[Tango-L] Buenos Aires Milonga traditions outside Buenos Aires

[Alexis Cousein]

On 22/05/2012 01:53, David Leache wrote:
> In BsAs one that dances to the cortina is called an "Idiot"
 > the cortina is for clearing the floor not for dancing
 > that's why it's not tango usually rock n roll.
>
They weren't even _on_ the floor; I'd advise not to
jump to conclusions without reading carefully.

And there are actually BsAs  milongas --certainly barrio
ones for people who're there with friends and family-- where
people will happily dance part of the cortinas. I was told
that was unchanged two weeks ago, so unless the sky suddenly
caved in there's a lot of overgeneralisation in that comment.

Not _everything_ in BsAs is one of the staunchest of El Beso milongas
(or wherever it may have moved to recently, depending on the
former El Beso milonga you pick).

To "zutalors": No, that's not the atmosphere the codigas are meant
to foster. Which doesn't mean I agree with your general statements;
it's not just because some codigas are old and from BsAs that they
may not be useful outside of BsAs and now.

Some are, some aren't, and some are actually more or less
neogtiated by the dancers and it's futile to try to resist.

If everyone chats for 30 seconds and you try to make forward
progress at the first line of even the intro --puzzling,
since you need a lot of time to successfully renegotiate the
embrace, something which I often do while talking since I'm an
inveterate chatterer-- you're acting quite the ass (British
English meaning), and if everyone not only has embraced
but has started moving and you're not even embracing and engaging
in idle chatter instead, if you don't move at least _almost_ out of
the way until you're ready to move you're also being an ass
(you also rob yourself of the opportunity to pick the leaders
in front and behind you that you trust to form a good ronda train).

But even for other dancers, common sense is also advisable. If
you see two people chat and they're in your lane, then bumping
them is not the best option. Slowly dancing close enough to
eavesdrop in on the conversation usually fixes the issue quite
rapidly ;). It's not like it's impossible to dance tango without
making forward progress, unless the back of the queue is
made out of "squeezer leaders" who try to squeeze you out in
another lane.