Re: [TANGO-L] Competitions

[Ecsedy Áron <aron.ecsedy @OM.HU>]

Dear Tangueros,

In Hungary we have maybe few hundred people who ever participated on a tango course and somewhat less than a hundred more-or-less active milongueros. Usually there are 3 couples on a "national" competitions, two of them teaching, the third is trained by a ballroom teacher. (note that the two couples are the only teachers who do mainly tango teaching for living in the country)

Why are there no competitors? I believe there are several reasons. First and foremost: since there are no competitions (two competition per year, one of them is the IDO dances national championship, the other is usually an IDO World Cup), most pupils come for social dancing. Competitions are not part of tango culture and people who DO want to compete look for an other discipline. Second, because there is no pressure on the pupils (to learn faster - essential when you are competing) they learn through group lessons (courses) once or twice a week. You won't be able to train someone to dance in front of public this way. Third, teachers are not pushed to train really good dancers. They only need people to attend their classes (even if they are beginners) and to populate the milongas (which again requires only basic dancing skills). Since there is no real competition between teachers (I know 8 people - including myself - who teach independently (not assistants to an other teacher): two couples teach full-time, and two couples either have a day-time job and/or are into some other dance as well) this is not likely to change.

In other countries I guess the competition is pretty much eliminated by the "argentine-effect": there are a few Argentines who dominate the market by living there or making regular visits and the "natives" are usually unable to fight either the knowledge or the "authenticity" of these teachers, so they remain second line. 

In ballroom, "average" teachers (not the stars) recognized that real money is in dance schools and not in training couples for competition. They need the competitors for two reasons: two act as "advertisement" and to populate the competitions, so there will be a goal for the beginners.

You must consider that ballroom has a history in the US and Europe, while tango nearly immediately after its arrival became part of ballroom, so what we call Argentine Tango today exists only for 20 years on the Northern hemisphere. The (argentine) teachers brought their "socialize, don't show-off" mentality (see: Martha E. Saviglano: Tango - the political economy of passion) with tango. We do not know anymore if this mentality is tango, but we do know that it is the mentality of those argentines who brought it here - which, for me, is at least suspiscious. Recent Argentine history is definitely not a nice one, it is obvious that these people inject their "national dance" with their view on life. But people, way of life and Argentina was different around the turn of the century. I cannot believe that everything remained as it was... 

Best wishes,
Aron ECSEDY



 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: Melina Sedo [mailto:melinasedo @ONLINEHOME.DE] 
 > Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 12:39 PM
 > To: TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU
 > Subject: [TANGO-L] Competitions
 > 
 > 
 > Hi all,
 > 
 > I'm no fan of competitions and I would never take part in 
 > one - but I don't want to demonize them, as competitions are 
 > a part of Tango history also among the "old milongueros" in 
 > Argentina.
 > 
 > But here's the recent story of tango-competitions in Germany.
 > 
 > During the last two years the first and second "German 
 > Championships Tango Argentino" were organized and they were 
 > a real disaster. In order to understand it, you must know 
 > that in Germany there exists a great antagonism inbetween 
 > the tango people and the professional dance-schools. Most 
 > Tango people detest the other social dances and would never 
 > visit a ball or a milonga in a dance school. The ballroom 
 > dancers call tango people snobbish fanatics. (Is it the same in USA?)
 > And: the German championship was organized by a couple who 
 > also teaches ballroom and who are members of the german 
 > association of ballroom-teachers (ADTV).
 > But: the two love Tango, visited Buenos Aires frequently and 
 > wanted to unite tangodancers with ballroom dancers during 
 > this championship. They stressed Tango de Salsn (without 
 > ganchos or voleos) during the first rounds, choreography was 
 > restricted to the last round. They invited Milongueros like 
 > Tete as judges and stressed improvisation. And last not 
 > least they invited the best german tango-orchestra to play 
 > at the ball. All in all: they tried to please the tango 
 > communities. Well, maybe their aims were not that altruistic 
 > as they said, but I think they gave a nice try to overcome 
 > the prejudices. But the tango people didn't trust them: 
 > "This is ridiculous. They want to ursurpe Tango and to 
 > standardize it. This it how it worked in the 20s. Horror!"
 > 
 > And this is how the championships failed: Almost nobody took 
 > part. The first championship only counted 7 couples, the 
 > second 4!!!! A third one will not be held.
 > 
 > So don't be afraid of competitions, I'm sure the european 
 > and american tango-community won't allow them to spread 
 > uncontrolled. ;-)))
 > 
 > Melina
 >