Professional Tango instructors, George and Jairelbhi Furlong, host two milonga monthly at Studio 22 in Dallas on 1st Saturday night and on 2nd Sunday afternoon.
Once or twice in a year with a calendar trick, the Saturday and Sunday come back to back. Then they add Friday milonga and make it three consecutive milonga.
Inviting music professor John from Austin, they add musicality class on Sunday as well.
Altogether, there is a weekend-long event.
In OKC, we are slowly restarting Tango after covid. Now we have two places holding milonga (1st and 3rd Fridays at idance, 2nd and 4th Fridays at Adelante). Maybe one more at OKC swing dance club, but I've not attended it. Overall, we can have four milonga per month. We can have two more, as idance offers a Tango room in their socials on 2nd and 4th Saturdays.
But with small community and with technical dance as Tango, it is not always possible to meet technically efficient dancers and dance great.
Enough complaints. A part of my Ney Years Resolutions is to add more dances.
So I went to Dallas.
Judging from their milonga and the way the locals dance, I was under impression that in Dallas more sporty-dynamic type of moves were currently popular.
As many Tango dancers know, Tango has sensual/nice-and-slow/intimate dance-aspect and dynamic/sporty/fast/athletic/showy-aspect.
Sensual dance is often loved and emphasized by social dancers. Technical sporty dances are presented by professional stage dancers.
Although they are not mutually exclusive, people somehow tend to pick one and stick with it. The song, dancers' skill levels, and matchup affect the pick.
What happens then is that, when slow/nice dancers are dominant, they are nice but sometimes look limited in techniques. Thus, limited in viewing pleasure (unless done really nice). When fast dancers are dominant, they can look like floorful of intermediate dancers. Fast dancers tend to use the moves in patterns, and they may or may not be pulled off with the song (ouch). Moves not done with the song is what make them look like intermediate to my eyes.
The way I see it, mixing the two aspects well is essential to be seen as advanced Tango dancers. And it takes both lead and follow.
Slow and nice can allow graceful and/or playful embellishments by the followers. Feels quite nice for leaders, too. Sometimes, not to mess with her moves and fun is the major job for a lead.
Fast and sporty is also fun and add dynamic "dance" look. Moving fast and beautiful in three-dimension, together, is what dancers can achieve here. But it is not easy for her to add foot play or little gesture moves when asked to execute fast giro.
Tango dance can be modular. Dancer weave moves parts by parts. Advanced dancers can present the slow-nice and fast-dynamic both together with music. But such dancers are one or two among fifty, even in a big city milonga.
Dancers come and go. Preferences and popular patterns change. Dancefloor dynamics and the look are not the same. That adds some fun for visiting.
