[Tango-L] Judges criteria in 2006 -Buenos Aires Metropolitango

Thu Jun 8 11:59:13 EDT 2006

Hi Janis 

  First of all, you have to rush to register your "Metropolitango" heading word, before the town hall officers found it , it has an excellent  flavour.

  Concerning your enquiries , I will answer within my new experience as contestant for the milonga category on this Metropolitango 2006 . We try to qualify three times at

  - Club Atletico La Paternal
  - Viejo Correo
  - La milonguita 

  a) Music . All the music played was 100% danceable, Di Sarli , Tanturi , D Arienzo . Excellent.  Both for tango and milonga rounds. Although you may be right with the music that will be used for the next round. The music played at contest were produced by the DJ at the milonga chosen for the qualification . I think half finals are held at El Arranque , I am not sure if the DJ that day will be the "anchor DJ " of the place, or the person to whom you have talked by phone, that the organization produces for the day.

  b) judges . They were  not allowed to show their score card to other judges , at least on the three times we intervene, there was a person from the organization , close to the judges, that take their score cards and make the computation of results , aside from the jury`s table .Also they do not talk with the audience until the couples promoted were announced.

  There were  one case at Viejo Correo, since two couples have equal score , they were the second choice of the jury, and they say both were promoted, with the warm applause from the audience.

  In our last try at La milonguita, there were several records I think 
  1) biggest quantity of couples registered , considering the size of the place( 140 people). There were 14 couples for tango category and 14 for milonga
  2) biggest "twin" registration, 7 couples registered for tango also registered for milonga
  3) biggest "twin" winning, three winners from tango category qualify also for milonga category.

  c) musicality and walking . I am not a qualified person to say wether all couples danced keeping the beating, but at least the couples chosen seem to have this tendency , to move with the beating, to keep the line of dance, and specially for the milonga, to follow the rhytm , as it was specifically requested by the conditions of registration for this category.

  Now it will be the turn for the second round . There are a lot of couples, both for tango and milonga categories, around 120 couples for each category ,  so I think that even with the schedule of four sunday rounds , the place chosen , Salon Nueva Argentina, will be pretty packed up. 

  I would like to get two tickets , since two couples of friends qualify in milonga category, but entrance tickets are only available the day of the round, at the offices of the organization near San Martin theatre, and they are delivered almost inmediately, there is a long queue before the opening of the place at 12 midday.

  I think it was an excellent idea to introduce milonga as category,

  Now ... it would be good for 2007 Metropolitango , to include also valsecito :) And therefore the troika will be settled :)

  warm regards
  alberto gesualdi
  buenos aires

Janis Kenyon <jantango at feedback.net.ar> escribió:
  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

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