Something alive

Walled garden, Crathes castle, Aberdeenshire, Summer 2016

A milonga is a precious thing.  It is something alive, an organism, an ecosystem.  

When it is healthy, its various parts work in harmony, its atmosphere makes it glow.  An example:  the cortina exists to clear the floor so that partners can see one another to invite by look for the next tanda. If dancers dance the cortina or stay on the floor during the cortina, they undermine its purpose  and prevent others from finding partners.  

Another example: invitation by look is the most efficient, discreet way to invite, allowing men to save face if rejected and to accord women true choice.  But if seating, lighting or room size is poor, or dancers do not respect this system all of this suddenly is broken.  

If seats are taken by others, partners struggle to find you, the calm flow of the evening breaks up as you hop from seat to seat leaving a scarf here, a bag somewhere else.  But seating appropriate for friends, single dancers and couples is like nourishment or oil to this system - it helps it to function.  A host in a well-attended milonga might show you to a suitable seat, knowing which is your spot, if a regular, or where might be best if you are new or a stranger.  This accords the host an authority which is useful when s/he has to manage situations of for instance, dangerous floorcraft.  And it tells everyone that this is your seat, your host with the benefit of their experience placed you there, with care. 

A milonga reminds me of a habitat.  In fact I suppose it is - it's the habitat of dancers. Healthy natural habitats can grow wild:

Allean Walk, Queens view, near Pitlochry, early summer 2016

They can be cultivated, as in the header photo of  Crathes castle:

Or they can grow in the most unpromising places:

Banks of wildflowers growing inside/below a huge roundabout/intersection in central Manchester, summer 2016

They can be connected to other, special things:

Kitchen, herb and flower garden, Pillars of Hercules, June
2015

Cultivated wilflowers in the strawberry field/outdoor cafe at Pillars. August 2014

     


They can develop under gentle supervision and benign neglect:

Wildflower meadow behind Doune Castle, Perthshire, July 2016

A healthy milonga can be completely killed off by its system becoming so broken it no longer functions well.  Or by noxious influence, falsehood, politics, disillusion, lack of faith.  It can become a mere carapace, essentially dead inside.  It can become mechanical.  

The health of a milonga depends on the conditions in which it grows and thrives.  If it is run by teachers who refuse to allow anyone but their own students, or it cultivates that sort of atmosphere, it will be stunted and never thrive. If it is run by teachers who teach moves without music (here are 50!),  teachers who give primacy to movements and technique over music (and nearly all do) then the milonga will produce unmusical dancers and these are not dancers.  There are endless problems that can beset a milonga: the venue size, shape, acoustics, temperature, the music, the sound, the floor quality, the tables and seating, the lighting and lines of sight and perhaps most importantly, the quality of the hosting. Variations in these will attract dancers accordingly.

I am puzzled if people (usually hosts) say there are too many milongas. New milongas come into being because existing milongas are failing to serve a need.  This is why only weak and insecure hosts try to see off, dissuade even kill off competition in all the many ways they do.  Strong, secure, confident hosts just concentrate on what they do well.