Music for milongas workshop

Do you go along to a milonga and dance to anything that's played?
Have you experienced the music transporting you and your partner?
What goes into selecting music for a milonga?

These questions and more were tossed around and debated at the recent Tango Adelaide Club workshop, with lots of perceptive insights. A key thread was the emotional impact of music. Natalie's point about the influence of music in movies was not lost on us, at all. Here's an experiment for you. Just focus on the music accompanying a scene in a film or TV show sometime, with your eyes closed. How does it make you feel? I'll bet you find that the choice is not accidental, nor the impact incidental.

Sometimes the music is sublime to listen to, but does it move you to dance? Is dancing to it within your current capabilities? Especially with a partner in the tango embrace?

Does a piece of danceable music energise or calm the floor? When might a few tandas result in a chaotic dance-floor, put most people to sleep ... or irritate the hell out of you?

Stimulating stuff, but we only had 2 hours for the workshop, and we needed time to put the theory into practice ... by constructing danceable tandas. Walking the talk - that's when the things got really challenging.

Want to know more? Take look at Stephen & Susan Brown's highly regarded website.

Pat