Welcome!

 

Welcome to El Quinto!  A milonga started in March 2013 hosted by Sue and Mick Morgan.

Our event takes place in the warm and welcoming Sawley Community Hall.  El Quinto takes place on a Sunday on any month that has five weekends.  If you’re confused…. we’re not, just go to the dates page!

BLOG

The first milonga in March 2013 was a huge success with over 75 people dancing the night away. Yohann played a predominantly traditional set of wonderful Argentine tango that kept the floor busy all night long. The venue was very popular, and the floor performed extremely well, no talc needed here! We would like to thank all that made the effort to travel on a cold night from far and wide. Friends from as far south as London and as far north as North Yorkshire joined us, as did friends from Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Stoke, Warwick, Leamington, Lutterworth, Leicester Nottingham and Derby.

Thanks to all that made the trip to flaming Junes edition of El Quinto – it really was fantastic with the young talented and gorgeous Florencia Labiano and Hernan Rodriguez performing to an appreciative crowd.  Joh Cabrera our DJ for the evening took off his tango teacher hat and wow, can he DJ, the floor was always busy with what proved to be an exquisite selection of wonderful orchestras.  Thanks again to those that made long drives to attend and of course to my Nottingham compadres,  it really does make this milonga a regional event which is what we set out to do.

Augusts milonga with Barry James Leadbetter was fabulous, a great crowd once again appreciated his beautifully choreographed set of traditional Argentine tango, with wonderful floorcraft the crowded floor worked well, so thank you folks for following the rules!  Our thanks go out once again to all of you tangueros that travelled from far and wide to continue to make this a milonga such a success.  With crowds been 75 – 100 attending El Quinto it is fast becoming a little jewel in the crown of tango events.  Without our special guest DJ’s and you good people it would certainly not be the same.  If any of you want to hear more of Barrys music go to Tango Cats (FB).

November heralded the final El Quinto of 2013, with a Joh Cabrera & Bianca Vrcan perfoming and Joh DJ’ing.  Joh & Bianca had not met for 3 months and came together to show us improvisation at its best.  It was fantastic to see so many people there once again having travelled from far and wide and of course we will now look forward to March 2014 when we will welcome Guillermo & Maria to El Quinto. What a night!

March 2014 – We welcomed Guillermo Torrens who gave us some great music and who danced effortlessly with Maria Maragaki to an appreciative crowd.  We loved having them at our wonderful milonga, they are a most warm and generous couple who have great talent for the Argentine Tango. Once again you good folk travelled from far and wide to join us and we had two wonderful birthdays too! Although one wanted to keep it a little quieter than the other!

May 2014 a resounding success with Ricardo Peixoto as our local tanguero and super-duper DJ, we all liked his music very much you can definitely come again!

August 2014 we welcomed Aytek Erdil from Cambridge who was our DJ for the evening.  I asked Aytek after hearing him play at La Felena in Cambridge, I just loved how he put his tandas together! He delivered a storming set and was hugely popular, we were extremely pleased he joined us as we were with the lovely Claire who we would like to thank for helping out and for keeping me company.

November 29th saw the beautiful Andrea Hung smashing a great set of tandas that had the floor buzzing.  We were all very happy..  Lots of people came…so thank you for making 2014 a fabulous year for us as organisers and for you as dancers.  We are looking forward to having Ricardo Peixoto back with us in January to DJ for us so will definitely be a night not to miss.  November was busy and we were having difficulty sitting everyone, so in January we intend to change the seeting arrngements to make it possible to sit down when you need to! Happy new year everyone!

January 2015 wow we are here already, well winter means the home fires were burning with resident tangeuro and DJ Ricardo ‘el Tordo’ Peixoto.  Ricardo knows how to keep the music building and kept all of us on the floor, if we weren’t we wanted to be…lots of new faces from out of area and lots of lovely regulars, we are so pleased you joined us.  New seating arrangements seemed OK but please PM me if you have a strong opinion.  Hope to see you in May!

