I was in Warsaw for three nights and I went out dancing for two of them. At least, I tried to.
Wednesday, 20:30-23:00, DziKa, ul Belwederska 44
“DziKa” stands for “Dom Zabawy i Kultury” – House of Fun and Culture, a name which certainly promises a good night out… A short bus ride from the city centre, this milonga is in a room within a restaurant across the road from Łazienki Park, opposite the Russian Embassy. It is hosted by local teachers Mateusz and Kasia and they do take care to integrate newcomers. The milonga was already fairly crowded when I arrived around nine, but I got some dances. I had a good time; a nice place for my first Polish tanda.
Thursday, 21:00-0:00, Złota Milonga Club, ul. Długa 44/50
The following evening I went to Milonga Nuevo & Emotion which is organised by the Złoty Milonga Club. This one is a bit tricky to find. You need to walk along ulica Długa until you come to an entrance for the Krasiński park. After entering the park, walk down the path and turn right where you will see the venue. It’s actually a lovely venue which has separate cloak rooms for ladies and men, plenty of space to change your shoes and leave your coat etc. The room where the dance floor is is round, so perfect for the cabeceo … theoretically …
Maybe it was because no one knew me.
Maybe it was the fact that there were many more women than men.
Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough (cabeceo is such a tricky art to master, particularly when you go to an event for the first time).
Whatever it was, I did not dance that evening.
Which is not to say I wouldn’t go there again the next time I’m in Warsaw. It happens, even where I live and go out dancing several times a month. It’s after evenings like this that I remind myself of tip number 8 of my tips to get you to go (back) to a milonga: don’t be discouraged by a negative experience!
Finding information about tango events in Warsaw
I think this facebook page is the best place to start for an overview of tango events in Warsaw: I didn’t find any other website that listed tango events of different organisers; but if you know otherwise, please leave a comment below.
Under “events calender” on the Tango in Warsaw facebook page you can check where to tango depending on your dates. As you can see, there is usually more than one event each night, so you are spoilt for choice 🙂
On the website of Złoty Milonga Club, you can watch some videos here of performances, including one to the Polish tango song “To Ostatnie Niedziela”. If you are interested in reading about Polish tango music, I wrote a post about that here.
Next time …
it will be all about what to do in Warsaw when you’re not dancing tango. In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment if you have any tips about dancing tango in Warsaw!
