The Dome - The Zero Hour
London milongas have been expanding in numbers and to some extent changing in the way they cater and serve their visitors. Gradually gone are now the days when "Milonga" was an extended practica session after the lesson had ended.
The dancers, and their friends turning up to London milongas, are becoming more mature in their expectations from a night-out of Tango.
The established (major/main-stream) London Milongas that run regularly are just a few. MilongaCat tries to highlight them here in our 24tango articles called "London Milongas". There will be no particular order for these other than randomly selecting and giving you the reader a "personal view". Please feel free to agree or disagree with MilongaCat's opinions by making your own comments known.
Zero Hour Tango Club
(locally known as The Dome)
Milonga Evenings: Wednesdays,
Dancing: 9-15 to Midnight , Fee: £6.
The Dome is one of the longest established London milongas. Once you come up the stairs onto the first floor you enter its milonga room, an impressively large hall, tall ceilings, and decorated appropriately to look dark and moody.
Once the evening has begun, it is lit just dimly enough by the right shades of pink, red and odd rays of blue lighting that either by design or coincidence manages to create lighting moods that suit almost all needs. There are "dark and shady" corners for those who want to hide from others briefly or at length, to rest or not being directly spotted, found, wanting not to be asked to dance or viewed, or alternatively take your place in the sitting areas that are available in front; in the "Light & Bright": in full view; where some gather to see all that goes on; and wish to be certainly & immediately seen by all - even though there may not be any dancing by these for most of the evening at all!
The large and powerful speakers are wonderfully old. They produce the kind of music sound that have a tone and vibration very unique to old dancing halls, a deep and reassuring sound, specially when they play older tango songs. The DJs differ depending on their scheduled planning however generally speaking the DJs play the most popular tango songs. The well familiar tangos, waltzes and milongas are played in well-co-ordinated tandas that rotate from one to another with relative ease . There are no cortinas between the tandas but the tandas are always complete in sets and numbers.
During Some evenings there may be a break of 2 songs of salsa or other, this is in the middle of the evening (about half ten) followed by just a few tango Nuevo tracks to divide or change the evening's mood, other than these the evenings are generally run by traditional rhythms and sounds.
If an average is taken then the dome's milonga crowd is international and 'young' with a very good mix of abilities from very good regular dancers to beginners who may have just joined one of the frequently organised tango courses run by the dome.
Most people are friendly and would happily ask each other to dance. Followers can feel free to approach and ask any friendly social dancer however there is the small group of "tango snubs" there too. They are similar to the ones whom you may find everywhere else around the world, just ignore these ones, they keep to their own, they are generally harmless when left alone!
The bar, inside the hall, sells a good selection of soft drinks, beers and wine. Nothing too fancy on their list - just like a typical London's local pub. No one minds this simplicity at all, in fact the drinks are always well chilled, very reasonably priced, and served by the friendly bar staff. The bar is open from the time the milonga begins (after the classes) to just about the very end when the evening finishes.
On the negative side it is let down by lack of care shown about the air conditioning that is not always switched on (the excuse given in the past is: "the noise their fans make is too loud!"). The other common complaint that sometimes gets talked about is about the ladies and gents toilets. They could certainly use a bottle or two of bleach to clean and freshen them up. These changes and works are not expensive, anybody would have thought they would make sure that these essentials are done, unfortunately they are, at times but not always, neglected!
Apart from that, the place is clean and tidy with ample sitting areas at stools, tables and chairs and benches around the milonga room.
The dome operates with minimum of gimmicks. The care is instead shown in having table covers, lit candles, good mood setting decorations and presentation of the milonga hall and room. It gives a wholesome and almost consistent good weekly milonga experience on every Wednesday. It offers its dancers a balanced evening of songs that are spread equally between tangos and waltzes and then peppered with enough milonga tracks to keep the momentum.
There are good transport links (tubes and buses) as well as ample free street parking near the venue. The dome's milonga staffs are friendly and welcoming, and happy to help with most things if they can.
On the whole The Zero Hour (the dome) is among one of the best and popular milongas that London has got to offer its tango dancers. It is very good value for money and worth spending your money and time making your way there. Hopefully you'll enjoy your evening too!
MilongaCat.
The only cat who loves you back!
