The Tango-L mailing list archive

Digest from 26 Apr 2000 to 27 Apr 2000

Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango          <TANGO-L  @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Date:     Thu, 27 Apr 2000 03:01:09 -0400
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango          <TANGO-L  @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject:  TANGO-L Digest - 26 Apr 2000 to 27 Apr 2000 (#2000-114)
There are 5 messages totalling 180 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Objetos Perdidos
  2. <No subject given> (2)
  3. Tango in Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia
  4. Watering seeds.




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Date:    Wed, 26 Apr 2000 19:18:12 +0200
From:    Jean-Pierre Jacquet <jpjfilms  @CYBERCABLE.FR>
Subject: Objetos Perdidos

I mistyped the URL: it is http://arcalt.free.fr





Date:    Wed, 26 Apr 2000 15:33:17 -0400
From:    Robinne Gray <rlg2  @CORNELL.EDU>
Subject: <No subject given>

Just a brief comment per Tom's calculation below:  most traveling Lindy
dancers stay with other dancers.  Probably the toughest volunteer job is
that of trying to find floor space for the people who want to come.

And there ARE NO master classes.  The elimination of these two items brings
the cost down by a couple hundred bucks, easily.  Airfare is the only
significant expense.  Not cheap, I'd agree, but more accessible.

--R.

>Given the size of the US, the cost of a tango exchange still ain't
>pocket change. Maybe you can get in a full weekend of tango for
>$300-500.
>  - Airfare $200 - 300
>  - Double occupancy lodging $20-50 per night
>  - Milongas another $40
>  - 4 master classes for $70-90).
>That price is still a little steep...





Date:    Wed, 26 Apr 2000 17:31:14 -0700
From:    Norman Barth <norman  @LUTETIA.UCSD.EDU>
Subject: Tango in Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia

Does anyone know where I can dance tango in either
of these cities?  What about lessons? There is a
chance I will be travelling to Russia later this year.

Many thanks,

 - Normundo Barthez





Date:    Wed, 26 Apr 2000 19:04:52 -0600
From:    Tom Stermitz <stermitz  @CSN.NET>
Subject: <No subject given>

>Just a brief comment per Tom's calculation below:  most traveling Lindy
>dancers stay with other dancers.  Probably the toughest volunteer job is
>that of trying to find floor space for the people who want to come.

Do you mean floor space for sleeping or for dancing!?

Of course the social energy of staying with the locals is probably
part of the fun for the swing dancers.

>And there ARE NO master classes.  The elimination of these two items brings
>the cost down by a couple hundred bucks, easily.  Airfare is the only
>significant expense.  Not cheap, I'd agree, but more accessible.
>
>--R.
>
> >Given the size of the US, the cost of a tango exchange still ain't
> >pocket change. Maybe you can get in a full weekend of tango for
> >$300-500.
> >  - Airfare $200 - 300
> >  - Double occupancy lodging $20-50 per night
> >  - Milongas another $40
> >  - 4 master classes for $70-90).
> >That price is still a little steep...

I left out rental car!

Give two points to the big tango weeks for having everything under
one roof and those few communities (New York, Montreal, Seattle,
Denver & ...?  ) where you don't need a car. (Seattle & Denver are
included by luck due to having most events centrally located; people
are also friendly here so they will happily give a visitor a ride
home at the end of the evening, something difficult in San Francisco.)

We still have a bottom line of $300 - 400 (depending on airfare), if
you can eliminate Master classes, rental car and lodging. Students &
artists are still probably screened out.

Actually, for most people in our community TIME is the rare
commodity, not MONEY. The motivation would have to be based on "I'm
going to have a great dance vacation for under $400."

A truism of sales is that people are pretty selfish about buying
something, i.e. they choose to do that which brings them personal
benefits: Money, Power, Sex...good Tango Dances?

Maybe we should work on the sex angle?

I hear in the excitement of the swing exchange the social energy, but
maybe I'm just reading into it what I'd like to see us benefiting
from.


Tom Stermitz
stermitz  @ragtime.org
http://www.ragtime.org/ragtime
http://www.tango.org/dance





Date:    Wed, 26 Apr 2000 22:56:38 -0700
From:    Deborah Holm <deborah.holm  @PRODIGY.NET>
Subject: Watering seeds.

The references to Tango by the Bay are greatly
appreciated.  (References by both Stephen Brown and
Tom Stermitz.)  This event will again happen at the
end of Nora's Tango Week here in San Francisco.
The date of the TBTB is July 15.  And there will be
ample advertising.

The members of the board of the Bay Area Argentine
Tango Association (BAATA), the organization which
sponsors this annual gala tango ball, are always interested
in opinions about the success of this event.

Last year's TBTB was enormously successful, and the board
is still wondering why there was no great dissatisfaction re
people running into each other on the dance floor. (No
measure of BPR (bumps per round) at the event.)
At first we thought maybe it was because we tried to
limit the number of participants.  But we still had a
few hundred tango dancers so the reason had to
be that people were just more in tune to manners on the floor.
Or maybe the tides and the stars were in a certain place.
We're not sure.

After attending the first Congreso in BA last year, I am
intimate with students getting excited to try to show-off
their latest steps on a crowded dance floor.  I'm thinking
now that people are becoming more sophisticated in the
past couple of years (worldwide) and this sophistication
relates to manners on the floor.  Perhaps, maybe, finally,
the teachers are being listened to when they teach floor
craft.

On a different note, I have mixed feelings about the idea of
whether or not it is better to learn from milongas or lessons.
After taking lessons for a few years, I decided to go for the gusto
and for two and a half months attended milongas every night
for seven days a week here in San Francisco.  No lessons,
just every night after work go to the milonga.  I lost approximately
20 pounds (I needed to) and I did sort of get to a different level
of dancing.  The problem was that I picked up some very bad
habits that were extremely difficult to unlearn after the concentrated
effort of every night milonga dancing.  The better hard core situation
was the Congreso in BA where I danced in classes every day for
seven hours and then all night at the milongas with native dancers.
I didn't pick up any bad habits there.  And my improvement was
much easier to discern after that experience than here in North
America after the killer two and a half months with everyman.

This is merely my take on the situation.  Please give me all of your
feedback.  I'm ready, willing, and able to handle it.

Deborah Holm
BAATA (or B.A. Tango)





End of TANGO-L Digest - 26 Apr 2000 to 27 Apr 2000 (#2000-114)
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