[Tango-L] Surplus Tanguera - Not

[Chris, UK]

> This causes some interesting problems.

> if a man wishes to dance he must obtain a follower before the cortina
> ends, so couples often end up dancing to music that they might prefer
> not to.

Curtains work where the dancers' primary concern is the music - such 
dancers choose the music first, and the dancer second - to fit the 
recommendation of the music. You've described a group for whom the music 
is secondary, so no surprise at all that here the curtain's effect is 
actually detrimental. It's created a situation which favours partner 
seekers less interested in the music, and over time this easily becomes a 
self-reinforcing effect. The root cause is a DJ that plays a curtain 
because "its the done thing" rather than being sensitive to whether it's 
effect is positive or negative in that particular milonga.

The DJ could stop using a curtain. Then after every tanda, the dancers 
will hear what the next music is before there's time for invitations.

Or he could keep the curtain but soon after the start, play a blip from 
the intro of the forthcoming track. Many will get it - the ones that don't 
are probably those who have no interest in the music anyway.

> And as an interesting aside, we have a Tango Studio in town which
> primarily teaches "cool moves" and "patterns" ... That studio's
> milongas have an excess of women.

I think it more or less universal that the worse the social tango 
teaching, the greater the number of women relative to men. Whereas most 
women take so little from classes, the men receive the full force of them 
and hence are much more vulnerable to discouragement from bad teaching.

--
Chris