3528  Cortinas - What is to short or to long

Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:10:35 -0400
From: gltango <gltango@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Cortinas - What is to short or to long

Hola,

What is the general thought regarding the time length of a cortina?
I've been to Milongas where they are quite short; so you cannot
accompany your partner off the floor and other Milongas where they are a
bit long. Also, some DJs do not use cortinas.

Thanks

gltango

Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 11:58:40 -0700
From: Yale Tango Club <yaletangoclub@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Cortinas - What is to short or to long

Hi gltango
I use cortinas that are 30-35 seconds long. I find that to be within the range that works well. 25 seconds might be better (since the majority of people just stand there even though they know full well what cortinas are for) but I try to edit the music I use in a good place, at the end of a phrase, and so far that tends to come to 30-35'. I have one cortina that comes from one of those tanda CDs that DJs in BA sell, it's 36'.
Tine
www.tangomuse.com



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Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 16:23:05 -0700
From: "Kohlhaas, Bernhard" <bernhard.kohlhaas@SAP.COM>
Subject: Re: Cortinas - What is to short or to long

Hi gltango,

It's a late answer, but just in case this is still of interest:

I do not think that there is one fixed length that works. It not only
depends on how much people actually change partners during the cortina,
but also on how many dancers are there and how crowded it is.

It could be as short as 20-25 seconds and as long as a minute (or
perhaps even longeR), if you have a crowded floor with several hundred
dancers. I havent' Dj'ed at a milonga that large, so all my cortinas are
between 20 and 45 seconds.

When I find a piece I'd like to use as cortina, I tend to build cortinas
of different lengths from that piece, i.e. 25 seconds, 35 seconds and 45
seconds, or 20 seconds, 30 seconds and 40 seconds. What lengths I end up
with would depend on the piece I use, I like to fade the cortina out at
a point where it feels right.
When the milonga gets going and isn't busy yet, I'll use the shorter
cortina and as it gets more crowded I'll throw in a longer version.

I can only second the recommendation to use the same piece for a
cortina, so it is easily identifiable as such. What I sometimes do for
the sake of variety to use different parts of the same song. That makes
it still immediately identifiable as "the cortina", but there is a bit
of variation there.

Some DJs do indeed not use cortinas, but I like to have them as a dancer
and so I use them when I Dj. It does give the music some structure,
which goes beyond just having time to leave the dance floor.

Bernhard
Mountain View, CA


-----Original Message-----

Sent: Saturday, Jun 18, 2005 9:11 AM
To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: [TANGO-L] Cortinas - What is to short or to long

Hola,

What is the general thought regarding the time length of a cortina?
I've been to Milongas where they are quite short; so you cannot
accompany your partner off the floor and other Milongas where they are a
bit long. Also, some DJs do not use cortinas.

Thanks

gltango

LISTSERV@MITVMA.MIT.EDU.

Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:05:12 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Cortinas - What is to short or to long

The cortina that I use most often is a piece of guitar music that is 2:17
long. I cut it off and move to the next tanda when it seems appropriate
to do so. Depending on the milonga and the number of dancers that could
be anywhere from 15-45 seconds.

--Steve