3799  tanda suggestion

Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 15:02:55 -0600
From: Brian Dunn <brian@DANCEOFTHEHEART.COM>
Subject: Re: tanda suggestion

Hello all,

Deb and I have been hosting a milonga in Boulder a couple times a month
(currently 1st & 3rd Saturdays) for the last four years or so. I've been
DJing this milonga on and off since the beginning, and regularly for the
last several years. In addition, I often get hired to DJ at the Mercury
Café Friday night milongas, at Tango Colorado practicas in Boulder and
Denver, and at other events in other cities where we are invited to teach
workshops.

As a rule, I always play 4-song tandas with cortinas. I play two or three
tango tandas for every vals or milonga tanda. Cortinas vary in style
through the evening, but are usually easily recognized and often appreciated
by those who are looking for them, and at least tolerated by those who
aren't.

For the Tango Colorado practicas, which are shorter (2.5 hours) I play
3-song tandas to help speed the rotation of partners. Some people don't use
the cortinas as a "rotation signal" but many others do.

Sometimes I set up 3-song milonga tandas within a 4-song tanda pattern to
allow dancers to cool off a little (especially because Tango Lorca's
butt-kicking version of "Milonga de mis amores" gets heavy rotation with me)

Like Jackie, later in the evening, the songs get longer and more
alternative-sounding, and the tanda/cortina structure fades from prominence
- but even with alternative stuff, I still like to group songs by
orchestra/performer (Libedinsky or Loreena McKennitt, for example).

But the backbone of what I do as DJ, and which relieves several of the
problems mentioned, is that I post a "projected playlist" for the entire
event, listing songs, orchestras, tandas, and cortinas. Many people get
very useful information from this list during the busy part of the milonga
(what was that song, etc.) and many dancers use the posted information to
"reserve" dances with their favorite partners in advance, relieving the
problem Jackie and Manuel mentioned. I always program more tandas in the
list than I can actually use during the evening, giving me a little slack to
reconfigure to accommodate changing milonga conditions. And things get
looser toward the end of the night, where requests are easily added into the
list for the diehards.

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado USA
www.danceoftheheart.com

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