645  concrete floors and outdoor milongas

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 20:19:37 +0200
From: Eero Olli <eero.olli@ISP.UIB.NO>
Subject: concrete floors and outdoor milongas

Hello to everyone.

Sorry about my previous posting, which did not get the subject right, nor
referred to the original posting. but here is a more complete answer to Ramu

Our club rents a place that has concrete floor for our regular milongas,
because it is the largest place we can get for a few bucks.

>In particular (for dancing on concrete floor) -
> Any DOs and DON'Ts
> Advice on Shoes
> Advice on Dancing Styles
> Anything relevant to dancing outdoors

1) Test the floor to see if it is possible to make pivotations. if not,
cancel before you get an lots of people hating you.
There are many different qualities of concrete! It can be coarse as
sandpaper and nothing can fix it, unless you are willing to pay for a new
floor. In our place it, which is an old fish factory, the quality is what
they call food-grade, which is very slick and smooth. If you touch it feels
like sanded wood. This quality was needed for hygienic purposes. As they
needed to get it clean, and any irregularites in the surface would be a
breeding place for germs.

2) use talcum powder (baby powder without fragnance) in moderate amounts on
the whole floor, from a few times during the evening (as in Paris) or a
every few months (as in our place). Do not allow just anyone do this. a
little too much and you have a problem too. be carefull, and rather redo if
needed. Talcum powder is a fat based substance, I believe and almost
impossible to wash of, so be mindfull.

3)The harder the sole the sliker the shoe, therefore different shoes
require different amounts of baby powder. Make one special spot outside the
dancefloor where you put a visible amount of powder, so that people who
arrive can 'powder' their soles. You should not allow the one with the
stickiest shoes to deside how much powder you need on the whole floor

4) Your body is not made for dansing on concrete with thin leather soles!!!
it will damage your feet very fast!!! typically people get pain under their
feet or in their knees. These pains can take from days to weeks to disapear.

Get shoes with soft soles. Or put thin Sorbothane inlays in your regular
shoes. Most of the great dansers in Paris danse with soft soles (dansing
shoes, walking shoes, what ever) at Seine. But some of them would also
carry with them a pair of leather soled shoes for those few special dances.

in other words there are two different goals involved a) you want a sole
with a hard surface for it to be slick. b) you want a sole with good
cushioning (without it becoming to much so that it affects your balance).

5) Dansing on the street is different from dansing in a salong. if you do
it a lot it is worth while to get special shoes for it: Most of the
regular dansers in our club use specially made dansing shoes like these:
https://www.swing-it.no/shop/visEnPlaggSko.asp?id=5
observe that this is a modern dance shoe, and shoes like this came in two
different flavors with a sticky (soft rubber underneath) sole and with a
slick sole (a hard nylon+) underneath. You want the slick ones!!! Do not
let a sales person trick you. The shoes might look just the same! you need
to try them. There is also a modern danseshoe by Carpezzio called
"Streetdance", which is made for dansing on the streets, but it is fake
leather and gets kind of sweaty.
There is a also a womens shoe with heal and leather sole that has a small
cushion built under the ball of your feet. I am uncertain about the brand,
perhaps Rumpf. It does look enough like a tangoshoe, for people believe
that it is a regular shoe.

6) dansing without high heels requires a new walking technique (and it will
change the esthetics of the dance, too). the technique is different, and
should be practiced. So if the women take street dansing seriously the need
to do all the basic walking exercises also on low heels, until they master
them on both types of shoes. (the same go for men, if the change from a
Latin heel to a low heel) Women can simulate high heels, which is easier,
but gives in my view a less rewarding danceexperience than being true to
the style of shoe. Remember that people use years to learn to walk
properly, so change of shoes is not done in one evening. It takes months of
practice to do properly.
Some people choose not to go for both high and low heels, and stick only to
one or the other.

7) We do some stunt dansing in town on the streets. For this purpose we
have a roll of linoleum (3*4m piece) which we roll out for dansing. It
helps to create a scene, and it is slick to dance on. it is a fairly thick
quality with a sort of foam underneath, so small irregularities in the
pavement disapear.

8) You need more power outside than inside. Music dissapears unless you
have a wall that throws it back. There might also be noices (cars) that
make it difficult. For stunt dansing we use a large JVC ghettoblaster with
2*70W effect. It is enough, but if you want to have a party you need much more.
For parties we use a 2*250W amplifier, which works fine.

9) have a plan for rain/bad wheater. When and by who is the event be
moved/cancelled. put a message on someones answering machine, so that
people can check if they are in doubt.

10) make a plan for drinks and toilets!

11) talk to your neighbourgs before the event. Do not keep them awake all
night.

happy summer dansing,

eero@bergentango.no

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 12:11:28 -0700
From: Huck Kennedy <huck@ENSMTP1.EAS.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: concrete floors and outdoor milongas

Eero Olli writes:

> 2) use talcum powder (baby powder without fragnance) in moderate amounts on
> the whole floor, from a few times during the evening (as in Paris) or a
> every few months (as in our place).

I have to question ever putting anything on an entire dance
floor. People have different shoes with differing friction
qualities, some might be allergic to something, etc. I don't
believe any one person should ever presume to determine what is
best for everyone else on the floor.

In my exerience, etiquette has always been that things like
powder can be provided for dancers to put on their own soles
if they so desire, but never onto the floor itself. For example,
you can dump a little bit of powder onto the floor beneath your
chair, and then wiggle your shoes in it each time before heading
out onto the floor to dance.

Huck