[Tango-L] Campeonato Metropolitango de Baile de Tango

[Janis Kenyon]

A month of 42 qualifying rounds for the fourth annual city-wide dance
competition ended last Sunday.  The semi-final rounds for tango and milonga
begin Sunday, June 11 in Salon Nuevo La Argentina.

I hope that the music selected for the competition this year will be the
danceable orchestras of the milongas like Troilo, Calo, D'Arienzo,
Tanturi, and Di Sarli.  It hasn't always been so in the past.  I had a phone
conversation with Sergio Cortazzo, the one who has been responsible for
programming the music during the city and world tango competitions in Buenos
Aires.  He told me that, "dancers don't need to know the music in order to
dance to it" and "dancers have to hear the new orchestras of tango" so
that's why he includes them whether they are danceable or not.

The contest rules are the same as in previous years.  I would like to see
the judges deduct points (or whatever they do) from couples who don't dance
to the music.  Finalists in the 2005 world competition couldn't find the
beat of the music and yet they placed.  The evaluation criteria consider
musicality, the embrace, walking style and dancing counterclockwise around
the floor.  Judges did not observe the rule to "avoid remaining in the same
place for over two musical measures" during the world competition in August
2005; if they had, several would have been eliminated rather than placing in
the finals.  This rule is not stated in the city-wide competition
evaluations.  All you have to do is count: 1&2&3&4& to know whether or not
someone is pausing two measures of music.  I saw couples pause for as many
as 8 measures during the world competition.

Nothing has ever been written or mentioned as to how dancers are scored.
Judges don't disqualify themselves if they are judging a round in which
their students are competing.  Who knows what goes on in the room when the
judges scores are tallied.  The judges for the qualifying, semifinal, and
final rounds in both the city and world competitions sit next to each other
at one table, close enough for conversations and checking each others scores
during the evaluation process.  The decision of the judges is final.  I
would like to know if there is an independent person in charge of computing
the scores, or do all the judges talk among themselves so their students who
took all those private lessons are given an advantage.  The Associacion de
Maestros, Bailarines y Coreografos de Tango Argentino makes the rules.

It's common knowledge that the competitions aren't about how well you
dance--they're about how well connected you are.  That is, to the judges and
members of the association.  www.tangodata.gov.ar

Janis Kenyon
Buenos Aires