Triangulo : Our DJs

TriANGulO

Carina Moeller's studio

for Argentine Tango
135 West 20th St, #301
(btwn 6th & 7th Aves)
New York City, NY, 10011
(212) 633-6445
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DJs

Do DJs matter? HELLS YEAH! DJs matter a great deal. DJs make all the difference. Some DJs work with you, some DJs work against you. And some DJs are telepathic. I.e., they can TELL when what is really necessary is an excruciatingly sweet and melancholy waltz - mmm -and then again they seem to KNOW when what you really need is a nice goofy milonga to chill things out.

At Triangulo, we believe that DJing is an act of creativity on a par with dancing itself. The best DJs are balanced, flexible, and inspired. They invest in humongous, eclectic music collections from which they select a suite of traditional and nontraditional songs to structure evenings of great loveliness for all of us dancers - most of whom are blissfully unaware of their behind-the-scenes work!

Therefore, with no further ado, we are pleased to draw your attention to Triangulo's highly telepathic masters of spin:

Robin Thomas | Carina Moeller | Alec Zaballero | Adam Hoopengardner | Ko Tanaka

Robin Thomas

Here Robin answers some common questions...
What is a tanda? A tanda is a set of tangos, milongas or valses. In Buenos Aires the music is almost always played in tandas, usually of about four songs each. Depending on the dj, there are two tandas of tangos then one of valses, then one or two tandas of tangos and then a tanda of milongas and then the cycle repeats itself. It is an almost universal rule that you dance the entire tanda with the same partner. It is very rude to drop someone in the middle of the tanda.
What is a cortina? A cortina (curtain) is a piece of non-tango music that is played for usually a minute or so between every tanda. In Buenos Aires everyone (absolutely everyone) leaves the dance floor while the cortina is playing. They return to their seats and have a smoke, a sip of something to drink or flirt. They don't immediately leap onto the floor when the next song starts playing, they listen to it for a little bit, decide if they like it and then decide who they would like to dance it with.
What is an idiota? An idiota (idiot) would be someone who tried to dance to the cortina or stood there on the dance floor with their embarrassed partner while the cortina was playing.
Why is it better to play the music in tandas? The songs in the tandas are traditionally by the same orchestra from the same period. For instance you don't generally hear Pugliese from the 40's mixed with Pugliese of the 50's. As the tanda progresses it gives you and your partner a chance to warm up to the music and really explore it together without having to constantly get used to something new. Also, and more importantly, it allows you to choose your partner to fit the music. You can invite someone who you like to dance Pugliese with at the beginning of that tanda and know that it is not suddenly going to change into a milonga. In Argentina you also never have to awkwardly let your partner know that you have danced enough with them because you always dance with them until the end of the tanda and then let them go. Usually you don't dance two tandas in a row with the same person unless you are sleeping with them. Tandas also help us identify the sounds of different orchestras. If we can distinguish between them then we can dance to Calo differently than we do to D'Arienzo.
What is floorcraft? Floorcraft is...
(also see Robin's website)

Carina Moeller

Our lovely Carina not only runs the studio, and teaches all the classes, but she also DJs! See Carina's page for more.

Alejandro Augusto Zaballero y del Rosario

Following much pressure from the WebMistress, Alec is finally going to tell us a bit about his DJing...
I've been DJing for quite a while now, about seven years as of this writing. This makes me the CroMagnon Man of DJs since I remember DJing off of cassette tapes (how very 20th century) and djs now are using MP3s and laptops. The entire first year and a half at Triangulo and Chelsea Market we used cassettes, and I would stand around spinning the next cassette on a pen because we didn't have two decks.
My DJing "style" has evolved over the years. I started out a very strict traditionalist, absolutely devoted to the tanda format and deeply suspicious of anything recorded after 1949. I played tandas in a 4-2-2 pattern; 4 tangos-2 waltzes-2 milongas, after the pattern of my mentor Danel Bastone. I smile inside when I remember switching to a 4-2-4-2 pattern and considering it a big innovation. My dancing at the time mirrored my DJing style; I was strict milonguero style, weight forward and not a sliver of daylight ever showed between me and my partner.
And now? I'm still a traditionalist in that I play the music in tandas and end the evening with "La Cumparsita". The classics of the golden age, the 30's and 40's, are still the backbone of my musical selection and I love the music deeply. My favorite orquestras? D'Agostino-Vargas, Biagi and early Pugliese.
In other ways though I have departed from tradition. For one thing, I don't play cortinas. I think of a tango evening as a flow, a narrative, and the traditional bit of cortina music feels discordant. I substitute instead a pause, 12 seconds of silence (I tried 10, I tried 15, I settled on 12).
The other thing is I play a lot of nontango and tango nuevo music interspersed in the traditional music. Over the course of a typical milonga this will include new Argentine fusion stuff and an eclectic mix of nontango music from the likes of Sting, Ashanti, TLC, Johnny Cash and Sarah Vaughn. Some fast stuff, some soulful stuff, some bump and grind. The balance shifts as the evening progresses and I will play more and more nontango music towards the end of the night. The essential criteria for musical selection is that it have mood and be danceable, which admittedly are somewhat subjective judgement calls on my part. But hey, that's what dj's are for, right?
"Heresy!" I can hear the traditionalists shout while assembling the pitchforks and torches. "Rank, unforgivable heresy!" the Alec of seven years ago is yelling, somewhere in my head. Well, yeah, I suppose. Certainly I get my share of irate traditionalists coming up to me demanding that I stop the nontango stuff (I don't). So why do I do it?
The glib answer is "because it's fun". Dude, it's just fun.
The reasoned out answer has to do with the nature of tango as a living art form. Living art forms are like living languages; they must change and evolve in order to stay relevant. New concepts arise, new ways of living and loving come into being, ideas are swapped and borrowed from the outside and language and art form must adapt. Pure Darwin. Adapt or die. Do we live in the 1930's? No. Do we think the same way? No. Has the vocabulary of tango movement expanded since 1949? Yes! Is it exciting to push yourself and push the boundaries of the dance? Heck yes!
The alternative is to be like that silly French academy that keeps telling the French not to use Americanisms like "le drugstore".
Bottom line: the New York tango scene is wonderful because you can choose between all these different places and djs, each with a different mood and style. I'm happy to add to the mix. Look for me some night -- I'm the CroMagnon hunched over the sound system.

Adam Hoopengardner

Adam DJs at our Tuesday milonga. He plays a great selection of traditional music. Have a look at Adam's website for more info about him and his alternative music DJing.