2574  Spontaneous Combustion Milongas

Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 18:06:49 -0600
From: Tom Stermitz <Stermitz@TANGO.ORG>
Subject: Spontaneous Combustion Milongas

At a some milonga, like the ones I've seen in Buenos Aires, or the ones
I've attended at various festivals, it is pretty much impossible to
teach. These Milongas are real partys. Meeting friends, glasses of
wine, sitting at tables, dancing with passion.

The DJ is playing hot music, the dancers keep moving in lanes, there is
a drive and pulse to the floor that prevents anyone from stopping,
there is no time or space to plan ahead more than three or four steps,
let alone show somebody an 8 or 16 count sequence/pattern. The energy
of the room is for social dancing with your partner.

Beginners are pretty daunted in such an environment, and usually prefer
to watch. Even Intermediate leaders are daunted.

It is possible to take a relatively beginner follower for a rhythmic
walk (no turns, no ochos, no 8CB, no cross, just rock-steps and
walking) in such an environment, but it is impossible to stop and
explain anything, or else you make an obvious scene. It is hard to
flirt-by-instruction when the better dancers are barreling down on you,
glaring because you have clogged up the floor.


Spontaneous Combustion.

Can it be that many dances that are advertised as "milongas", are in
fact viewed by those in attendance as practices? Maybe we have a lot
of "practice-milongas", not "full-fledged milongas".

It is extraordinarily difficult to create a milonga feeling in a dance
studo, with mirrors, shoe bags, lonely chairs lined up along the walls,
hitting random on a tango CD.

If you want the event to be a milonga, it is insufficient to simply
call it one. Maybe you have to set the stage of the evening to create
the POTENTIAL of a milonga. A milonga occurs ONLY if the energy of the
night LIVES UP TO the potential, and creates itsel.

What is necessary for a milonga to occur?

Great DJ who knows how to get the crowd on their feet, who knows the
emotional contrasts of different orchestras, Perimeter of dance floor
clearly delimitted, tables for friends to watch the dance floor, making
the floor small enough that the space encourages social dancing, not
stage figures, Rectangular floor so lanes can move straight down each
side...


If there is a lot of teaching going on, maybe you should just give in
to that energy and call it a practice.

In that situation you can endorse certain teachers by introduction,
acclamation, or putting them up as teachers before hand. (Better yet,
give them a yellow jersey!) Those teachers can than walk around the
practice with the full authority of the organizers. Let these
recognized teachers chat with those guys who are teaching, asking the
couple if they can help out, taking them over to a spot or room where
they don't mess up the floor for the dancers.



Tom Stermitz
2525 Birch St
Denver, CO 80207
h: 303-388-2560

Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 23:06:42 -0700
From: Elemer Dubrovay <dubrovay@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Spontaneous Combustion Milongas

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 18:06:49 -0600 Tom Stermitz <Stermitz@TANGO.ORG>
writes:

> At a some milonga, like the ones I've seen in Buenos Aires, or the
> ones
> I've attended at various festivals, it is pretty much impossible to
> teach. These Milongas are real partys. Meeting friends, glasses of
> wine, sitting at tables, dancing with passion.
>
> The DJ is playing hot music, the dancers keep moving in lanes

**

So a milonga where the music is boring and you can see some couples doing
acrobatic steps, using a big piece of real state, women dancing together,
leaders that dance very bad teaching all the new victims they can find
and bothering the dancers around them. soul not be called a milonga, a
better name would be a Practica. I like the idea.

Elemer in Redmond