Trini, I disagree. I think the multiple-tanda woman is motivated by not wanting to mess with a good thing. She looks around and sees surplus women standing around not dancing every time she goes out, and she thinks "that could be me if I'm not careful, he wants to dance a lot with me, I like dancing with him, and maybe he would move on to another partner who is willing to dance multiple dances."
A lot of men are not looking for novelty and the challenge of figuring out different follows. They are simply going to stick with a partner all night if there is no pressure to do otherwise. It makes them feel more competent with the responsibility of leading, they relax more because they know what is going to happen, and of course...everyone enjoys dancing more with someone they enjoy dancing with. These guys are in every type of social dance, not just tango. (A lot of people on this list are extremely high level and very motivated and might like the novelty of different partners. They forget that the average dancer who is not so committed, doesn't necessarily enjoy the challenge of figuring out multiple partners.) Long cortinas are absolutely necessary to encourage people to switch. I would recommend a cortina of 2 minutes or more, ie, a whole non-tango song. With a short cortina it's very easy to remain standing in the middle of the floor with the same partner--sometimes they even keep their arms together! If the cortina is longer, standing in the middle of the floor with people staring at you starts to feel uncomfortable, and people are more likely to leave the floor and get a drink or socialize. The power struggles and effects on social behavior caused by a surplus of leads or follows are underrated. Community organizers should be thoughtful about this. Plus my other comments on the way this problem is exacerbated by long tandas, and not having available non-tanda dancing at practicas in communities where partners are more willing to try out new partners, etc etc. Regards, Trini y Sean (PATangoS) wrote: > > She is trying to be polite so she doesn't refuse tanda > request #3? That's absurd. These women are either not > telling you the truth or must say yes to every guy who asks > her for sex. ... > > Skip: > It takes two to agree to a dance. So I interpret these 3+ > tandas as being that these people really like dancing > together. If I dance 3 or 4 tandas with a man at one time, > it's because I find him to be very musical and I'm > interested in how he interprets different musical styles (a > very nice thing about the tanda system is its > predictability). If during two tandas his dance is the > same, then, he's pretty much played all of his cards and > the game is over. For these long sets, I try to save those > tandas for later in the evening so that I can end my night > on a high note. > -- Carol Ruth Shepherd Arborlaw PLC Ann Arbor MI USA 734 668 4646 v 734 786 1241 f Arborlaw - a legal blog for entrepreneurs and small business http://arborlaw.biz _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l