[TANGO-L] tango competitions

[Janis Kenyon <jantango @FEEDBACK.NET.AR>]

A question was recently posed to the list:

"Does the tango world really support tango competitions, or [does] tango
just seem like a dance that can't be judged?"

Who can judge a feeling?

But here we go again.  Yet another tango championship is being organized
in Buenos Aires.  The January 3, 2003 edition of La Nacion announced that
registration is open for the "Primer Campeonato Mundial de Baile de Tango"
(first world championship of tango).  It is open to dancers anywhere in the
world who want to compete in either category--tango de escenario (tango for
the stage professionals) or tango salon (for amateurs).  The announcement
didn't say who
is organizing it, but if you want information www.festivaldetango.com.ar

The World Tango Festival held October 6-13, 2002, also included the first
world tango competition organized by the Associacion de Maestros, Bailarines
y Coreografos de Tango Argentino (AMBCTA).  Any participant could enter.
The only report I read of the festival was published in the Autumn issue of
El Once Tango News (London).  Mitsura Akikusa of London reported on the
festival and had this to say about the competition:

"...the entry was poor and judged only by the amount of clapping as the
entrants' nationality was announced."

I read Mitsura's three-page report of the festival.  I'm sorry she came so
far and didn't get close to seeing the real tango in Buenos Aires.

Pichi de Buenos Aires