Modern Tango World N° 3 (Buenos Aires, Argentina) | Page 44
I find it rather strange when DJs play tandas, but
don’t make them recognizable with cortinas. What
sense could that have? One reason that I have heard
several times is that cortinas interrupt the flow of
the music.There may be non-stop dancers who see
it that way. But, my view is completely different and
I rather like breaks. Some DJs don’t play any cortinas because they consider the evening to be an
organic whole and want to have smooth transitions
from one piece to the next, sometimes introducing
segues that overlap one song with the next.
One frequent consequence of this concept is that
pieces blend into each other or that pauses between pieces are either extremely short or don’t
exist at all. I can’t stand both. Blending pieces into
each other for me shows a lack of respect for the
music. Moreover, the poignant dramatic endings
with their corresponding final poses are automatically lost. I like music with a distinctive end and
don’t like it if the music just fades out. Especially
after romantic pieces, I want to have a few seconds in which I can let the music and the dance
resonate inside me for a brief moment. I find it
stressful and irritating if the next piece begins immediately.
When dancing, I focus exclusively on the dance, the
music and of course on the woman in my arms. It
may sound harsh but I don’t care at all about the DJs.
They need not be present, as most of the time I am
not even aware of them.
Dancing DJ
Also, I totally don’t mind when the DJ enjoys himself
and dances to his music.
The traditional commandment for DJs says: You
have to at least pretend the whole evening to be terribly busy, stare constantly at your display and fumble
around with your knobs and slider controls. Under no
circumstances may you enjoy yourself and dance.
I think this whole idea rather silly. That’s why I like
the following statement of a traditional DJ:
Because I’ve spent so much time in preparation,
I usually dance a lot when I DJ. A FJ who doesn’t
dance makes me wonder why — not a dancer?
not prepared? just choosing in the moment? Oh, oh
Jochen Lüders may be contacted at:
http://www.jochenenglish.de/
[email protected]
Playlists
With the above said, it follows that I have absolutely
nothing against DJs who use playlists. On the contrary: I prefer a carefully chosen and varied playlist to spontaneous DJing. From my experience, this
often leads to musical chaos. That’s why I also don’t
expect the DJ to work the whole evening with a
headphone over one ear all the time, constantly selecting the next musical piece.
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