[Tango-L] Community Expansion Brainstorming

[Ron Weigel]

>
> Ron Weigel wrote:
> <A gathering
> of 20 highly skilled dancers in even a small club does not have the
> energy of a milonga. An empty floor does not build navigational
> skills. Add 20 developing dancers and 20 beginners with at least some
> basic navigational skills, musicality, and a decent connection
> (assumes good teaching of basic skills), and we have some good
> ingredients for a milonga.>

On 12/2/06, Janis Kenyon <Jantango at feedback.net.ar> wrote:
>
> I would rather be dancing where there are 20 highly skilled dancers (Lo de
> Celia in the afternoon) than on a crowded floor like Nino Bien on a Thursday
> night that is 50% or more tourists.

I can understand that. I might also prefer dancing at a milonga with
20 highly skilled dancers only than with those same dancers plus 20
intermediates and 20 beginners. However, the topic here was community
expansion. Unless a community has room for beginners, it will not
grow. It would be nice to be able to recruit advanced dancers who had
never danced tango before, but I don't think they exist. (:->) Every
advanced dancer starts as a beginner.

... Yes, yes, beginners should go to practicas first, but I'd like to
know if there is any tango community outside Argentina than has that
structure. To legislate that in the US would make one appear snobbish,
a bad reputation to have when recruiting to a community.

> The milongueros make it a milonga, not
> the collective energy of the dancers.

To some degree. A milonga with 40 or 60 good dancers has more energy
and is a more enjoyable milonga that a milonga with 20 good dancers.
When I was in Buenos Aires this past May, I went to a Tuesday
afternoon milonga at Plaza Bohemia where there were only about 25-30
people, almost all very good dancers, and the DJ was absolutely
fantastic. I enjoyed it, but it would have been more enjoyable with
twice as many people with the same skill level. Lo de Celia on Sunday
has that (and more) and that's what makes it such a great milonga.
There were a few dancers with limited skills at Lo de Celia, but for
the most part they stayed in the center of the floor and didn't bother
the flow much.

Ron