[Tango-L] chartered for growth

[steve pastor]

I have a few words about the Portland tango scene from the perspective of a community member, rather than an instructor or organizer. 
  I consider myself to be very fortunate to be here. From the beginning I was told in classes that tango is a very broad subject, and there are many styles and ways of approaching it. Students were encouraged to study with other teachers and explore the possibilities .
  For several years now, I have taken classes, and series of classes from many of the local instructors. They have all encouraged learning from other instructors, and attending events at other venues. While I am open to the possibility that there are many things happening in private, as a group the instructors and organizers of the Portland tango scene set a standard of civility and cooperation that is hard to match. 
   
  The relative sizes of Portland and Pittsburgh has come up in other venues, so let me share some facts I researched.
    "While the city of Pittsburgh may be "only about 2/3 the size of Portland", and have a population of 334,000,compared to Portland's population of 529,000; citing these facts gives a very incomplete picture... . 
  Cities are components of "agglomerations", or metropolitan area, defined as a central city and neighboring communities linked to it by continuous built-up areas or by many commuters. Proponents of urban areas frequently overlook this fact. The Pittsburgh agglomeration has a population of 2,358,695. The Portland area has a population of 1,918,009. So, when looking at populations of the total metropolitan areas, ... Portland is actually 19% smaller than Pittsburgh."

  

"Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Several of our friends have started their own tango
groups recently which has me wondering a few things
about community building. Specifically, how to expand
a community without going through a division within
the community. Most of the second groups I know have
faced animosity from the original group/instructor,
which can take awhile to heal.

Theoretically, more groups should mean more growth and
opportunities for a community. In smaller
communities, though it can be perceived as a
debilitating community division. 

So far the only city I know of that seems to have
increased the number of independent instructors/groups
without any animosity is Portland. I understand that
much of that is due to Clay, who runs Octoberfest and
Valentango. 

New York has also grown tremendously, but I suspect
that the first places to dance tango had professional
ballroom people who were already used to competition. 
NYC is also huge, so I would think there wasn’t too
much of an issue when multiple tango teachers began
appearing. Does anyone know if that was the case?

Have other cities developed with multiple groups (not
multiple instructors within the same group) in a
healthy way? If this has happened in your community,
was is it just by luck of personalities or had the
original group planned for growth and possible
offshoots (something written in the charter)? Or was
it just a function of the size of the city?

This may have been discussed before, but I do not
recall any discussion on specific measures that were
taken by an original group before a second actually
group formed. 

Thanks,
Trini de Pittsburgh



PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society 
Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh's most popular social dance. 
http://www.pitt.edu/~mcph/PATangoWeb.htm


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