[Tango-L] Taxi Dancers

[Tine]

Angie
The probability is significant that you have already danced with an
amateur taxi dancer at a festival you attended, without knowing it. Here in
the US it is more a volunteer kinda job, I think, therefore no taxi dancer
would dance with you if they had no desire to. Possibly there are not quite
enough judging from the gender imbalance at festivals.
At our Yale Tango Fest we aimed for a 12:10 F:M gender balance, after some
market research that was agreed to be optimal because guys spend a larger
proportion of their time on the dance floor (no doubt the comfy shoes vs
stilettos has something to do with that).
The reason we constrained registration in this way is we felt uncomfortable
taking money from more women than we knew we had guys for. We thought that
taking people's money constituted a binding agreement to provide tango
opportunities for them. It's not nice to have a row of cross-looking females
lined around the dance floor staring enviously at the dancers' legs whizzing
by.
In the end more guys than 12:10 materialized, we probably had 11:10 and
there were some minimal mutterings but not too much because all our chicas
were lovely, charming and friendly and totally worth waiting for.
Tine







On 7/27/06, M Gonzalez <mytangoaddress at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Tangueros,
>
> Can I ask you for your views on the presence of taxi dancers at festivals
> (in the US, and everywhere else)?
>
> I don't seem to resolve my own personal deep conflict with it-- I want to
> have the certainty that, when I am being asked to dance, is because the
> person wanted to dance with me, rather than give me some sort of 'charity'
> dance-- or a 'sales pitch' dance, to ensure that I come back to this or
> that
> festival once more.
>
> Even if I dance less, I ask for quality and connection--and something
> tells
> me that, by nature, a taxi-tanda can never be good enough-- any views?
>
> Angie
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> Tango-L at mit.edu
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>



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