[Tango-L] 30 seconds of chit-chat (was Labor Day Festival: a complaint)

[Huck Kennedy]

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Jay Rabe <jayrabe at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Jack wrote:  "I also dislike this 30 seconds of chit-chat on the dance floor. Just what is its purpose?"
> -----
> I heard somewhere that in the early days of tango, the time before the music started was the only time that a young man could talk to a young woman out of earshot of her chaperons. Obviously this may be pure myth...

     Perhaps, but even today in an old-school milonga, single men and
women will be seated separately.  So a man and a woman have no
opportunity to converse at the table, it is a no-no (rightly so) to
talk while dancing, which leaves only the time between songs out on
the dance floor to chat.

Huck