Saturday, March 8, 2014

Gender imbalance with 50% men?


The man on the left weights 100 kilos.
The man on the right weighs 70 kilos,
This is a gender-balance teeter-totter. 
Presently I am at an event with 90 men and 90 women--a so-called "encuentro."  Gender balance, right?  Not quite.  I see a lot of women sitting too much, waiting to dance as men sit at the bar or sit with their "tango date."  This is not evil or wrong.  In fact it is great!  Mature dancers who dance with only a few should be "special guests," because they are not really part of the gender balance equation.   We NEED people who sit a lot!  They subsidize our milongas!  No complaints about special guests.  At purposely gender-balanced events, special guest need a VIP seating area so social dancers do not waste time trying to catch their eyes for a tanda.  For the rest of us, one man = one man.  Or is that enough.  I don't think it is!

Presently "gender balance" is a simple addition equation:  One man + one woman = gender balance for tango.  If you prefer the simple one-women-to-one-man-gender-balance equation, then stop reading here.  Really.  Please stop reading here.

For those who prefer to go to an event that requires traveling a long way, wouldn't you prefer having organizers who develop to a better way of determining the participants' social tango I.Q.?

What is your Social Tango I.Q.?  
(Social Tango Individual-Quotient)
Especially men should consider what their social tango I.Q. is.  What do they offer to the community's

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Just let me dance!

ALREADY SITTING TOO LONG?
"Oh, please.  Three teachers
with three songs each?
I could have stayed in bed or
have gone to a Zumba class."**
Watching a tango performance can be inspiring.  I have been deeply moved by a few performances, but mostly they go on too long or do not promote the feeling of a social milonga or small festival.

I am not the only one. Many seem to prefer to suffer in silence rather than challenge what appears to be a majority of adoring tango show watchers.  But what would happen if a show at a festival or an encuentro were offered as an option.  Maybe the majority isn't truly the majority after all.

Wouldn't it be nice if organizers would simply give it a try?  It would be easy:

1. Offer at registration the option for participants to continue dancing in another room rather than go to the performance.