Are milongas getting shorter?

[brujo]

There have been on-again, off-again "speed tanda" events with two-piece tandas, where the idea is just to dance with lots of people as a meet-and-greet. I only ever went to one. The fact that they are more off than on, and relatively rare, suggests that the format doesn't work around here.

They shouldn’t be for the whole event but at one of the milongas I really like the DJ will announce “this is a mixer tanda, you dance a song with someone you have never danced with before!”. And it’s great, everyone in the room asks a new person to dance and gets one dance in. Then the DJ says “switch persons and dance with someone else completely new”. Usually does it for three songs.

At Valentango they had mixers that were super popular. The one I liked the most was probably the mishmash one where they came up with a ton of silly ideas to encourage people to dance with each other. Here is the list of different ideas - MishMash Mixer–Saturday 6:00-8:00pm | Valen Tango

 

[TTanguero]

Sheffield Tango Festival does the same thing, although they call Cambio when it's time to change and generally do that two or three times per song. You get just enough of a taster of someone to know who you want to seek out later. They also alternate between leaders and followers finding their next partner.

 

[JournalInTime]

They shouldn’t be for the whole event

Exactly.

but at one of the milongas I really like the DJ will announce “this is a mixer tanda, you dance a song with someone you have never danced with before!”. And it’s great, everyone in the room asks a new person to dance and gets one dance in. Then the DJ says “switch persons and dance with someone else completely new”. Usually does it for three songs.

This is cool, and I have experienced something very similar. There's nothing wrong with it as a small piece of the evening's entertainment. It's up there with a birthday vals, a tanda tropical, a short demo, or another 10-minute pause in the usual structure . . . I'm sure complete and utter pills don't like it, but they can always use that time to get a drink, change their shirt, or whatever instead of being part of the community.

The only thing I think is important is for "Cambio!" to come between tangos in the tanda, not within a tango. I've experienced the latter, and it's less fun than it is chaotic, with people standing around mid-tango looking for partners while other people try to avoid collisions. Between tangos, it works better, especially if the DJ injects a little 5-second pause.

The one I liked the most was probably the mishmash one where they came up with a ton of silly ideas to encourage people to dance with each other.

At the place I used to work, the organizer would have a "leader" hat and a "follower" hat, and people who wanted to play could write their names on little pieces of paper and put them into the appropriate hat. At some point later on, she would draw from the less-full hat and then the other hat to create couples for one mixer tanda (there would, of course, be names left in the fuller hat, and those people and people who chose not to participate could dance as they could arrange it). The chosen tanda was always of whimsical, festive, or goofy tangos (usually ones with singers and laughter), not dramatic, romantic, or sad ones.

Anyway, I liked it. I ended up dancing with a couple of people I wouldn't normally have danced with, and I discovered that some of the tangueras I avoided as "serious" had avoided me as "serious," when in fact neither of us was serious, and after that we danced together more often.

 

[Miradamiranda]

I would rule out any festivals or encuentros with short milongas.

Having events pre-carved out with active dance and rest periods are to me less desirable than marathons that go on from early afternoon on till very late at night. This way one can choose when to rest, dance, eat, and socialize according to one’s energy at the moment. If it’s really happening, I keep on going like the energizer bunny. I remember one event last year where I stayed on the floor for 12 hours straight on a Sunday from 4pm to 4am and had the time of my life, at most gobbling some quick empanada from the bar right at the dance floor, during an off tanda. The same event, a different day, I took a nap around dinner time, overslept, but when I woke up I didn’t feel bad I had missed the main part of the evening, because there were many more hours left of the night.

A couple of weeks ago, there was an event I had absolutely loved last year, but this year, the dancing time had been cut short because the organizers weren’t able to secure a venue for the afterparty. I contacted the organizer to hear what was going on, - really, no after party (?) - and that I’d need to know by June 1st to be able to cancel my hotel. I knew others (the only other people I’d have known there) who also decided it wasn’t worth it with so little dance time. The organizer encouraged me to come anyhow but take a couple of workshops to make it worth my time, and I noticed a pre-milonga was suddenly added to the schedule just before the big concert. But it being Germany, unlike most other places, if you don’t have a partner you can’t attend the workshops. You don’t rotate. Lo and behold she found me a decent partner for each of the two workshops I ended up taking, and it worked out fine. I’m so happy I attended after all, because the dancing was top notch in all aspects for me. It could easily have been a deal breaker, though.

 

[brujo]

But it being Germany, unlike most other places, if you don’t have a partner you can’t attend the workshops. You don’t rotate. Lo and behold she found me a decent partner for each of the two workshops I ended up taking, and it worked out fine.

