Re: [TANGO-L] Community Growth - The Next Generation

[Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>]

Brian Dunn wrote:

>The problem from the dancer's side:
>[H]ow can I know whether the arrangements I like will be played
>at a given milonga, and give me some return for the effort I put
>in to learn them in detail?

>The problem from the DJ's side:
>How do I help "educate" my particular community to a wider variety
>of "stylistically valid" music (pick your favorite style) without
>posing the problem of unfamiliar arrangements for leaders in milonga
>settings?

>Teachers, organizers and DJs ... because they frequently find themselves
>answering the beginner's question "What tango music should I buy?"

Brian's solution that all students be encouraged to buy the same music
used in classes and that the DJ will play at least 75 percent of it is a
really good idea if the teacher is the DJ.  Implementing it on a
community-wide basis--by getting all the beginning teachers and DJs in the
community to agree to a standard--may be challenging but is worthy of
consideration.

A few ideas to build on Brian's: Tell the beginners to arrive at milongas
when the doors open, and the DJ will play a much higher percentage of the
beginning standard music early in the evening.  Maybe 50 percent of the
music would come from the standardized list for the first hour or two. The
DJ can also use the early portion of the evening as an educational to
expand awareness of the music by creating tandas that have two tangos from
the standardized list and two by the same orchestra that are not from the
standardized list but are among the great tangos.  That way the dancers
are incrementally introduced to the DJs longer playlist.  During the first
hour or so the DJ would also make sure to stay with relatively simple
rhythms even when playing material that is not on the standardized list.

Organizing practicas and encouraging beginners to attend is also very
important in building a tango community.  If provides them another
opportunity to work with music and their dancing in an informal atmosphere
before they have to face the somewhat more formal atmosphere of a milonga.

As Brian suggests, practicas are an opportunity to expose beginners to a
wider variety of music, but in the United States it is really the late
hours of a milonga when the dancers seem to enjoy the DJ introducing new
music that pushes the boundaries.

With best wishes for the New Year,
Steve

Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
http://www.tejastango.com/