Located in the heart of Clayton, the Ritz-Carlton exhibits the kind of tony charm and amenities you’d expect from the hotel’s name and reputation. The lobby, for example, offers a bar with food service. The drinks are interesting, the food’s of solid quality; and, it should be said, all of it’s priced fairly reasonably. It is, in many respects, the perfect place for a weekly gathering, especially when the interest is something like Argentine tango.
Every Sunday night, tango newbies and devotees alike converge on the Ritz-Carlton lobby, where a temporary parquet dance floor is set up. At 6 p.m., a rotating cast of teachers lead interested students through an hour’s worth of basic moves, concepts and, yes, the philosophy of movement. These session leaders are generally individuals who teach dance professionally during the course of the week, but this gathering’s about building the community, giving neophytes a chance to sample from a variety of teaching approaches.
I was at the Ritz-Carlton two Sundays back, as a matter of fact, to concentrate on the very notion of community building. The idea being that the scene could grow with a little media attention, a bit of light shining on this unique gathering. Locals who participate avidly in Argentine tango number about 150 locally, with roughly half that many as the core, weekly-type dancers. In fact, on some weeks, their enthusiasm can get tested, with two, three, even four nights of tango milongas (or dance parties) stringing together in a single, Thursday through Sunday weekend. When that happens, the last night’s attendance can flag a bit, or the assembled simply get to the Ritz a little bit later.
On a recent Sunday, that’s just what happened. Instructors Roxanne Maier and Robert McKenney enthusiastically put a half-dozen inexperienced dancers through their paces for the first hour. Then a few more dancers arrived, taking part in three-song sets called tandas, in which (generally) men ask women for a spin on the dance floor, the partnership lasting just until the end of that tanda, at which point the rotation can begin again; or dancers can get time for socializing, food and drink. The tandas portion of the milonga lasts until 10 p.m., and it takes about an hour or so of observation to start clicking with the rhythm of the evening.
This recent evening featured McKenney as the night’s DJ, spinning music from his laptop through a PA system provided by the Ritz. With the end of each, three-track tanda, the music would get current, or loud, or overtly funky, signaling the set change. And then, new and interesting combinations of dancers would slide onto that rented floor, clinched in tight “close embraces,” or slightly-more-modest “open embraces,” which (to the untrained eye) still offer an up-close-and-personal experience.
The dancers represent a wide variety of St. Louisans, though many suggest that the cerebral nature of the dance form brings an equally cerebral crew. Perhaps not so coincidentally, there’s also a real influx of internationally born dancers, who’ve resettled in St. Louis, due to school, work or love. And tango’s helping ‘em stick around.
“For the most part, it’s a highly educated crowd,” says regular dancer Menelaos Karanikolas. “A very professional one.”
And with due respect to the teachers who’ve been holding it down in St. Louis for the past decade-and-change, the arrival of a permanent, Argentinian teacher is a boon to any local tango community. In March of 2011, Mauro Peralta came to St. Louis for a short-term engagement. He says that the stay “extended for two months. Then, I was still teaching in the living rooms of different people.”
In time, he established a studio on The Hill and that location’s one of the prime places for high-quality dancers to gather on certain weekend nights. But he’s now working on a second space, in which a variety of physical experiences are going to be brought to life, from zumba to Thai massage, from tango to Pilates.
“I really like night life,” Peralta says with a smile, when discussing his stints teaching in big cities like New York and Chicago. “I’m 33. I am investing more time in my profession. Now is the time to work.”
Along with other teachers, who typically work out of their own studios, Peralta brings a whole host of skills to work with each lesson. Of course, there’re the technical components, the basic steps and reactions to the music, which is, at essence, a waltz. There’s also the constant stress of subtleties, the comments coming in short observations, like when McKenney stresses that students “keep loose knees.” And there’s a running cultural conversation that takes place, a nodding to the Argentine culture from which the dance comes.
At the Sunday night Ritz-Carlton milongas, as noted, the instructors change weekly, with each rotating through on roughly a monthly-basis. They’ll also typically deejay each night’s entertainment, or will work with someone who’ll handle those duties, usually played from digital sources.
“This is the one milonga,” says instructor and tangostlouis.com webmaster Michael Flanagan, “that everyone comes to.”
Beyond the instructors, the dancers also set a huge amount of the mood. Dressed from business casual to not-quite-formal wear, the men look pretty all right. The women, on the other hand, generally look great, with lovely dresses and heels the norm. Most spend a good chunk of change on the footwear, in particular, whether those shoes are brought back from Argentina by friends who travel, or are purchased by mail order. In fact, sitting in a small, recessed corner of the of the Ritz’s lobby, several folks drop by to mention the shoes, making sure that they’re given proper respect in any story about the dance form.
That type of add-a-piece conversation ran steadily, throughout my three-plus hours at the Ritz, as a half-a-dozen dancers came by to share a story or anecdote. Julie Blase mentioned the form being “the best form of divorce therapy there is,” while Deanna Fasnacht makes fun of her beau, Andrew Waithaka, for bragging on their first date that he was an avid tango participant. These days, they, like a few different couples that attend, spend their first few tandas happily gliding across the Ritz’s part-time dance floor, while others flex their social muscles by dancing with new partners, strangers even.
While there was mention earlier that the men generally do the asking - in Argentina, the cultural form is for a nod to take place, rather than a spoken question, to avoid any shame resulting from a turn-down - women will ask a fella. In fact, I got a couple of inquiries, which were kindly, even appreciably, turned aside.
The Ritz offers a wonderful place to people-watch. For someone without the blessing of unlimited rhythm, that can be plenty of fun, already.
But for participants, it’s even better.
“You can show up to that particular milonga one week and there’s nowhere to sit and the dance floor’s crowded and that’s a good time,” says most-week participant Marla Hare Griffin. “Or you can show up on a week like this one. There’s plenty of room and it’s also enjoyable. Each milonga takes on a life of its own. They’re all different and all enjoyable.”
The Ritz Carlton is located at 100 Carondelet Plaza in Clayton.Tango Nights happen every Sunday in the Lobby Lounge from 6 to 10 p.m. Free lessons run from 6-7 p.m., followed by dancing ($5) from 7-10 p.m. For more information, call Tango St. Louis at 314-863-6300, or visit tangostlouis.com.