Were the partners not going to take the workshops if you weren’t going? How do organizers find folks like this that are willing to step?

 

[TTanguero]

In the UK, most of the time you don't need to book with a partner, but there are workshops where you do. Other times, someone will want at least one partner who shares their focus and is happy to practice with them afterwards.

Were the partners not going to take the workshops if you weren’t going? How do organizers find folks like this that are willing to step?

I've had teachers message me in this situation and explain what they think I would personally get out of it, knowing either what I'm focused on at that time or just having a more general understanding of what I do and don't care about. Sometimes the offer of a free place tips the balance between "Hmm, maybe" and "Ok, let's give it a go."

 

[Miradamiranda]

Were the partners not going to take the workshops if you weren’t going? How do organizers find folks like this that are willing to step?

No, in one case it was one of the organizers who stood around on standby, the other case, a guy who was doing the following workshop came early in case they needed an extra guy. He didn’t pay. I certainly didn’t expect them to provide this service. But it didn’t cost them anything to let the guy be there for free, and they got the workshop fee from me, which they wouldn’t have otherwise. Btw, the workshops were excellent and challenging. One was about 5 different colgadas. Zero rotation.

 

[JournalInTime]

I've had teachers message me in this situation and explain what they think I would personally get out of it, knowing either what I'm focused on at that time or just having a more general understanding of what I do and don't care about. Sometimes the offer of a free place tips the balance between "Hmm, maybe" and "Ok, let's give it a go."

the other case, a guy who was doing the following workshop came early in case they needed an extra guy. He didn’t pay.

This is definitely a thing. Smart organizers cultivate this sort of relationship, most often with dancers of the role that's less present in their community (where I live, with leaders).

When I was associated with a studio, they had "special weekends" with visiting teachers, intensives and boot camps, mini-festivals, and even a couple of full-on festivals. As a dedicated student and part-time employee, I got text messages almost every time to come to the studio and accompany people without partners – and fairly often to come to the studio to be on standby for that eventuality. I spent time at the studio every day anyway, and had keys, alarm codes, the combination to the safe, and so on, so it wasn't a hardship to time my visits to get free classes . . .

 

[itwillhappen]

How do organizers find folks like this that are willing to step?

The dance studios here have historically positioned themselves as "quality time for couples". From a marketing perspective, this has advantages and disadvantages, but they have a high degree of professionalization and a well-organized association; they certainly will not have consulted laypeople.
And since they, too, have been unable to make dancing generally appealing to men, acquiring these "folks" has fallen primarily to women. For men in long-term relationships, the trend to a double-role model will remove the pressure of having to pursue a leisure activity they don't enjoy.

 

[opendoor]

The dance studios here have historically positioned themselves as "quality time for couples"..

Perhaps things are different today, but when I started, life couples in the beginner class were an exception.

 

[Eleven!]

Perhaps things are different today, but when I started, life couples in the beginner class were an exception.

I think it may depend on how and where teachers advertise themselves. There are two sets of teachers near me with beginners classes and over the last 15 years both have remained consistent. One has a majority of people turning up being life couples and the other has a majority of people turning up on their own. And they have stayed consistently like this for at least 15 years!

 

[opendoor]

...One has a majority of people turning up being life couples and.. stayed consistently like this for at least 15 years!

This reveals kind of a certain niche formation. If the classes are primarily aimed at couples, the instructor needs to project an image of security and a sheltered environment. Instructors preferred by singles offer an higher artistic standard, so that the dancers are prepared to survive on the pista. My salsa classes also were exclusively for singles. Later, I learned that there are also salsa communities on the outskirts of the city where couples learn together.

(By the way, do we know each other?)

 

[brujo]

I think it may depend on how and where teachers advertise themselves. There are two sets of teachers near me with beginners classes and over the last 15 years both have remained consistent. One has a majority of people turning up being life couples and the other has a majority of people turning up on their own. And they have stayed consistently like this for at least 15 years!

One of my teachers started a couples only class because members of her church wanted to learn but didn’t give two hoots about rotations and partner changes. It turns out that a lot of the women who wanted to learn to lead also want to just do this with one fixed partner that they knew ( some romantic, some friends ). It feels like a weird class format, but like queer tango, it meets the needs of a lot of folks that wouldn’t dance otherwise.

 

[TTanguero]

One of my teachers started a couples only class

I'm reminded of the story which I think I read here of a married couple where jealousy meant they didn't want to rotate partners, so only danced with each other. They got over it after two years, but then found that they couldn't actually dance with anyone else because they'd just been picking up on each other's idiosyncratic signals and compensating for each other's flaws. Neither of them could actually lead or follow.

 

[opendoor]

..Neither of them could actually lead or follow.

Which was probably the intended goal