Lesson 8: Revisiting the Cross, plus Milonga Primer

In our final lesson of the Groundwork course, we revisited the cross, which was introduced in lesson 7. Refer to that entry for pointers.
We then proceeded to talk about the upcoming milonga on 7th July, discussing the How and Why of tango etiquette. Things to remember are: use the cabeceo (catching your intended partner's eye and confirming with a slight nod, possibly involving other slight head gestures) as soon as you have decided you want to dance this tanda. A tanda is a set of (usually) four tangos, valses or milongas, usually all by the same orchestra from the same era and with the same singer, if any. So for example you might hear the tanda start with Carlos di Sarli's 1939 "Corazon" (there is a later version with another singer...). You would then be correct to expect the next three tangos to be Di Sarlis from roughly the same time (1939-1940) and featuring the same singer (Roberto Rufino).
After the tanda you will then hear a cortina ("curtain"), a short piece of non-tango music, during which the men walk the women back to their tables (after profusely praising their dancing as well as their beauty, of course...). Time to relax, get a drink, look around for other partners, sit down, walk around etc.
Feel free to dance as much or as little as you like. There is no need to dance to every tanda.
Finally, we quickly checked the boxes on milonga and vals, the two other dances of the "tango triad." Both have a fixed rhythm, thus urging us not to pause, never to stop. Remember to keep it simple. Use weight changes, and especially with the milonga, short steps expressing the rhythm.