[Tango-L] Rate of movement on crowded floors

[Michael]

I'm not going anywhere because my car is locked in from compounded snow and 
ice and 16+ inches of snow is on the way. The federal government in 
Washington has been closed for two days @ $100 Million cost to the 
taxpayers, who I thank for two days off.

Based on the milongas I attended in BA, the main difference is the 
Argentines dance in close embrace but there is a lot of open embrace in the 
States, which takes up much more room, leaving less dance space. Also, 
Argentines only know five figures, and they are content. They don't use 
figures that stop the line of dance.

Based on reading the class schedules at festivals, the emphasis is on 
figures. Rarely, do I see a class dealing with navigation or what to do in a 
traffic jam. I remember Robin Thomas taught a class on what to do in a 
traffic jam. I thought the figure looked familiar. Then I realized it was a 
figure from AMERICAN ballroom. But it was still good to know.

If you want to encourage maintaining a flow of traffic, that's what you 
teach at festivals. Don't teach figures that STOP the line.

I remember Alan Forde saying at the Atlanta Festival "You're not just 
dancing with your partner. You're dancing with everybody else on the floor." 
Until dancers understand that, expect traffic jams on the floor.

Michael
Washington, D.C.  Winter Wonderland because we wonder when it's going to end
I danced Argentine Tango --with the Argentines

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos at yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 9:38 AM
Subject: [Tango-L] Rate of movement on crowded floors


 Seeing that I'll be getting hit with another big snowfall on top of 20 
inches here, I thought'd I'd spend my snowed in time on Tango-L.  Here's my 
question.

I've heard from a couple of people that there's a big difference in the 
speed at which people travel on the dance floors in BsAs versus the crowded 
festivals in the U.S.  Basically, in the U.S., the LOD slows to a crawl.  In 
BsAs, however, the LOD continues at its usual pace, even if it's heavily 
packed.

This brings up a question of how do we change things in the U.S. to 
encourage a moving floor, even if it's crowded?

Trini de Snowburgh