Dan Boccia, Anchorage, Alaska:
You enter the milonga to the sound of a familiar tango. You find a table,
the cortina comes on, and you relax as you watch people mill about, talking
and going back to their tables. A milonga comes on, and you decide to pass
and relax at your table, taking in the atmosphere and the people. Halfway
through the milonga set, you've got your eye on someone you want to dance
with. All you need is a good set of music, something familiar so you'll
have confidence in a new place with a new partner. You know the next set
ought to be tangos, so you move to a place where you can catch the other
person's eye quickly. The cortina begins to fade and everyone is tingling
to hear the next set. The first note of Di Sarli's "Corazon" rings through
the club, and your hair raises, knowing it's going to be a great set. You
catch his/her eye and the invitation is accepted.
Or....
You enter the milonga to a classy D'Agostino/Vargas tune, and as you find a
table, another D'Agostino/Vargas tune begins. Must be the end of the set
soon, you assume, and you're anxious to dance because the DJ is playing
great music. Then the next song is by D'Arienzo, the next 2 songs are
valses, then a rock-n-roll plays, followed by a horrible version of a
familiar tango and you still haven't gotten onto the floor because you can't
figure out where the DJ is going with the music and there are no cortinas to
slow the pace of the night down. Everything seems rushed and hurried, and
you realize that you're not comfortable here, and leave without dancing,
very frustrated by the experience.
I'm a dancer, and both of these scenarios have happened to me. I have never
been back to the second milonga and never will as long as the same DJ is
playing there - 3 times over 3 visits, I've never been able to get into the
groove there, whereas at other milongas in that town I've had fabulous
nights. A nice ronda never develops there, the level of dancing as a whole
is poor, and people are bumping into each other constantly. No wonder -
chaotic DJing leads to chaotic dancing. Funny thing is, this DJ is
Argentine, so a lot of folks hang in there, thinking they're getting the
real thing. Sighhhh...........
The music is the single most important element of a good milonga. My theory
is that those DJs who really focus on the dancers and the overall social
energy of the milonga often become partially or wholly transparent, such
that the dancers really don't think about the music or the DJ, they just
focus on dancing. They know the music is going to be good, which gives them
a certain confidence. At these milongas, the pace of the night is calm, the
dancers are in a trance, and the folks at the tables are joyously engaged in
conversation.
I'll take the transparent DJ, thank you.
Tradition says that we play songs in sets of 4 tangos, 4 valses, or 4
milongas. I'm not bound down by the traditions of the milongas in Bs As,
but through my own trials, experiments, failures and successes, I've come
around to a fairly standard presentation of songs (all tango, all valses, or
all milongas) in sets of 4 usually grouped by orchestra, with 30-45 second
(sometimes longer) cortinas in between sets. I often mix orchestras during
the milonga or vals sets, and on rare occasion for the tango sets, too. For
more informal parties, all-night milongas with close friends, etc., I take
much more creative license and speak with a more commanding voice as DJ,
perhaps playing 6-7 song tandas, mixing orchestras up, playing non-tango
songs, outrageous cortinas, etc., but when I am the guest DJ at events where
people are coming from all over, or it is a "connoisseurs" evening, I stick
with what I know works so the dancers can dance within a familiar context of
music.
It's all about being reasonable, flexible, and with the best interest of the
dancers (as a whole, not just a few individuals) in mind. Without the
dancers, a DJ is nothing.
email Dan Boccia
Dan's website.
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A serious business!
