[Tango-L] 30 seconds of chit chat, was labor day complaint

[Nussbaum, Martin]

Jack Dylan asked about the reason for the 30 seconds that seems idle
"chit chat" after the music starts. Here's is one possible explanation
that comes to my mind, I am sure there are others. 

It goes along with the BA tradition of clearing the floor during the
cortina, which has other obvious benefits of partner change that seem to
be unappreciated at most milongas here. Many dancers have preferred
partners for certain orchestras, and type of music, whether milonga,
vals, or tango. After the cortina, it takes a bit of time to hear what
is coming on, send the cabaceo to the preferred partner, and get on the
floor with her. My guess is the idle chit chat time is longer at the
start of a new tanda, and shorter between the pieces during the tanda.
Also, even within the same tanda, it just seems more civilized to allow
everyone to take a breath and start again more or less together in the
ronda, rather than rushing in to get every second of dance, which is not
too elegant, and probably futile, if everyone ahead of you is proceeding
to re-enter the embrace in a more relaxed manner. 

InBA, there is more of a feeling that the entire room is moving and
breathing as one, more respect for the line of dance, and the couples
are moving in the ronda more or less at the same speed. Here, you can
have bumper car feeling, or try to move in a vals and come across
landmines of people who use the vals to stay in one spot and hold up the
line of dance. Do you ever get the feeling the couple ahead of you on
the dance floor are listening to something else, maybe on an Ipod? Well,
when everone starts more or less at the same time, it facilitates a
natural tendency to move together, like a multi-celled self calibrating
organism. 

I have a question for you-- do you release the embrace between each
song, or stay latched on to your partner waiting for the music to
restart? I think it feels really nice to ( softly ) release the embrace,
and then gradually re-enter it again. But that's just me. Curious to see
what others think. 

Martin Nussbaum

NYC