Happy New Year everybody. I think it is the moment to propose you some events for 2017. We are all thinking about where to go this year and of course we think about all the big events well known. But maybe you could be interested by some smaller events which deserves some attention. I wrote about various events last year but I kept several little pearls just for the beginning of the year.

Tonight, I will present you Tango Secreto, an encuentro milonguero organized in Warsaw. The registration opened just today, so it is the perfect moment to share my experience with you.

Tango Secreto is an encuentro milonguero with all the basic rules of this type of event: invitation by cabeceo/mirada, respect of the navigation and ronda, one tanda per milonga with each partner, close embrace… Some of you can consider these rules as painful but they often help to create good conditions to meet new dancers. That’s in fact the meaning of the encuentros – the meeting. The event also include separated seat (one side women, one side men and one mixed side) which is not a general encuentro rule but fit to the venue.

The encuentro takes place in Komedia Theatre, a beautiful restaurant which keep the charm and the authenticity of the Theatre. In the middle of a garden, the surrounding is calm and peaceful. The Komedia Theatre is situated in the city and easy to reach by metro. You can find in the building the dancing room, not so big – it offers easy conditions for the cabeceo, a restaurant room with the buffet and patios where you can seat and relax when you don’t want to dance. Last May, the weather was pretty nice and people enjoyed to take sun outside during the afternoons. The dancing room is equipped with air conditioning and avoid to feel the heat inside.

The event has, like the organizers, a lot of charm. You can feel the tastes of Paulina and Maria in various details. Each participant received for example at the entrance a cloth flower to use during the event (various colours depending your dress and shoes of course, it is up to you to chose). The atmosphere was relaxed and warm, not too serious as it can be in other events.

The number of participants was around 150, a good number to have a cosy event. Dancers were mainly from Poland (not just from Warsaw but also Krakow, Wroclaw, etc) but some came from Belarus, Belgium and more countries. The event mixed ages with younger and older people. I know more and more encuentros are trying to mix age group and don’t succeed so much. This variety of characteristics of dancers (countries, age, experience, also style) is for me a good point.

Today, you can find a lot of marathons in Poland but encuentros are less numerous. During the event, I was really pleased to dance with dancers that I have met various times in marathons but who never reacted to a cabeceo. It seems it worked well for most of the people. This was a first experience for a lot of dancers to have to invite with cabeceo/mirada from one side of the room to the other side. For some men it was not easy at the beginning as they are not used to it. I heard from various of them it was challenging but they enjoyed it. I am sure everybody has little stories to tell about this little game.

As the ball room is not really big, it was easy to catch eyes from everywhere. It is possible to sit in the corner and invite someone in the other corner. There are marble columns in the room but they didn’t interfere with the cabeceo as they were situated just on the long sides of seats. Thinking about it now, maybe the columns are the reason of the separated seats.

After more than 6 months, I forgot the details about the DJs. I don’t have in mind bad memories and I can tell you I had great afternoons. I didn’t stay very long after midnight as I had good days but I saw some local people arriving just when I was leaving… Strange for me, but they were maybe thinking the same. The programme of 2017 includes breaks between each milonga. It is a good as it will avoid down time and gather the dancers at the same moments.

If you want to try an (new) encuentro this year, Tango Secreto can be for you. Just don’t forget, there is various ways to break the rules.

You can find more information about the event on the website : http://tangosecreto.pl/en/welcome/.

Thanks to Marta Kossakowska for the pictures. You can find the full album of the event here: https://www.facebook.com/hrum.nl/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1029317060492598. You can also visit her page here: https://www.facebook.com/hrum.nl/.