I never get it why performances attract dancers. I hear dancers’ tell me there will be such and such performing at a milonga. I can’t tell whether that is exciting to them or they they that well make Milonga better by attracting more/better dancers.
Tango Diaries
- Thread starter Bailango
- Start date
That’s the same formula in other cities too.
Great? Really?
They all to me are cookie cutter. Rarely inspiring. I try to find sofa at the back of the room. I am surprised of all people you think these performances are top acts.In my experience it also brings in non dancers who came to listen to the music.
Not here. You think the average dancers care that much about the music to stay off the floor
opendoor
Forum Master
I agree with you. It's always irritated me when a mathematician suddenly starts practicing philosophy or even theology.As a mathematician, it put me in mind of algebraic geometry.
Chacarera looks fun. I don’t participate in it. Most of the time it is placed at end of the night and is often unplanned. I find it fun to watch how each individual person dances it. I don’t know what zambs is and never seen it performed. A few times chacarera might be in the middle of the milonga. I prefer it to performances. It is less time. If DJs puts up salsa during cortina and a more than a few people start dancing, the DJ lets the cortina extend to 3-4 minutes or longer. I am sure some people don’t like that. Last time I attended a milonga and DJ put up a salsa during a cortina was more than a year ago.
Never had non-tango musician at a milonga. I have to say your milongas have a lot more (unwelcome) variety
opendoor
Forum Master
I hate that too, because when salsa is playing, I want to be able to dance at least a whole piece!
As a DJ, I only play non-danceable pieces so I don't offend anyone. Jingles, film titles, and the like. Because basically, any music is danceable.
Tango Distance
Well-Known Member
There is a lot of sentiment against performances -- I'll try swimming upstream with some counterpoints.
- In my former desert (both for Tango and literally) town, a performance meant a festival which meant:
- A 4 or 5 hour milonga that night, instead of 3
- 3 to 5 milongas that week, instead of 1
- Privates and classes with a new teacher
- The chance to dance with 30 to 50 followers, rather than 5 to 10 that week
- It's not a given that a performance means more money. Yes, you get more attendees, but you also have the costs for the performers. Several times organizers have told me they lost money hiring performers they had to cover themselves, but that it was worth it and popular. I heard that that encuentros are cheaper to run than festivals, since you don't have to pay teachers/performers.
- The very active people in that area who would Tango 6 hours a week (1 class, 1 practica, 1 milonga), suddenly are doing up to 20 hours of Tango in just 3 days -- a little break in the action of a long milonga seems like a natural thing to do.
- That I have seen, most Tangueros seem to like the performances -- provided they don't go too long.
- At a Southern California Tango Competition, the applause after the main performance was thunderous and long. The demographic was a bit different (a fair number of competitors and those appreciative of competition), and the performers were Mundial level. That milonga was six hours long! I danced almost every tanda and I was beat! BTW, the top level competitions were pretty amazing to watch, too.
- Not having classes or performances is a cornerstone of encuentros, but it looks like festivals with these are more common and better attended.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
A lot of people seem to like the virtuosic aspects of performances. If they are local, and teachers, they will cheer the way fans cheer their favorite teams. Performances do seem to improve attendance at some milongas.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Oof, that would no go over well here. There are other musical choices that are not salsa or pop.
opendoor
Forum Master
How will you prevent that people will dance to other choices?
You can't prevent, but you can minimise the likelihood! Hymns, ballet music, Gregorian chant, military marches (Radetzky March?), opera, classical music (obv. not Strauss waltzes), heavy metal, some jazz... Maybe AI could help
opendoor
Forum Master
I don't leave something this important to AI. Tomorrow, for example, I'll use series titles: Magnum PI, Twin Peaks, and the like!..Maybe AI could help
Isn't it some Twin Peaks anniversary? There's Top Gun as well! Seem reasonably uninspiring dance pieces.
At one level AI is either going to interpolate or extrapolate from previous data. The 'worst' might be some hallucination it composed and plays - which could well be less inspiring to dance
. Still needs a human to verify whether or not it's sensible.
opendoor
Forum Master
The Top Gun Anthem is too rhythmic and immediately makes you want to dance: therefore not.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Not all music is designed for dancing. The only time I've seen people dance during cortinas is when salsa is played, and it's often played because some folks like salsa.