Denver Close Encounters.
A Tango weekend blending an Encuentro, a Marathon and the excitement of the Milongas of Buenos Aires. Three days of tango with one group of fellow tango fanatics. The emphasis is on Close-embrace dancing and traditional social codes. Top DJs are selected for their sensitivity to the passion and energy of the dancers and their love of the famous Golden Era orchestras.
2025 Dates: "Close Encounters for the Third Time"
- May 22 - 25, 2025
- Thursday Early Arrival Milonga
- Friday, Saturday & Sunday Milongas
- Denver Turnverein, 1570 N Clarkson
Attendance limited to 180 Role Balanced: This event WILL sell out quickly.
Like a Marathon - Dancing afternoon and evening; With “early” 1:00 am endings for recuperation.
Like an Encuentro - Limited to 180 role-balanced participants; single ticket for the weekend.
Traditional Milongas like Buenos Aires - Dance floor with tables and seating for all, Close-embrace, floor craft & lanes, mirada & cabeceo.
This festival is for you if you love Buenos Aires style social dancing, and are good at navigating in a close embrace. A lot of people are coming in on Wednesday or Thursday, so the early arrival classes and Milonga will be well-attended.
Your Hosts
Tom & Analii Stermitz. Tom organized about 20 Denver Tango Festivals from 2000 through 2015. Analii is a movement professional, costumier, and community builder.
Milongas
- Friday Evening 7:30pm - 8:00am: "Meet & Greet Mixer" -
- Friday Evening 8:30pm - 12:30am: "Milonga Quilombo"
- Saturday Afternoon 1:00pm - 4:30pm "Milonga El Yeite"
- Saturday Evening 8:30pm - 12:30am "Milonga Elegante"
- Sunday Afternoon 12:30pm - 4:00pm "Milonga Romantica"
- Sunday Evening 6:00pm - 10:00pm "Cheesman Park Pavilion"
More Early Arrival Events - Denver Turnverein
- Tuesday Evening 7:30pm - 10:30pm: "Tango Colorado Practica (Milonga)" (Very well attended).
- Wednesday Evening 6:30pm - 8:30pm: "Milonguero Topics" (Tom & Analii)
- Thursday Evening 7:30 - 11:00pm: Milonga Aparecida
DJs
- TBA
Details
Light snacks will be provided at the milongas, and medium snacks for Saturday night. The Denver Turnverein has bar service for the evenings, and you cannot bring your own alcohol. Pick up some picnic fare to bring to the Tango Colorado's Outdoor milonga, from Ideal Market (Whole Foods) or King Soopers (Kroger), both of which are very close to the Cheesman Park:
- Ideal Market: 900 East 11th
- King Soopers: 1155 East 9th.
Locations
All events except the early arrival and Cheesman Park milongas will take place at the Denver Turnverein, 1570 N Clarkson St, our dance facility East of Downtown Denver. There is plenty of parking at the venue. For those staying downtown, you could leave your car in the lot.
Thursday Early Arrival Milonga Location: Colorado Dancesport NORTH
Clear Creek Business Park, 6830 North Broadway Unit D, Denver, CO 80221
This is in a slightly odd location, an industrial park North of Downtown and WEST of I-25. Access to this stretch of North Broadway is from: 70th Ave or 58th Ave.
Designated Hotel - TBA:
Motels close to the Turnverein are not recommended based on previous reports.
As this is a holiday weekend, you can usually find inexpensive rooms downtown from the resellers like Expedia, Travelocity or searching on Google.
We can recommend the Sonesta. It is an inexpensive but nice hotel about a mile from the Denver Turnverein. It is pretty close to downtown restaurants and museums, and only two blocks from Novo Coffee, the best coffee in Downtown Denver. It is extremely convenient for anyone arriving by airplane: Take the train to downtown Denver, hop on the free “mall” shuttle to Glenarm Place. Walk two blocks Southwest down Glenarm Place to the hotel, pausing to pick up a coffee at Novo Coffee.
Parking and Getting to and from the Venues.
Parking is free at the Denver Turnverein. Weekday and Saturday street parking is supposedly for two hours but I’ve never seen a ticket on the street by the Turnverein. If there is NO concert next door at the Fillmore, there is additional parking in that lot. If there IS a concert at the Fillmore, the street parking becomes very tight, however the Turnverein has an over-flow lot.
Uber/Lyft are reasonable during the day. We’ll have a ride board to find ride-share partners, and we’ll run shuttles late night back to the hotel.
Parking with the hotel is expensive, but you can leave your car at the Turnverein or park in front of the hotel at meters. In the past, meters have been free after 10:00PM or even earlier, and they are completely free on Sundays and holidays. Last year they were not checking meters on Saturday, either. The rules change depending on neighborhood or block. Check with the hotel concierge for more information.
Warmups & Speed-Mixer Events
Just before the Saturday afternoon milonga we invite you to come early to meet people. Analii will offer some Movement Somatics and Body-Warmups at 12:00 on Saturday & Sunday.
Codes, Cabeceo & Assigned Seating
One contribution from the Encuentro tradition is to follow traditional Buenos Aires milonga codes and have seating for every participant. Many traditional milongas separate the Leaders and Followers into different sections. Last year we sampled various seating arrangements, and we preferred groupings of two-three Follower tables alternating with two-three Leader tables. This helped immensely with ingress and egress to the floor and minimized clogs of dancers.
Seating will be set up to honor the dance floor, make it easy to enter and exit the floor, and encourage navigation in lanes. Chairs and tables will be provided for everybody to ensure that all followers have a table, a seat and home base from which it is possible to catch the eye of a leader to get a dance via a cabeceo.
Remembering the Denver Tango Festival
I produced the Denver Tango Festivals for 15 years, Memorial & Labor Day weekends. These were some of the largest tango festivals in the US during the first decade of the 2000s. I was happy to take a break for the past 7 years, during which I recovered my passion for teaching and dancing Argentine Tango. By re-inspiring the Denver Tango Festival, we wish to return to the original mission, which emphasized the social dancing of the milongueros that I witnessed in Buenos Aires on my first visits.
