I just read a beautiful post yesterday by Sallycat here.Among the many wonderfully evocative and nostalgic things she says about her rainy day in Buenos Aires, she said the following which strikes a chord with a current preoccupation of mine:
If it rains today and so no-one goes to the Milonga, then maybe it will not be there when the sun shines and you are in Buenos Aires and feel like getting out to dance.
Man Yung and I always try to support the various local milongas - by our attendance. We are only dancers, after all. At various times in our tango existence, we've been to milongas that had over 100 people, and milongas with only 3 people. Maybe it is easier for a couple, because we could always dance with each other - but no matter the numbers, we always went.
People are fickle. They flock to the newest temporary thing in town with much enthusiasm just because it is trendy to do so, without any thought about the consequences of their withdrawal of support for the local milongas that have been there for them, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Maybe it is in most people's nature to take things for granted and to always embrace the most new-fangled thing. A few years ago "Milonguero Style" was "In", and then it was "Nuevo", and then it was "Villa Urquiza". One year ago everybody was posting tango videos on the internet - and now, even the most prolific video posters have become more or less silent, their self-promotional video campaigns having fulfilled their purpose.
If no-one is going to bother to dance Tango today because something brighter, newer and shinier has caught their eye, maybe Tango won't be there anymore when we finally realize that we had given up and taken for granted this really great thing we had.
But for Man Yung and I, come rain or shine, we will still be dancing Tango.