We had to wait until May for the next El Quinto when Mabel Gomez joined us, she rocked the room and kept us all up and dancing, we loved having Mabel up to Nottingham and although the cherry blossom was all but over we were all happy that the nights were light and we could celebrate the beginning of the summer.  Next up is Antoinella from Edinburgh via Italy.  See you all in August for something hot!

Hot it was…DjAnto played the end of the summer out in style, the energy remained high despite the temperatures as none of us could resist sitting out for long with the orchestras that were on offer.   A simply beautifully compiled set that is the mark of a truly excellent DJ.

October 31st was our last evening milonga before we switch to a sunday afternoon in 2016.  John Yingren Tan was amazing with a high energy set that was simply wonderful.. thankyou John…lots of our friends joined us for this Saturday night finale, and we had a wonderful weekend…thanks to all that have supported El Quinto for the last 3 years and we hope you will join us in January when we move to a sunday afternoon.

January 2016 felt like a turning point in El Quinto’s journey.  We moved to a sunday and invited Ricardo back to DJ for us.  The afternoon milonga was great, all our worries about the change from a Saturday night seemed to be unfounded.  The line of dance was at times amazing, when I looked round and saw 40 people dancing in a perfect ronda I felt like El Quinto had arrived to a place of maturity, so I want to thank all of you that cared so much for those people around you and dancing with you.  Ricardo was fabulous as always and a huge thank you to him for giving us such huge support over the years. His energy is wonderful and we feel lucky that he continues to support us.  Numbers were great, and the place was buzzing, the standard of dancing really good and what can I say an absolute pleasure to host.

April 3rd we had a special El Quinto event that fell outside the fifth weekend rule.  We were delighted to host DJ Theo Chatzipetros  who joined us from Florence as part of a UK tour. Theo has DJ’d for a number of years all over Europe at encuentros and festivals,  and is hugely popular bringing a dynamic energy to the dance floor.  We have had the enormous pleasure of listening and dancing to his music in Bologna and Paris and now here again in the UK at Milonga Tranquilo and El Quinto, wowzer! what a weekend, so good to have a DJ with such amazing connection to the dancers, with such amazing cortinas to lift and shift energy.  So nice to see friends travel to this event, lovely dancers and great ronda! Fantastic afternoon, and we hope to have him back next year!

The young beautiful and talented Solveig Jensen (Bergen) joined us on May day, and despite the numerous and glorious tango events that surrounded El Quinto this bank holiday weekend we had good numbers and a wonderful atmosphere, so thanks all that chose to join us.  Solveig played some wonderful music that appealed to the romantics and the rythmicas amongst us.  The light in the hall is particularly beautiful now we’ve moved to a sunday, and once again the ronda was really good.  Happy days.

July was I think my best El Quinto ever…it was very busy but the floor craft was great, the standard of dancing fab, and as always people travelled from far and wide.  Ricardo was just great, lots of friends were able to come and enjoy his music.  I really hope that we continue to attract such a lovely mix of dancers who hold the same values as we have of courteous floor craft, invitation by Mirada/cabaceo, an acknowledgment of the couple dancing before the leader enters the floor, and a commitment to providing your partner with the best experience possible given our individual levels.  I am very very happy.

The wonderful Nick ‘El Oso’ King who currently lives in North London joined us for our October event.  Nick holds his own events http://www.bailar.com and has been invited to DJ throughout the UK and Europe. Nick is a collaborator with El Quinto in bringing Theo Chatzipetros to the UK once again in April.  We loved his set!

January saw John Tan join us once again he was as usual quality offering us a really special set. Great turn out as always.

Theo returned in April wow…he was amazing as always and had a cheeky little cortina… Something to do with chickens ;)!!

Now, I have a decision to make… Getting bored of writing this blog so decided, for now, to end the blog. Details of events will continue to be updated and the gallery kept up to date. Bye for now xx