[Tango-L] V Campeonato Mundial de Baile de Tango -- the rules for salon category

[Janis Kenyon]

http://www.mundialdetango.gov.ar/reglamento_e.php

It's a legal document setting forth all the terms and conditions to which
every couple is bound.

I find a few interesting paragraphs to note:

27.  The Jury shall select one winning couple in each category.

Although #26 states how the jury scores, on a scale of 1 to 10, it doesn't
really matter who receives the highest score according to this paragraph.
The Jury selects the winning couple.  The scores don't matter even if  they
are tallied.  In this way, the Jury chooses the
best couple for publicity purposes, not necessarily the best dancers.  The
winners of the salon category are always from Argentina.

34.  ...and avoid remaining in the same place for too long, in a way that
may disrupt the regular circulation of dancers around the dance floor.

There no more two-musical measures rule.  The jury didn't enforce it anyway,
especially in 2006 when Peralta got stuck in one spot with Poberaj for more
than ten measures.  There are no more than ten couples on the huge stage at
one time during a finals round, so anyone can stay in one spot as long as
they want to; there's plenty of room.  And we wonder why the milongas of
BsAs are such a mess?

35.  No contestant may raise his/her legs above the knee line.

This is a new rule.  For what?  To allow for boleos (which are really for
stage, not salon)?  Who's going to be enforcing this one with so many female
dancers raising a leg before the cross when the left foot is lifted above
the knee?  I hope they ask for clarification of this rule before the rounds
begin.  An improvement would be a rule stating that dancers must keep their
feet on or near the floor, the way it should be in salon tango.

40.  The first place in each one of the two categories will receive a prize
of $7,000 Argentine pesos.

This is up from $5,000 last year.

The salon finals of the Campeonato Mundial will be held Sunday night, August
26.  I'll be reading the results in the newspaper and on the website.  The
only reason I might have attended this year's event would have been if Jose
Maria Velazquez had made it to the finals of the Campeonato Metropolitano.
I had the pleasure of dancing with him for several nights in Salon El Pial.
He has been dancing for 60 years in the milongas, so his style is probably
too out of date for the judges.


Janis Kenyon
Buenos Aires