TTanguero
Forum Master
Sure, they happen in BsAs too.
For me, it's not about dance marathons, rather choosing the times when I dance. A performance means about half an hour when that choice is removed from everyone.
At the end of the pandemic, maybe a new start?
- Thread starter itwillhappen
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For me, it's not about dance marathons, rather choosing the times when I dance. A performance means about half an hour when that choice is removed from everyone.
opendoor
Forum Master
That's a little wrong. Please compare how much time you are prevented from dancing by performances with the time that DJs regularly steal you because they are not playing your orchestra or your favorite pieces. Performances are a negligible quantity.
TTanguero
Forum Master
Well, performances instead of music to which I don't want to dance would be a good deal – but it's additive.
So, take a comfort break, or get a drink, whatever - unless no one really wants the performance/show. If you know it's going to happen but don't want to view, then I agree that knowing the time would be better.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
I confess to this. In my defense, this behavior is driven by friendship:
I attended a milonga just last night. I showed up at 20h20 and left at 23h45; so, I was there for 3 hours, 25 minutes. I sat out exactly one tanda – my two shirt changes were Superman-style in the back corridor during cortinas, and all of my drinks of water, breath mints, face wipes, etc. were during cortinas, too. It's safe to say that I danced a lot and with a lot of partners. Yet . . .
On the way out, I passed two people who wanted to dance with me and hadn't, who hinted that we should dance next time. This morning, I had three Facebook messages of a similar nature.
Now, I realize that the sense of obligation resides entirely in the mind of the person feeling it, not the one who's ostensibly imposing it. I've been to therapy.
However, I actually like my tango friends, and really do want to dance with them. So, when some performance cuts my hypothetical 3:25 to 2:55, it also cuts out a few tandas with friends, which is disappointing on both sides of the equation.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
I can't agree. I was out to dance on Sunday evening and all of the tandas – without exception – were ones I wanted to dance. It was as if the DJ had read my mind. As I joked with him, "There were only good tandas! Sitting out even one was like being forced to shoot a friend!" There was no performance, but had there been one, it would've been longer than my breaks and meant missing some of those great tandas.
Maybe this is a "big city, lots of DJs, lots of competition" problem that doesn't happen everywhere.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
That one is not your friend, otherwise he would have thoughtfully played at least a 1920's De Caro tanda.
He was probably paid by an envious tanguero to see you dance to death.
For me it's not about the total amount of time, but the amount of contiguous time that I'm blocked from dancing at a point in the night that I'm starting to get tired. That often breaks an evening's flow for me.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
Well, I do think he doesn't like me talking to his girlfriend!
TTanguero
Forum Master
Sure, that's what I do. I'd just rather not have an enforced break in the dancing. Have the performance at the beginning or the end, and those of us who don't want it can just skip it.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
This, too.
I'm an extrovert who draws so much energy from dancing that I don't tire as long as I don't stop. My time limit is one of "I'm with my girlfriend, who tires quickly due to a chronic illness, and she wants to leave," "the milonga is in a hard-to-get-to place and I'm on a schedule established by transportation I don't control," or (most often) "the milonga ends and everybody goes home." However, as soon as a performance starts and I can't dance – or even chat without seeming impolite – I start to lose that momentum. If it goes on for long, I do tire. Even on evenings when I'm full of energy, if I'm there with my girlfriend, we're on her very limited clock and the performance means going home after less dancing.
Also, I'm very sensitive to flow. As long as I keep dancing, I remain in a state where all movements are close to effortless and musicality emerges without the intervention of conscious thought. It's the whole "moving meditation" thing all over again. Any prolonged break puts me back in my "start of the milonga" mental space . . . it feels like being sent back to start in a children's board game.
Tango Distance
Well-Known Member
Just curious, there are no wrong answers here. Did you have all unique partners, or how often did you dance with the same person twice?
I confess to this. In my defense, this behavior is driven by friendship
I attended a milonga just last night. I showed up at 20h20 and left at 23h45; so, I was there for 3 hours, 25 minutes. I sat out exactly one tanda – my two shirt changes were Superman-style in the back corridor during cortinas, and all of my drinks of water, breath mints, face wipes, etc. were during cortinas, too. It's safe to say that I danced a lot and with a lot of partners. Yet . . .
On the way out, I passed two people who wanted to dance with me and hadn't, who hinted that we should dance next time. This morning, I had three Facebook messages of a similar nature.
Now, I realize that the sense of obligation resides entirely in the mind of the person feeling it, not the one who's ostensibly imposing it. I've been to therapy.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
This particular time I danced with 8 or 9 people once and 3 people more than once. The multiples were all due to promised milongas and valses. I guess that meant I left out 3 people with whom I could have danced, but on the other hand, I had 5 people express slight disappointment, so the point stands.
That said, there are places where I dance just once per partner. Usually, that's because my friends rarely or never dance there. Less often, it's because the event is either very traditional or full of gossips, and I don't want to give anyone the idea that the final tanda might be horizontal, "Vamos a tomar un cafe?"
But last night, I even left with one of my multiple-tanda partners because she offered me a lift. Everybody knows that she has a car and I don't, so there was no risk of it being misconstrued . . . especially as she said to everyone in the cloakroom, "The bus is leaving! Anybody else going toward X?" Also, we share a coach, who was right there and talking about it, so everybody also knew we had dance-work ties.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Yes people seem to love them. One of our local hosts says that a a performance boosts attendance dramatically. Although, I'm pretty tired of them and see them primarily as a way to give a shout-out to our local teachers. And even that only goes so far, although I can understand the motivation.