[Tango-L] proportions

[sherpal1@aol.com]

I don't think I have ever seen a DJ in BA dance....It is sort of like a 
Salsa musician, say a Congo player or Timbales player...they are 
musicians, they learn one expression of the music, that is creating it, 
not dancing it.

Similarily, the wonderful DJ's in BA are musical artists in their own 
rights...they study it as a scienct and art from from early in their 
youth..they know what rhythm of one orchestra will blend favorably with 
an upcoming rhythm of the next song in the sequence, so as not to 
disrupt the dancers dance style that he comitted himself to when he 
danced the first song of the tanda.  DJ'ing is so much more than a 
proportional collection of tangos vs, vals, vs milongas songs.  And the 
more one dances to the music of fine DJ's the more disruptive it is to 
dance to a sort of random collection of unmatched juxtaposed songs.  
This is just another cultural naivete and sort of insults the massive 
amount of expertise one must acquire in order to be a good DJ.

As for proportions:  I thought the typical dance/song formula for a 
milonga was, tango, tango, vals--tango, tango, milonga, so that dancers 
can pretty much predict what is coming up next and start lining up the 
cabeceo for the next dancer they want to invite.  There is a huge 
function of prediction and known anticipation that operates on the BA 
dancefloor...things are not so random as they can be extra-culturally.  
Sherrie