Tango in Manchester (Metropolis) January 2013

Jive Addiction (www.jiveaddiction.com) lead the field in holidays (some sell out within days of appearing on the Internet) and weekenders. Jive and WCS are their strong points and tango sometimes features. I have been to a few of these hybrid weekenders and been happy.
This weekend was at the Palace Hotel in Manchester and has the splendid name of Metropolis. It combined jive, WCS and tango. My dancing needs have changed and I was disappointed. Joel and  Alina (www.tangomanchester.co.uk) teach in Manchester and gave three workshops, a beginners on Saturday and two on Sunday that were definitely worth attending. Then on Sunday evening their regular Sunday class was held in the Palace Hotel. I was disappointed that they gave the same lesson as we had received in the afternoon; I was looking forward to even more new material. Generally the milongas lacked atmosphere despite Stokies (www.stokies.org) excellent playlists and were only 2 hours long. I had persuaded Begonia to come with me and she was feeling the same disappointment as I felt about the tango. However she joined in lots of classes so the weekend was fun for her.
So what was good about Metropolis for me? I have not done WCS for about 3 years so it was good to go to all three workshops that Rachel and Steve (www.southwestcoastswing.co.uk) gave. They are excellent teachers, as good as I have come across, and the basics came back very quickly.
The blues room was fun.
I did have some lovely tangos with Sharon, Nikki, Valerie and, of course, Begonia.
Sadie (www.sadieflower.com) was so dynamic and her class was fun. She was also part of the dance team that performed on Saturday night. I have never seen slow break dancing demonstrating such incredible athletic skill (eat your heart out Louis Smith).
So where do I go from here? I need 100% tango on my holidays and weekenders, so no more hybrid events!