“This brings up a question of how do we change things in the U.S. to encourage a moving floor, even if it's crowded? Obviously, this would need to start a local level. Your thoughts?” Trini, I would say that in most cases it would be impossible to expect the floor to move at a reasonable rate crowded or not. On rare occasions I have been to milongas where the floor craft and the movement were good and that made the dancing enjoyable. The problem is it only takes one couple to slow down the movement of the floor and create frustration and aggravation amongst the others. I think the biggest problem is the long pauses or endless turning in one spot. Leaders need to learn to pay attention to the couple in front of them and maintain a reasonable distance. Another problem is the couples that head for the center of the floor to display their ability to perform I have no problem with this but evidently no one told them they need to stay in the middle of the floor. When they get tired of taking up that middle space they tend to start dancing in and out of the outside line of dance and of course there goes the momentum. Another problem would be the couples that never learned to look both ways before crossing the street. How many times have you been dancing along and a couple entering the floor in the middle of a song steps in front of you causing you to stop? Frustrating isn’t it. You said, “Obviously, this would need to start at a local level” I agree 100% and it would have to start with the teachers educating the students. The Japanese auto industry has a philosophy: “If the student isn’t learning the teacher isn’t teaching” I know some of you might say you taught them but they just don’t listen. Okay if that’s the case either you need to change your teaching habits or find a new profession. In my opinion a lot of teachers I’ve seen not only aren ’t qualified to teach but they shouldn’t be allowed on a social floor because they cause a lot of the problems. So will things change in the US and will floor craft get better? I don’t think so you just need to get out there and try to have fun and enjoy yourself as much as possible without causing injury to others. David
In a message dated 2/9/2010 6:38:55 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, patan...@yahoo.com writes: Hola listeros! Seeing that I'll be getting hit with another big snowfall on top of 20 inches here, I thought'd I'd spend my snowed in time on Tango-L. Here's my question. I've heard from a couple of people that there's a big difference in the speed at which people travel on the dance floors in BsAs versus the crowded festivals in the U.S. Basically, in the U.S., the LOD slows to a crawl. In BsAs, however, the LOD continues at its usual pace, even if it's heavily packed. One reason why this is that in the U.S. leaders tend to wait for the person ahead of them to move before they go into the space. In BsAs, people just dance along. One leader described it as being pulled along. This brings up a question of how do we change things in the U.S. to encourage a moving floor, even if it's crowded? Obviously, this would need to start a local level. Your thoughts? Trini de Snowburgh _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l