Argentina with France

I could go on with the Rugby antics after last World Cup's opening game but I am here to talk about tango. Paris has always been a second home for tango and without being cliché about Bertolucci's sexual extravaganza, the feeling of tango fits quite well with that of Paris. Not that I have ever danced (any, let alone last!) tango in Paris. Unfortunately, I haven't been to the city of Light since I've started tangoing...
Since the death of Piazzolla, the circles in Argentina were agitated, everybody was expecting the new big thing to come from BsAs. But the hit came from the other hemisphere. It was in Paris that a Swiss and a French duo, a bit bored with remixing Brazilian music decided to invite an Argentinian friend, Eduard Makaroff, to start something new. And they created Gotan Project, a rearranging of the word tango that both echoed a dialect spoken in the streets of BsAs where syllables are shifted around but also says a lot of their attitude to tango - to take something that is there and turn it inside out, make something new.
And those who were crying over Piazzolla's tomb, unable to move Tango forward, weren't very happy about it. Dismissively, they shrug off the new groove but only to find that the rest of the world had been absolutely taken by the sound. Crowds of young people came to look for tango, know more about it and in places like Edinburgh it is amazing the amount of under 30s dancing in milongas. There is pretty much a new tango group sprouting every month in the UK. Places where you wouldn't think of finding a tango group are now vibrant and up-and-coming scenes.
It would be unfair to give all the credits for this Tango Renaissance to Gotan Project but it would be as unfair to exclude them as the main reason for the revival of tango.

Pablo Villaraza y Dana Frigoli

Bristol

My time in Bristol was too short. In a city with so much personality I wanted more time to discover the hidden gems of the city, to get to know more people and, I cannot hide it, to observe the growth of tango.
There are a few bi-monthly and monthly milongas. The monthly milongas attract people from more distant places and are worth going. In Tango Alchemy's milonga you may struggle to find a tango being played but it's good if you're a Nuevo Tango fan. The milonga in Pucklechurch is quite nice and in a fantastic setting. Jocelyne lends all her flair and passion to create a peculiar spirit to it. The music is good (although you shouldn't expect structured tandas) and the level of dancing is possibly the best in the region. The weekly milongas have less external visit and therefore the level of dancing is lower. The Dance Café can get quite crowded and nice but the level of expertise is quite inconsistent. As for the Tango West milongas, they have good dancers but the spirit is a bit muffled by the sometimes tedious music and by the man that shouts people around every change of track.
Bristol has got the right ingredients to be a centre of excellence in the British Tango scene. It's a reasonably sized city, it has a history of great music and arts scene and it is the central point in the Southwest. Is not uncommon to see people from Cheltenham, Bath, Exeter, Wales, Southampton, London or Oxford coming to dance in Bristol. Such a variety of dancers and schools create an influx of techniques, styles and practise that are essential for the increase in numbers of skilled dancers. But, nearing the celebration of 10 years of Tango, why is Bristol still waiting to boom? Shouldn't it have boomed already?
Some people over there will not like to read this but the problem in Bristol is that different parties do not collaborate with each other. I am not going into who is right and who is wrong because I don't believe that nobody holds the truth. What I am saying is that it will be difficult for Bristol to get out of the quicksand if people don't stick together.