[Tango-L] Denver Festival Milonga Floor Metrics Contribute to Lane Formation

[Brian Dunn]

Tom wrote:

"As the organizer for the Denver & San Diego festivals, I can reassure  
you that the concept of festivals for social dancing remains: "By  
Dancers; for Dancers". The milongas are arranged for social dancing:  
good djs, rectangular dance floor with tables and chairs around the  
periphery, tandas of traditional social tango, and cortinas for  
partner changing."

One of the things I have always appreciated about the Denver festivals has
to do with the geometry of the portable dance floors that Tom brings in to
create nice milonga floors in carpeted hotel conference rooms.  Tom, please
correct my numbers if I'm off here, but the square components of these
floors look like they measure three or four feet on a side, and they are
edged with thin metal edges fit flush with the finished floor.  As I
navigate them, it's kind of comporting to know that these floor components
make really nicely dimensioned "lanes" on the floor, complete with 90-degree
turn angles, which approximate the 1-meter square "baldosa" tile idea
commonly used when discussing "dense dancing" skills in BsAs milongas (i.e.,
"tango al baldosa"). Even though in BsAs it's often far more crowded than
this (this past Sunday in Canning comes to mind) it still is a great visual
aid and psychological support to reinforce the tendency to form lanes as
crowding increases.  As a local, I sometimes don't go to every Milonga at
the festivals, so others who are complaining may be talking about events I
didn't attend. But when I've been in attendance, my experience is that
couples stayed within their lane as conveniently defined by these floor
tiles, and at least where I was, everything flowed smoothly. Sometimes it
got too dense for the lanes to be useful guides, but that level of crowding
was sporadic and unevenly distributed, and in any case didn't last long.

This clear lane specification really helps me relax as a leader, knowing
that those around me are inhabiting a mutually understood, comfortably
well-defined share of the immediate space, and as long as I and my partner
also stay within our share/square, everybody wins. 

An additional benefit to this consistency in floor layout at the festival -
learners who may struggtle with their first festival experience can take
away an easily understood quantifiable goal for their tango navigation
training for the next festival: Learn to dance comfortably and musically
within a well-defined square, in whatever way you choose, gradually shade
into using the next square as the ronda moves, and all dancers can expect an
equal shot at tango happiness.  

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"