[Tango-L] Speed of movement around milonga's floor

[Keith]

When dancing Tango you need to maintain a connection with your partner, the music and, especially in crowded milongas, with the other dancers on the floor. Usually, you don’t have much choice in how quickly or slowly you progress around the floor – it’s determined by the speed of the ronda. So everyone needs to take responsibility for keeping the ronda moving. The general, albeit unwritten, rule in BsAs [anyone, please correct me if I’m wrong] is that if there’s a space in front of you, along the LOD, you move into that space. In the ‘Campeonato Mundial de Baille de Tango’, I believe they have a rule that a couple can only dance in place for 2 bars of music before having to move on. This is a great rule that should also be adopted in the milongas. This would avoid the frustration of getting stuck behind somebody who won’t move on and would render overtaking unnecessary. Staying in place for too long when there’s room to move is just bad navigation, usually by people who can’t dance. And, to use one of my favourite expressions – many people can do Tango, but many of them can’t dance Tango. If Neil needs 4 Tangos to move once around the floor, unless he’s dancing in the new Wembley Stadium, I suspect he’s one of the doers. As for Gavito – he earned the right to do whatever he wanted and was give the respect that he was due. The same rules don’t apply to us lesser mortals.

Keith, HK



 On Tue May 29 11:09 , Gary Barnes  sent:

>Neil apparently  wrote:
>
>> Four tangos = once around the floor
>
>Hmm, in the place we usually dance, that would mean about 1.5- 2  
>metres per minute -- I think that's 5-7 feet per minute in the old  
>money.  (I have trouble progressing that slowly, but its not  
>impossible, if that's what speed the person in front of me is going,  
>consistently.)
>
>OTOH there are some who do several laps per song.  And some who do an  
>approximation of Brownian motion....
>
>Perhaps we need a Gavito to visit and make a roadblock?
>
>Gary