opinion

- More milongas = less people in each. And fewer people means a lot less fun.

- Djs with lack of understanding = jangled nerves and bumping.

As nobody can DO anything about these challenges, it's a vexing situation.

5 years ago you could say came a sea change; but of course only if you had been around for, in my case, a couple of decades.

I saw a whole new influx of people starting to dj in milongas (and a whole new whack of milongas), resulting in dance experiences being quite diminished. It happened pretty much everywhere in the world and has caused a lot of the old gang to stay home more. Those are a lot of the best dancers!

Example: a big US city with a young tango scene where the whole town was buzzing because of the fun we had when I got all the local teachers to come out with their students for my weekend. All the milongas had at least a 30-50% bump in attendance.

But less than a year later, my hosts told me that much as they would love to have me back, they couldn't manage it because there were now twice as many milongas,none of them were getting any numbers and the local scene had totally splintered into little factions.

People stopped working together and sharing because: more new promoters going after diminishing slices of the pie. More is not better in this sense - on a few levels.


Aside from the falling numbers of individual milongas, an immediate consequence of a flood of new djs with no experience has been - no surprise - a degradation of floorcraft. Chaotic bumping for no reason upsets everyone to some extent. You might think I'm crazy, but trust me - blame for a messy floor must needs be broadly laid at the feet of teachers and djs. I don't mean to be harsh!

For teacher-blame, it is obvious; they must share the wisdom of the ages about how to make a safe and happy ronda. How else are new dancers to know? What are teachers for? To all you teachers who do explain this to students and make sure they understand in the right way, bless you.

For dj-blame, I swear that a clean dj makes for a clean floor. If dancers aren't communicated with on a subtle level giving them consistency and comfort in delivery, things go wonky. You see it so often. (I have a bag of tricks I use if I see things getting chaotic. I use the music and timing and subtle forms of control to calm things down right away. But of course I never see it because - I don't let it get there! Tips in my dj workshops.

A great many djs couldn't begin to tell you what I'm talking about; they just don't know enough about the subtler aspects of the job. Nor have they even contemplated the problem and realized much of it is under their control. Even people who have been doing it for a long time; I'm sorry - these are actually still amateurs. Being a good dj is an art - and there's some behavioral science to it as well.

Technical savvy together with sensitive artistic know-how or lack thereof is of course at the root of it. You all know how disturbing it is to have songs too loud OR too quiet, levels bobbing up and down through the night. Leaders in particular react negatively to this - and leaders are the ones we need to be calm on the floor.

The other major running problem: song choices.

So many djs play songs because they have them (the worst reason in the world to play anything) - not because it is the best possible song to play at this moment. And dare I say, the same thoughtless level of attention to detail to the sound means a collection probably of not very good audio quality. Trusting in record companies from Argentina has always been a bad idea. Just sayin. Why I've been trying to fix that for over 15 years.

Prime example: anything by D'Arienzo must be good to play because - D'Arienzo. A dj who can't hear his downward spiral into tango por export after Biagi is like playing Herman's Hermits when people want the Beatles. Puuleese. (Surely this 60's comparison is a propos because our tango favs are 30 years older than even that).

Inconsistent sound levels and sloppy song choices are the fastest way to piss off good dancers and bring down your mood - and introduce confusion on the floor.

I saw all this coming into milongas in a big way 5 years ago. And it's growing by dint of habit.

So, yes; these problems pass the 5x5 Rule. And I'll still be ticked about them when I'm rolling in my grave over them because they will STILL MATTER in 100 years.

I'm only saying what most long-time dancers who don't go out so much any more would say as well.


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