[Tango-L] Wall St Jrnl: Banker Now Regards $15.4 Million Lessons Asa Serious Misstep

[astrid]

> PS: I am still not sure whether the numbers in the article are in HK$ (8
HK$
> = 1 US$) or US$, but the WSJ normally qualifies $ if it is not US$.  In
any
> case, it's still large numbers.
>
> Two years ago, Ms. Wong agreed to pay $15.4 million for eight years of
> unlimited Latin-dance instruction. About half of that sum she paid up
front,
> in cash. The 61-year-old widow recently said she was "looking for the last
> bit of glory in life."
>
Ok, I checked: one million HK dollars is about 128.600 US$.If that cheap
instructor charges a mere 70$ an hours, that would be indeed only 9US$.

To put this into perspective:

from an article in the Japan Times, July 2:
interview with Tamiyo Kusakari, the famous ballerina who starred in "Shall
we dance", and whose role was later taken by Jennifer Lopez in a remake:
"I think, Tokyo women are among the most self aware and hard working in the
world. They push themselves so hard,and the objective is often less about
stress-allviation than self-improvement. In that sense, ballet or dancing
may be ideal, because everyone is forced to confront themselves in
floor-to-ceiling mirrors all the time."

Well, great. There goes the image of the humble Japanese with the modest,
demure manners, and out comes the real thing: grit-teeth competition, all in
order to impress the people around you, and, for women, usually limited to
the external...
Not so different from Hong Kong, is it?

Now, let's have a look at the prices:
one privada with a stage dancer from BA: 14.000 Yen for 50-60 minutes.
I once had a well known dancer from BA trying to charge me 26000 yen for a
lesson for one couple. "It's a good deal, because you actually save 2000
Yen, since there are two of you and I am not taking the double price." Yeah,
sure, I thought, waited for my teacher to arrive and make the gold digger
come to his senses.
A "tango party" arranged by Japanese tango teachers, with the same two tired
Japanese ex-ballroom dance couples performing their usual tango vals, maybe
a guest dancer from BA and half a glass of cheap wine in a paper cup with
potato chips: a flat 6000 Yen. Sometimes 10.000 Yen.

Compared to that, milongas with Argentines are cheap: only 2500 Yen incl. a
whole glass of wine in a glass or any other drink.

Then there are the infamous "happyokai": Japanese are willing to pay to have
people watch them perform their half baked amateur stage act in front of
everybody. I was once told by a woman, that she dished out 600.000 Yen, for
having a choreo made for her, private lessons with a tango teacher to learn
it, rehearsals, a costume, and buying up 10 tickets or more to "sell" to
friends who are willing to watch her dance. (of course, most people won't
come unless they are given the ticket for free)
When they started rehearsing, she said, she was horrified when she saw the
stage show the studio owner had planned, and even more so when she saw it
performed. But she could not go back and had to go through with it ! Told
me, she will never do that again.

Then there are the "guided tours to BsAs", which will set you back a mere
440.000 Yen for a week or two, incl. airfare, hotel, milongas and privadas
in BA (at Japanese prices of course, the difference is pocketed by the
Japanese teacher who arranged it.)

Or the glitzy "Spend the millenium cruising around the South pole leaving
from Fireland, Argentina": one million yen only.

Still, dancing is hot in Japan, as you can see in the article below:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20060801a4.html

but as far as I am concerned, I mainly stick to the cheaper practicas and
milongas, where I get to dance with all the teachers and everyone else too,
and maybe even have an occasional chat with Guillermo Merlo or someone
similar who is munching on the empanadas made especially for him that night
at the special reserved table by the bar.

Astrid, Tokyo