Our New Year's Eve Experiment, Lucile Krasne

[robin thomas <niborsamoht @YAHOO.COM>]

> Dear All,
> Happiest New Year!!!
>
> This will be the first time I have submitted to the
> Tango L, but something
> so interesting happened this New Year's Eve that I
> finally think I must
> share what was an unusual New Year's milonga
> experience and open it up for
> more discussion. Forgive this length.
>
> My "Celebrate Tango2 partner, an elegant and serious
> NYC milonguera, Gayatri
> Martin, organized  this New Year1s Eve Tango Ball
> with me.  I sent out a
> good press release and happily got a response  from
> Time Out New York,
> telling me they were interested in featuring our
> night.
>
> I realized this was both very good in one way, and
> very bad in another:  How
> to keep a possible big throng of total newcomers
> from mucking up the space
> for the rest of us.
>
> This really called for  emergency measures. And
> quick!  We added an hour
> class pre-ball class which Gayatri would teach. It
> was added to the magazine
> copy.
>
> Last Thursday, when the issue hit the streets, the
> phone was ringing off the
> hook from the featured listing, and I felt this was
> a golden opportunity  to
> do something different.
>
> I talked to my friend, Carlos Lima, who thinks a
> great deal about these
> problems. He has some excellent ideas for moving the
> totally uninitiated
> into the community and, indeed, even onto the dance
> floor simply and
> sweetly.  I have wanted to get Carlos1 ideas into
> action.  He immediately
> agreed to try his approach and create an instant
> 2-hour class.
>
> We asked Carlos to 3do his thing2Pto emphasize floor
> craft, connection and
> musicality. He did just that in one hour!  He wanted
> to start earlier, but
> we had precious little time to notify the calling
> public, we did an
> emergency e-mailing on Monday afternoon to those who
> called for
> reservations, and we had maybe 40 people at 8:15 and
> maybe 80-100 by 9.
> Gayatri continued to add to the experience another
> hour, referring back to
> Carlos1 instructions to the group.  So our mantra
> was really  "line of
> dance, line of dance, connection connection,
> musicality musicality2---
>
> The results were amazing: integrating what swelled
> to well over 100 new
> people into such a scene without disastrous results!
> Total participants
> through the night was around 230.  Carlos had mused
> in an early conversation
> that his teaching approach might provide us with a
> hundred total novices
> dancing more thoughtfully than many of the
> experienced dancers, for as
> wonderful as our dancers are here in NYC---and they
> are truly wonderful---
> we are not famous, as a whole, for being a community
> of dancers always
> observing the line of dance and other courtesies of
> the salon.
>
> The results permitted the experienced dancers to
> enjoy a fine, uncluttered,
> respectful dance environment.  Actually, the whole
> thing was of-a-piece:
> thoughtful, beautiful moving and relating. The thing
> was that those new to
> tango felt it was in the realm of possibility to
> learn this beautiful dance.
> The number of people asking about classes was very
> heartening.  Time will
> tell how many are pulled by this night to do more.
> At the very least all
> had an amazingly warm, friendly, properly respectful
> attitude towards the
> event, the material, and the participants.  All was
> sensitively aided and
> abetted by the elegant d.j.ing of Robin Thomas.
>
> Many had never experienced such a thrilling and
> rewarding  New Year1s Eve
> and expressed this to us.  (Well, think back, how
> many of us were thrilled
> with most New Year1s Eve parties, dumb cocktail-y
> things, etc., B.T?
> Ah-haaa,---when I think back upon this, my very best
> New Year1s Eve and one
> of my life1s peak experiences, was seeing 3Tango
> Argentino2 l985/6 on
> Broadway!!!)
>
> Here we are,  in a bizarrely top heavy, pitifully
> small tango community,
> with tons of events, teachers, classes. Something
> has to be done!  A fair
> guesstimate of the regular number of dancers (those
> going out from 1 to 7
> nights per week) might be around 500--only a few
> hundred tango dancers
> within a metropolitan area of maybe 11 million
> people.  This tango
> community, just counting up calendar listings, on
> any given weekend
> onlyPoffers us classes, practicas, milongas, special
> tango events, tango
> concertsP12 to 15-- and we1ve about every star and
> non-star coming to town
> to teach.  You can do the math.  Add on the studio
> classes, privates, 1-3
> milongas per night.  Pretty tiny pieces of pie by
> now.
>
>  And about 90% of this is going on in Manhattan. For
> instance, from my East
> Village apartment, I can walk to  10Pcount them-- 10
> Ppracticas or milongas
> within 15 to 35 minutes. Mind you, I am not
> complaining. I am so very lucky.
> I want them all, and the more the merrier, but we
> are coming to a point of
> diminishing returns.  So what to do:  Keep on
> thinking about enlarging the
> community! It is of course, happening. But so, so
> slowly!
>
> With Carlos1 help, we did a rash, smart thing:
> gambled on an idea and won. I
> think we must keep thinking! I have an idea I hope
> to share with others
> about this problem.
> But this is far too long. And you all have scads of
> experience to respond to
> this.
>
> Thanks for reading thisPthose of you who could hang
> in!  Lucille Krasne
>
> --
> Lucille and Gayatri
> Celebrate Tango
> www.nyctango.com


posted by robin on behalf of lucile who is having
troubles posting.

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