The 'circuit' here is a good way to get to know people and get reliable dances - the same people go to the same milongas in different locations throughout the week. There are alot of tourists on the circuit, as well as argentines. But it's a bit of a trap too.

Tonight I went to a milonga that nobody I know had heard of. I'd been invited with a group of other foreign dancers (from Minnesota, it turns out) - Club Bohemios in La Boca. It reminded me alot of Sin Rumbo - predominantly older people, dressed up to the nines (the nines of some previous epoch), everybody dancing purely for the pleasure of it, lots of smiles and laughter. The music was mainly tango, but there was also salsa and merengue, chacarera, and also Spanish music called something. Everybody seemed to be friends with everybody else, but not in the exclusive way of the 'circuit' milongas - you're presence there made you a friend of there's too. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly. Local dancers - both men and women - made a point of coming up and dancing with the Minnesota tourists (and the lone New Zealander). They gave us all a gift (the flag of the Club Bohemios, which is a sports club, and only a milonga on Saturday nights).

The dancing generally was very simple, nothing fancy, though often fairly quirky - there were some things I saw that you'd never learn in a class. The floor was fairly crowded, but there was enough room to actually dance to the music, rather than each tango being three-minutes of mere collision-avoidance, and the other couples were generally obliging.

These off-circuit milongas always seem to have one dancer who most exemplifies the jovial nature of the place - always an execellent but idiosynchratic dancer, with a permanent smile, who furrows their brow and sweats profusely when they dance. It's as if all the geniality of the atmosphere concentrates in (or maybe emanated from) one person.

The one drawback is that, while they're welcoming to newcomer, and very friendly to foreigners, they're generally 'partner' milongas - they generally dance with the same people throughout the night. If you were to becine a regular, you'd have to bring your own partner.

But when 'circuit' fatigue kicks in, it's good to go somewhere else, to remind yourself that not all milongas are created equal. The contrast emphasises how much like a shark tank the tourist circuit can be.