[Tango-L] Definition of Social Dancing

[Stephen.P.Brown@dal.frb.org]

Igor is right that *s indicating the festivals I like the best would be 
unassailable because I am the expert of my own opinion, or at least have a 
reasonable claim to be.  If I were to use such a criterion, the assignment 
of the *s would change from those listed yesterday.

Not having attended or planning to attend all 40+ festivals in North 
America this year, my list of favorite festivals wouldn't be a very 
comprehensive survey.  Maybe others on this list should discuss the 
attributes they like in festivals and how the various festivals might 
stack up against their criteria.

If we work with the delineation has Igor has set it out separating dancing 
festivals from teaching festivals, we do get considerable power of 
discenment.

For dancing festivals, the attraction is in the opportunity to dance with 
lots of other great dancers and in avoiding paying the registration fees 
necessary to pay for big-name instructors.  Some festivals have grown 
quite large because the organizers have done a good job of catering to 
those who just want to dance by keeping the instructional fees down. Maybe 
there are more good dancers at dancing festivals, but some of those 
attending may simply be complacent in developing their skills.

For teaching festivals, the attractiion is the opportunity to learn from 
the biggest-name instructors.  Because these festivals have higher 
registration fees, most of those attending will concentrate their efforts 
on dancing rather than the milongas.  If the festival offers a beginner 
track, many beginners are likely to attend.  At one such festival I 
attended a few years back, people actually ditched some of the milongas 
because they were too tired from taking classes during the day.  There 
might be more beginners at a teaching festival, but you can be assured 
that those attending are working to improve their skills.

With best wishes,
Steve