Well this one is really messy because it is converging with the floor craft thread (for people reading this in the far future: https://www.dance-forums.com/threads/how-to-teach-floor-craft.49404/) and there are a lot of interesting ideas + contributions in both placesI noticed on this forum that the thread topic is really just a conversation starter
The apilado equation
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ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
I'm inclined to agree mostly about being invested and dancing with strangers. Cliques are a known problem but no one knows what to do about them or how or even if they should. Dancing with strangers has always been one of the highlights of milongas. What do you mean by the absence of lots of couples though? You mean people who arrive as couples and dance together?
JournalInTime
Forum Master
The only part that matters is arriving and paying, regardless of whether they dance together. My experience working for one place and being on the board of another is that no regular milonga (rather than a big ball, festival, marathon, or other special event) gets most or even very much of its earnings from strangers. They all depend on certain couples who have "their place" – and to a lesser extent, singles who turn up because they know their favorite partners will be there – week in, week out. The tourists, and even the odd dancer who crosses town to check out the weird place far from where they live, don't really do (pay) enough to keep such events alive.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Ohhh, OK, from that perspective, yes, I see what you're getting at. Well, those are the regulars. It doesn't really matter if they are couples or not, what matters is whether there are enough people every week to keep it going. It could be mostly singles (many milongas here, some of the big monthly events, are/were mostly singles) even, as long as they are regular attendees. Tourists can't really be depended on but that depends on where you live and the size of the community--big cities draw more tourists.
Today's milongas are certainly derived from those of the so-called golden age, but are they the same? I suspect the motivations for attending are weighted differently, although the underlying 'boy-meets-girl' (or vice-versa, or even same gender) may still be there for some. Even then, however, there was still the group of friends/family meeting in a convenient location.
I'd agree that a 'group' dance can be an aspect of AT, but I certainly don't see it as a defining characteristic. Sometimes it happens with a group, but it's mostly 2 people as a couple enjoying (hopefully) some dances together within the timespace of a tanda. AT is adaptable to many circumstances.
Isn't the underlying problem that there's no single definitive milonga. There's some common myth to which they may aspire and may attempt to implement, but each has a different objective in its own way depending on the underlying host culture and patrons.
opendoor
Forum Master
Tango has a remarkable range: there is a core of global common features, but there also are these regional, sociological and musical differences. Diversity was inherent in tango, it's its DNA. The music is fusion, and the dance also is a fusion style: the embrace is of Cuban origin, the caminada stems from Europe, the figures from Africa. As Paul said in Eph 4,3 : Let diversity be among you!
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Pretty much, yes. But we could probably identify some common denominators and come up with an average for milongas of the Golden Age or beyond.