Modern Tango World N° 3 (Buenos Aires, Argentina) | Page 42

VJing & DJing
Jochen Lüders
I am a tanguera.
A tango dancer,
teacher, djane,
Tandas
& Cortinas
at Neolongas

journalist and story writer. A passionate tango lover, an addict, an admirer. At my first milonga back in 2003, I got
There is a strange tendency that has developed at milongas with alternative, non-traditional tango
hooked
instantly.DJsBut,
would
continued
if my
teachers
had Inot
played
music
— Neolongas.
don’t Iplay
tandasnot
(setshave
of songs)
and cortinas
(time
btween sets).
always
Gotan
Project’s
first they
CD have
in one
lessons. Since then, my focus is on modern
do
because
in my opinion
a lotof
of their
advantages.
tango both as a dancer and as a DJ.
Separating
Tandas and cortinas make it easy to separate politely and without any stress. The leader need not
think when he can leave the follower without appearing impolite. Less than three dances is a turn
down.. The follower can bear dancing with a bad
leader more easily, when she knows that she can
leave him after 3-4 dances without having to humiliate him by ending the dance herself. A lot of
traditional pieces are about 3 minutes long, whereas a lot of modern songs are about 4 minutes or
more That is why in contrast to the traditional
tanda structure of four tangos, three milongas,
three valses, I mostly play only three pieces per
tanda. It is bad enough for the follower to be embraced too tightly, be whirled around or be forced
to dance certain jump or dive figures for twelve
minutes. I n my opinion it is unacceptable if the follower has to endure that even longer.
Dancing with your Favourite Partner
Tandas and cortinas make it much easier to dance
with your favourite partner. Without cortinas
people switch partners arbitrarily and it often
happens that you keep missing the person you
really want to dance with. If I want to dance with
a certain woman I have two possibilities. I can sit
down and wait patiently until she is available. If I
am unlucky I will have to wait pretty long, when
the woman dances with a man who doesn’t want
to let her go. The alternative is that while I am
dancing I have to glance at my dream partner all
the time in order to leave my present follower
at the decisive moment, taking the risk that I embarrass her because we have only danced two
dances together. Moreover she will probably notice that I am not really with her.

With cortinas, you don’t have all this stress. All couples
stop dancing at the same time. Of course it may happen that my favourite partner wants to dance also the
next tanda with her present partner, in this case I still
have to be patient. But at least, I know that I can dance
the next tanda without glancing around furtively. Of
course there will always be a few impolite, ignorant
people who stop dancing in the middle of a tanda, but
the more DJs play tandas and cortinas, the sooner this
particular dancer species will disappear.
Musical and Emotional Structure
The most important reason for me however is that
tandas and cortinas structure the evening musically
and emotionally and make it predictable. Traditionalists often, and rightly so, in my opinion, accuse NeoDJs of creating an insensitive chaos. In extreme cases
you get pounding Otros Aires pieces, followed by
something tender by René Aubry, then some endless
lounge music, followed by a traditional tango from the
1930s, then a vals from Amelie, followed by some electro Gotan Project etc. Of course you have every right
to find that varied and interesting. But personally, I find
it musically insensitive and terrible. I know a number of
people who enjoy modern music at least as much as
traditional one, but who, understandably, simply can’t
stand this acoustic hodge-podge and therefore only
go to traditional milongas.
I don’t want to be pushed into a different direction
by every single piece of music played. In the course
of the evening I do want to live the whole emotional
spectrum from dynamic, lively and cheerful to melancholy amd romantic, but NOT with each piece. One
of the reasons why I find traditional milongas often so
boring and monotonous is that at the end of the evening you frequently have the feeling of having danced
all the time to the same piece of music with some
slight variations.

— 42 —
To Subscribe, Click here