is at its core genuine argentine tango for the most part. Occasionally in some places you may hear a few pieces of tango that you would never hear in Argentina, but it is minimal. The intermissions vary somewhat. In many places they may play salsa or similar during an intermission, In some places they are beginning to get acquainted with playing an intermission of folklore, such as chacarera. In essence at a more traditional milonga you would hear at the intermission chacareras, or argentine fox and Paso-doble, whereas in other milongas you may hear American swing and/or salsa. Again, the variety is wide and actually no different in that sense than it is in Argentina in terms of variety. So, the bottom line is, the choices are many. Fortunately they are all different and therefore they all can offer choices for different tastes. My wife and I, we also run a milonga which is also in the category described above, being different that others. For this reason I am not going to endorse any particular venue. I think that you, as a visitor have a great opportunity to witness how argentine tango has settled in this area, thanks to some of the early pioneers of Tango, some from Argentina, some visiting master dancers around 1985-1987 and some Americans who got interested early enough. Welcome to the area, and if you need any assistance you can call on me or some of us (see polo list), (email)I am sure most people are friendly enough to welcome visitors. I am in the process of changing email address; so ignore this address; by tomorrow my address will be [email protected] Un abrazo Spencer
