[TANGO-L] Re. An environment for success

[A Coleman <gurps_npc @HOTMAIL.COM>]

I disagree about the tables against the wall.

By putting the walk space by the dance floor, when no one is walking you
have a bigger dance floor.

If you put the isle behind the table, then that space is totally wasted when
no one is walking.

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Date:    Sat, 25 Oct 2003 11:56:03 -0500
From:    Hector <maselli @GATE.NET>
Subject: Re. An environment for success

>Date:    Fri, 24 Oct 2003 21:51:45 -0800
>From:    Dan Boccia <redfox @ALASKA.NET>
>Subject: An environment for success

>A final thing - if you normally line the tables up against a wall to
>make the dance floor bigger, think again - moving the tables in to
>create a walkway behind the tables actually results in a better dance
>experience because there is no longer a need to travel about the room by
>crossing the dance floor.

>Dan

Great set up Dan.
Where is your milonga?

Hector

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Date:    Sat, 25 Oct 2003 11:54:50 -0600
From:    Tom Stermitz <Stermitz @RAGTIME.ORG>
Subject: Re: An environment for success

I really agree that these are important issues...especially in
crowded milongas, like at festivals, or in Buenos Aires.

I've seen the good, the bad and the really ugly.


I noticed that club owners who are used to salsa or swing are
frequently unaware of the needs tango dancing, and are extremely
resistant to changing the layout of the room.

Milonga organizers who dance tango SHOULD be more aware; maybe they
don't have experience leading in crowded conditions, or haven't
travelled enough to see how much better things can be if you lay out
the room nicely.

Some dancers will complain vociferously that an organizer who fails
to maximize the floor size is forcing them to do a style of tango
they don't like. But if they thought this through, they would realize
that the walkers take up the same amount of room space whether they
are on or off the floor, so this is simply a matter of moving them to
a safer place. Once that they are off the floor, you can safely dance
up to the edge of the tables.


For me the key concept for constructing a good flow of the dance
floor is forming a "Rectangular Perimiter of the Dance floor".

Why rectangular?
  - Dancing forward in a straight line builds navigational skill
  - If you make it circular, the lanes are don't form as easily
  - People cutting corners use up the space of 2 or 3 other couples
  - The corners are safe places to do a flourish or more flashy turn.

In a festival with a high percentage of moderately skilled dancers,
it is reasonable to hope for two outside lanes, recognizing that we
still have quite a few people whose tango mental structure is
precisely of zig-zagging about the middle whether on stage or on a
social dance floor.


Dan proposes a number of excellent ideas, pointing out that these are
directly within the control of the  milonga organizer. I'd like to
endorse these ideas by highlighting some easy things that address the
problem:

  (1) Delimit a rectangular perimeter with tables on one or two walls.
This  puts the audience in closer contact with each other so they can
catch eyes, or find partners easily.

(2) Put aisles BEHIND the tables for waiters and partner seekers

(3) Create an obvious rectangular perimeter physically, for example
by    laying down a dance floor at a carpeted hotel ballroom

(4) Use two layers of tables on two or three sides rather than one
layer   of tables on all sides.

(5) Allow sufficient entry ramps to the outside lane, so there isn't
one  congestion point. A bigger milongas requires more entries.


Does it work?

I personally set up several of the milongas at the Denver Milonguero
Festivals. These are on portable floors over carpet at a hotel
ballroom. The tables are placed on two or three sides, allowing ample
room to walk around off the floor. The floor is sized appropriately:
too big and you don't get a good crowd energy.

The teachers are asked to focus on material appropriate to the
conditions expected at the milongas, and the classes always includes
discussion of floor-craft, navigation, etiquette (such as catching
the eye of the on-coming leader), lanes, not cutting corners, not
zig-zagging between lanes, etc.)

Admittedly, the first days things are pretty chaotic as people from
around the country bring old habits that function on empty floors,
but by the end of the weekend, people get used to the flow, and 2 or
2.5 lanes are functioning fairly nicely.

The tango trance for the man happens when he isn't worried about
collisions, and the crowd takes on a predictable rhythm.

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