[Tango-L] Etiquette for live music

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Well, in Buenos Aires, its de rigueur not to dance the first piece 
played by the orchestra. Very often, the floor remains empty into the 
second and third piece. The latter is certainly not required or 
expected, but often happens, and is influenced by a combination of:

- The mix of the crowd and/or the type of milonga (if it has mostly 
diehard dancers or not)

- The mood of the crowd--if the  crowd is enraptured by the musicians 
and the live music and applauding them heartily, it's pretty 
intimidating (since it would feel intrusive) to get up and dance in the 
middle of that.

- The quality of the orchestra--this is related to the previous point. A 
really good orchestra will get 2-3 songs where most or all of the people 
are sitting out.

- If some old and highly respected musician is being featured (think 
Alberto Podestá or Horacio Salgán), that can prolong the sitting out 
sometimes indefinitely.

The only real no-no, though, is dancing the first one. Usually, if a 
brave soul gets up for the second number, others will join in (everyone 
was waiting for the first one to get up). And on the flip side, if no 
one is getting up and dancing by the 3rd or 4th song, someone from the 
orchestra will often encourage the dancers to do so.

I don't think this rule transfers, culturally, to the US. At this point, 
I'm too used to sitting out the first piece, and so I wouldn't initiate 
an invitation myself, but on the other hand if someone asked me and the 
floor were already crowded with lots of other dancers, I'd probably 
shrug and join them. It would not come across to me as a faux pas 
outside Argentina.

Shahrukh