Well, in my circles, the goal is expansion, which of course results in some disagreements with pre-existing interests or ideas. For example, as I've said before, I personally belong to the school of thought that doesn't even consider the milonguero/salon/nuevo distinction to be meaningful or relevant any more.
At the end of the pandemic, maybe a new start?
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Well, in my circles, the goal is expansion, which of course results in some disagreements with pre-existing interests or ideas. For example, as I've said before, I personally belong to the school of thought that doesn't even consider the milonguero/salon/nuevo distinction to be meaningful or relevant any more.
Seeing expansion would be good; at the moment it looks more like re-arrangement. Need to keep what works, but neither keep it nor discard it for the sake of 'tradition'.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Well, they need more leaders over in Stockholm.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Fortunately, nuevo events are advertised as such here, or as "alternative" events. So I know which ones to skip.
Well, I'm a modernist. I think. However I realised that I actually do several things that are traditional like dancing mainly square close embrace, preferring cabeceo, being a straight male leader who doesn't roleswap, and complaining about the questionable musicality and floorcraft of other dancers. So I'm not really sure anymore.
LadyLeader
Forum Master
One milonga in town has two floors and a Dj for each. A milonga and a alternative floor.
The others are all traditional or with some alternative tandas.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
I don't want to venture a long-term forecast, I can't influence it at all, everyone can (hopefully) do what they think is right.. Fact is that, in my environment, half of the followers relevant to me are currently learning to lead. And not for academic purposes, but to apply that to milongas. And therefore workshops and events aimed at this target group are also offered.
I think it is already difficult for women in the learning phase if they are not willing to dance with women. And in relationships, subsequent men are also asked to learn to follow in order to support their ladies. The pressure on organizers to move away from a gender balance has existed for a long time, as has the strong demand for gender balance, so kind of a balance of power.
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pianistamediano
Forum Master
I'm curious about that — what was the attendance like for both floors? Is it a large enough city for a good number of people? Are there many dancers who enjoy (or even prefer) dancing to non-tango music?
We had a festive milonga like that last month which tried to do that for the first time in a long while, and the few times I dropped by the alt dancefloor, there were relatively few people there.
opendoor
Forum Master
I would say in my hometown Hamburg (itwillhappen, Reuven and Ardix have been here) one third prefers traditional only, one third is neo and non, and the last third is undecided.
opendoor
Forum Master
There is once in a month a milonga with two floors (trad and neo) in Lübeck, a kittle town near Hamburg. There you can also observe that about a third of the couples and dancers only dance in one of the two rooms. Most others change depending on where the better music is playing. Because especially with traditional tangos, there are far more bad tangos than good ones. This explains the tides between the floors.
pianistamediano
Forum Master
That's interesting - I would argue that at least for traditional tangos, it is very dependent on how good the DJ is, and I've heard a few play nothing but enjoyable and danceable tandas all night, but I did notice some migration going on over here. At the very least I participated in one of them, when I heard Tango to Evora was going to be played.
Do the alt DJs stick with cortinas between each set of (related?) songs, or do they do as they did here and play one song after another without any breaks?
opendoor
Forum Master
It really depends (in both worlds) who is at the knobs, pianistamediano !
Negracha in London used to be like that. Food, when available, used to be down on the alt floor. Apparently re-opening, but not at the old venue in Holborn. Now looks more traditional music. Certainly worth visiting.
As to people there on each floor - it depended - food, time of night, who was in, class, temperature, demo... Maybe the food and space to sit and eat was a motivator.
Personal preferences - probably more traditional now, but I'd go, and have been, to alternative milongas. It depends how the music motivates dancing.
pianistamediano
Forum Master
I used to hear that it was pretty difficult to dance as a visitor in London, mainly because of widespread cliques/elitism - is that still true after the pandemic?
itwillhappen
Forum Master
In my regular location there are separate milongas once a week with traditional music, once a week with mixed music and every two weeks with alternative music. I assume that this also reflects the general distribution in my surrounding. And I'm also very thankful that the community is big enough that everyone can choose the right offer, so that nobody has to tug around on the DJ for their interests.