All Tango?

I've not come across the 'mixer' expression before, but a 'Taxi Quickstep' is very much the same thing. Ladies line up, as at a taxi rank, and gentlemen dance with the lady at the front of the queue, once around the floor, dropping her off at the back of the queue, before 'collecting' his next lady.

I can't see it working for AT!
 
Another type of mixer is the "Snowball", where one couple starts it off, and after 20 seconds or so the MC stops the music and the two participants have to find another partner from those sitting down. This is repeated until everyone is dancing. Returning to your seat, or a previous partner, is frowned upon. There is a Wikipedia article on mixer dances here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paul_Jones

There is usually a special tune for the Paul Jones. What it is called, and who Paul Jones is/was, I do not know. There is a "round the world" version, where the circulating music is the waltz of that name. Then the MC says "We are now in Cuba for the rumba", "We are now in Spain for the pasodoble", "We are now in Egypt for the Sand Dance", etc and an appropriate tune is played.

We are now getting a long way from Argentina.
 
Lilly_of_the_valley said:
AFAIK, a mixer at ballroom parties is when men gather at one corner of the room, and women at the opposite one. A traveling dance (waltz or foxtrot) is being played, each group of people form a line walking toward the middle.
The partners thus meet in the middle and a completely randomly arranged couple dances to the end of the floor, then separate to the opposite sides, and walk back to their respective initial corners, where the process repeats itself: each person meets another random partner, dances down the floor, etc. etc.
There might be a slightly different procedure, but the point is that partners are assigned randomly, and often switch to another random partner during the same dance/set of dances.
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Spitfire said:
I'll try my best to describe it. At a ballroom dance it's when the men and women line up on opposite sides along the length of the floor and heading forward and turning the lines meet in the middle; the first man in line meets up with the first lady in line and they dance to the other end of the floor; the 2nd, 3rd and so forth follow suite. Once at the other end of the floor they part and get back in line and do it again. The dance is generally either Foxtrot or Waltz. Usually for three songs; I've seen as many as eight.
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Thanks for explaining it. Now for something really funny.

A while back I was at a milonga in Denver, where they did this (more or less). I didn't know what it was called, and thought it was just some local custom. When I got partnered up with the first women, I had to ask her how this all worked. She said that once you get to the other end of the room, that's when the dance ended and then you got back in line. She Also said that if the leader likes the dance, he usually takes his time and doesn't make it to the other end until the end of the song. I think they played three or four songs. I thought it was a nice way to meet a few new people.
 
I'd have to say that the entire concept of being randomly stuck with a partner is against the spirit of Argentine Tango. In fact, it's quite common for followers to avoid or turn down invitations to dance if they don't feel like it's a good match up (or for any number of other reasons).

This "mixing" realistically only happens in classes.
 
variety of music in Buenos Aires

Spitfire said:
While I'm not into Tango I was wondering. Is the music at the AT dances strictly Tango or is music for other dances occasionally mixed in like it is at most WCS dances?
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On Saturday night I went to Club Glorias Argentinas in the neighborhood of Mataderos (almost the border of the capital federal) for Oscar Hector Malagrino's milonga. The deejay played not only tango, vals, and milonga, but canyengue, cumbia, salsa, Chacarera (folkdance), and a set of foxtrot with classic tunes by Cole Porter. It was a great night of dancing.
 
Spitfire said:
While I'm not into Tango I was wondering. Is the music at the AT dances strictly Tango or is music for other dances occasionally mixed in like it is at most WCS dances?
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IME it's mostly music that you are expected to dance tango, milonga, or vals to (though that doesn't mean it's all traditional Argentine music).

Sometimes there are swing or salsa breaks. Less often there are meringue, rhumba or chacha breaks. I don't recall that I've ever heard a Fox Trot or Quickstep at a Milonga, although I have seen an occasional Ballroom dancer DO a Fox Trot (to traditional Tango rhythm music) I think I've heard a Paso Doble' here and there, but I'm not sure I would know one.

Once you get into the alternative music that wasn't written with a particular partner dance in mind, I suppose you could start to interpret some of those in several ways. (ie: do several different dances to a particular track)
 
Ampster said:
I've been to milongas that try to have a 15% 15% 70% mix of salsa, swing, and Tango... They flop. The tango people neither want to dance salsa nor swing, and consider it a big interruption. The salsa and swing have too short a time and people don't dance tango. It doesn't work. At least, not where I'm from.
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There's a good size contingent of WCS tango dancers around this area (ironic, given that we are on the East Coast) so WCS and ECS are fairly popular when played at milongas. Latin dance is also popular but slightly less so, with salsa getting the best response.

Some people who have had ballroom as well as AT will get up for the latin'ish dances that are not played in latin clubs here (chacha and rhumba) but they generally don't go over as well.

When an East Coast Swing is played, the floor gets pretty crowded and lively. Even visiting Argentine teachers usually dance to it. (keep in mind that I can only distinquish generally between east and west coast swing... I don't know the differences once you include Lindy, Jitterbug and that sort of thing.)
 
Spitfire said:
BTW - Is there such a thing as an AT mixer like those done at ballroom dances for Foxtrot and Waltz? I have seen a WCS mixer, at a WCS dance I attended in Seattle.
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I've never seen one in the strict sense. The birthday dance is the closest thing. The people with a birthday that month, week, quarter, (whatever time period between milongas by that venue or organizer) are brought up and as many people as possible try to cut in and dace with them during a song or two. IME, that song is frequently a vals. I'm not sure why, since more people are comfortable with tango rhythm.
 
jantango said:
On Saturday night I went to Club Glorias Argentinas in the neighborhood of Mataderos (almost the border of the capital federal) for Oscar Hector Malagrino's milonga. The deejay played not only tango, vals, and milonga, but canyengue, cumbia, salsa, Chacarera (folkdance), and a set of foxtrot with classic tunes by Cole Porter. It was a great night of dancing.
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It sounds fun. I love it every so often when they play something a bit different by Canaro, like i dunno, La Del Soto del Parral or one by D'Arienzo.
 
Zoopsia59 said:
IME, that song is frequently a vals. I'm not sure why, since more people are comfortable with tango rhythm.
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Because vals is a much more joyous and celebratory dance!

I'll grant that this is the closest thing we have to the mixer concept. In theory, anyone can go out and have their slice of the song with the person. In practice (and please correct me if I'm wrong here), it's mostly that person's preferred partners and friends who end up actually going out there.
 
Nathan said:
Because vals is a much more joyous and celebratory dance!

I'll grant that this is the closest thing we have to the mixer concept. In theory, anyone can go out and have their slice of the song with the person. In practice (and please correct me if I'm wrong here), it's mostly that person's preferred partners and friends who end up actually going out there.
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Mostly, but not completely. I've been doing my "Birthday Dance Milonga" tour this month. I've lucked out as there are 5 weekends this month.

:cool:
 
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