What happens when there are no cortinas

Despite the title, this piece was as much about practicas as it was about cortinas. Here's a summary then of the points about cortinas:

• Cortinas signify to a partner a natural end point, making parting clear and easy 
• Places that don't have cortinas or play silent cortinas I find tend to play poor to abysmal music
• They tend to put off good dancers
• They remove choice from those who like to dance in tandas.
• DJs/Organisers who propose no/silent cortinas often mistakenly think that people will dance more without cortinas because they won’t have to wait for the end of a tanda. Yet tandas do not in any way prevent people from dancing one, two or three of the tracks which can be positively useful - though also insulting if not handled carefully.
• They can cause a two-speed community, where the better dancers avoid the milongas that don’t have cortinas.
• No cortinas result in a stop-start disjointed experience.
• Practicas without cortinas are no practice for the real conditions of a milonga.

I have also heard “no cortinas” used as an excuse by a teacher-organiser who wanted to give private lessons in the middle of the room during a practica as “disruptive” to people who wanted to work on dance - and to the not-so-private lesson no doubt.

Those who might say they do care about the music but who stay on the floor expecting to dance it must just trust the DJ implicitly. Blind faith though is usually misplaced and I have never met a DJ I trust quite that much.

No/silent cortinas suit DJs who try to use it as a trick to make people stay up. These are the same sorts who tend to play loudly from the patronising stance and in the crass and mistaken belief that loud = ”makes people dance”.  When I was brand new to DJing an organiser once told me to play loudly because: "it will make people dance more".  Last time that happened in a milonga, I left, deafened. 

. In addition, I have found no cortinas or silent cortinas cause people to:

• hop off and on the floor, making finding a partner at a tanda start or when you want one, difficult 
• stay on the floor, even at tanda end, blocking the line of sight of seated dancers wanting to invite by look
• not really care much or listen much to the music, which almost never makes for good dancers

Without cortinas, a milonga is at a stroke a limping, broken, frustrating disaster, except of course for those perpetuating the no cortina idea. I suspect - from where I have seen individuals controlling things - they are strong individualists who believe more in “me and my partner” and apparently less in respecting “all of us and the music”.