tango marathon at Lomma

On Friday early evening I met up with some of the tango gang to head down to Lomma for the "Tango Marathon." It wasn't one of the "dance until you drop ones" and nor was it "the music never stops." It was a lot of dancing in the evenings (10pm until 4am) and workshops during the day. It was near the beach (about 20 minutes walking) so on Saturday afternoon we went there, and danced some on the deck of some beach bar.

Ahh, the scene of the crime. Zoom out a bit and follow Habovägen south west. Actually, zoom out enough so you can also see the small boat harbor and the channel. Going a bit up the coast you'll see "Campingvägen" ("The Camping Road"). The beach bar was at the southwest corner of that rectangle.

It was cheap. SEK 500 (about $80) for food, a place to sleep, and the milongas. A bit more for the workshops. Why was it cheap? Because we also prepared the meals (I was Saturday morning breakfast crew) and "place to sleep" meant "the floor". Though those with a tent could pitch one, and some slept in their cars or got a place nearby. And those from Lund (nearby) slept at home.

I was still rather tired and travel-logged from coming back from Lithuania so I went to bed early on Saturday night, at about 2am. As the dance floor wasn't due to be converted into the sleeping floor for another couple of hours, the question was "where do I sleep?" Mind you, I also needed to be up at 9am to help with breakfast.

The answer? The sauna in the men's changing room. It was a great place to sleep. (It was off.) With the door closed it was quiet and dark. The bench was a bit hard, but the floor would have been as well, and colder. A couple of people checked out the sauna while I was sleeping, looking I assume for a place to sleep. There was room for another on the other bench, but I woke up alone. Spent the 2nd night there was well, though this time with two others.

One was a Finn. He's the one who earlier Saturday night asked if it was okay to use the sauna, and did. I and another joined him. I've been surprised at the Swedes. Very few of the apartments I've looked at have a sauna. The couple I've seen have had it as part of the housing association's common property, and not a personal sauna. I know parts of the northern midwest (US) have small saunas, for 1 or 2, and thought that Sweden would be the same. But no.

Too bad, so sad. I like saunas.

The dancing got me thinking existential questions. (It's a weak word play on Swedish, where you don't say "There is a house in New Orleans", instead saying "It exists a house in New Orleans"). If I took lessons I would become a better tango dancer faster than I would doing it on my own. But does there exist a tango teacher in Gbg that I want to learn from? And what's the reason for wanting to get better? It's in part because there were some really good dancers at the marathon, and I felt out of place. But suppose I were to work hard at it, take lessons, attend workshops .. to what end? Or should I do other dances instead? Hmmm....

Johanna called me a galning after we danced Saturday night, and a Swiss woman also said I was a crazy guy. Both in a good way. The Swiss woman was crazier than me. I'm energetic in tango, and like the expressive interpretation that can happen. It's more of a tango nuevo thing. Is there a nuevo teacher around here? Not that I know of.

It was pretty hard for me the first 24 hours or so. There were a lot of new people, and directly after a conference. Conferences tend to burn me out socially, meeting new people and being outgoing can take a toll. What makes it harder too is forcing myself to do it all in Swedish. Though there were Danes there too (and Swedes from Skåne, who have their own accent). I know that doing so is overall a good thing for my Swedish learning, but it can make me feel so dumb. *sigh*