5818 Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics Contribute to
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:44:01 -0200
From: "Brian Dunn" <brianpdunn@earthlink.net>
Subject: [Tango-L] Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics Contribute to
Lane Formation
Tom wrote:
"As the organizer for the Denver & San Diego festivals, I can reassure
you that the concept of festivals for social dancing remains: "By
Dancers; for Dancers". The milongas are arranged for social dancing:
good djs, rectangular dance floor with tables and chairs around the
periphery, tandas of traditional social tango, and cortinas for
partner changing."
One of the things I have always appreciated about the Denver festivals has
to do with the geometry of the portable dance floors that Tom brings in to
create nice milonga floors in carpeted hotel conference rooms. Tom, please
correct my numbers if I'm off here, but the square components of these
floors look like they measure three or four feet on a side, and they are
edged with thin metal edges fit flush with the finished floor. As I
navigate them, it's kind of comporting to know that these floor components
make really nicely dimensioned "lanes" on the floor, complete with 90-degree
turn angles, which approximate the 1-meter square "baldosa" tile idea
commonly used when discussing "dense dancing" skills in BsAs milongas (i.e.,
"tango al baldosa"). Even though in BsAs it's often far more crowded than
this (this past Sunday in Canning comes to mind) it still is a great visual
aid and psychological support to reinforce the tendency to form lanes as
crowding increases. As a local, I sometimes don't go to every Milonga at
the festivals, so others who are complaining may be talking about events I
didn't attend. But when I've been in attendance, my experience is that
couples stayed within their lane as conveniently defined by these floor
tiles, and at least where I was, everything flowed smoothly. Sometimes it
got too dense for the lanes to be useful guides, but that level of crowding
was sporadic and unevenly distributed, and in any case didn't last long.
This clear lane specification really helps me relax as a leader, knowing
that those around me are inhabiting a mutually understood, comfortably
well-defined share of the immediate space, and as long as I and my partner
also stay within our share/square, everybody wins.
An additional benefit to this consistency in floor layout at the festival -
learners who may struggtle with their first festival experience can take
away an easily understood quantifiable goal for their tango navigation
training for the next festival: Learn to dance comfortably and musically
within a well-defined square, in whatever way you choose, gradually shade
into using the next square as the ronda moves, and all dancers can expect an
equal shot at tango happiness.
All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:30:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jack Dylan <jackdylan007@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics
Contribute to Lane Formation
> From: Brian Dunn brianpdunn@earthlink.net
> the square components of these
> floors look like they measure three or four feet on a side, and they are
> edged with thin metal edges fit flush with the finished floor.? As I
> navigate them, it's kind of comporting to know that these floor components
> make really nicely dimensioned "lanes" on the floor, complete with 90-degree
> turn angles, which approximate the 1-meter square "baldosa" tile idea
> >
> This clear lane specification really helps me relax as a leader, knowing
> that those around me are inhabiting a mutually understood, comfortably
> well-defined share of the immediate space, and as long as I and my partner
> also stay within our share/square, everybody wins.
>
What a strange post from an experienced leader and teacher.
Lanes, of course, are good but my navigation is mostly governed by
the space and the?people around me. Looking at the floor tiles to assist
navigation doesn't sound like a good idea, because?it would take my
attention away from the music,?my partner and?the people around me.
And, IMHO, looking down is just a terrible way to dance and certainly
shouldn't be encouraged. I would say never look at the floor.
Jack
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:25:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)" <patangos@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics
Contribute to Lane Formation
--- On Tue, 10/20/09, Jack Dylan <jackdylan007@yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Jack Dylan <jackdylan007@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics Contribute to Lane Formation
>
> What a strange post from an experienced leader and teacher.
>
>
> Lanes, of course, are good but my navigation is mostly
> governed by the space and the?people around me. Looking at the floor
> tiles to assist navigation doesn't sound like a good idea, because?it
> would take my attention away from the music,?my partner and?the people
> around me.
I don't find it strange at all, but experienced men such as Brian don't need to look directly at the floor when dancing. They use periphery vision and look in the distance. In the distance what do they see? They see people aligned to the edge of the portable dance floor, which is squared to the walls of the room. They can also see the metal thingies that hold the floor together, which form straight lines all along the dance floor. That promotes order, even if it is only unconsciously. Moreso than, say, a linoleum floor with a pattern of colorful circles sprinkled about.
Having these portable dance floors delineates the dance floor much better than a wall-to-wall wooden floor with round tables around the edges. Chairs can get pushed onto the dance floor, people can weave in out and of the dance floor. The edge of the dance floor is less certain. I'm sure Tom didn't plan it this way, but it seems to work out quite well.
I think Brian's description can be a useful guide to newcomers at festivals or anyone else who is trying to improve their navigation.
Trini
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:51:38 -0300
From: "Brian Dunn" <brianpdunn@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics
Contribute to Lane Formation
To: <tango-l@mit.edu>
Trini, you wrote:
>>>
They use periphery vision and look in the distance. In the distance what do
they see? They see people aligned to the edge of the portable dance floor,
which is squared to the walls of the room...
Having these portable dance floors delineates the dance floor much better
than a wall-to-wall wooden floor with round tables around the edges. Chairs
can get pushed onto the dance floor, people can weave in out and of the
dance floor. The edge of the dance floor is less certain.
<<<
Your comments on the defined edge of the floor being a key ingredient are
interesting - I think that has an even greater effect than the lines I
talked about, now that I think about it, because it really forces the dense
outer edge to define itself against this obstacle of the floor-carpet
boundary.
It makes me wonder what it might be like to have glowing lines embedded in a
floor (still smooth of course) or perhaps just sharp-edged lines projected
from above? Perhaps people would stay out of the overhead-projected beams
(& in their lanes)because they would otherwise be "spotlighted" as crossing
lanes as the beam climbed up their clothes...but then, some would do it even
more, just for fun...
Recently on Facebook, someone has been circulating a video of experiments in
the "Fun theory" - basically, raise the "fun" quotient of something
ordinary, and people will change their behavior to "have" the "fun". They
showed a video of people choosing a flight of stairs over an escalator
because the stairsteps were made up to look like a piano keyboard, and
played notes as you climbed.
It would be interesting to speculate how to make it more "fun" to navigate
well at a milonga through such passive measures.
Maybe the better idea would be to project well-defined "linear-V" cones of
light JUST into the lanes, so that leaving your lane would temporarily take
you into darkness? It would at least make for some nice photographs!
All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"
