[Tango-L] Tango Competitions

[Deby Novitz]

If you ask the people who dance here about the competitions, most ignore 
them.  They have no interest.  In this years Campeonato the organizers 
were desperate to find couples to compete.  In previous years there were 
as many as 60 couples competing in a milonga.  This year at one milonga 
I was at there were 5. At every milonga I attended during the 
competitions the organizor begged me to dance, she or he would find me a 
partner.  No thanks. 

Those of you who write that competitions have been around in Buenos 
Aires for years are correct.  But not in the commercialistic, 
sensationalistic manner it is done today.  There was no international 
advertising. There were no special glossy magazines devoted to it.  No 
costume changes, no hours and hours of private lessons and choreographed 
routines.  Tango businesses did not elbow and vie and pay for booth 
space.  Special t-shirts were not printed. 

Tango competitions were done in the neighborhood milongas as 
entertainment.  People danced traditional tango.  I can assure you there 
were no flying boleos.  People liked to demonstrate their skills for 
their friends.  It was nothing more than that.  It was done for fun.  It 
was not the serious shark like competition that it has become.

I for one do not like these competitions.  They are in my opinon helping 
to destroy traditional tango.  What passes as salon tango in these 
competitons is not salon tango. If you have to talk about boleos, you 
are not talking about salon.  The competitions are not judged fairly.  
They are judged on aspects completely unrelated to what it is being 
danced. 

Tango is a social dance.  It is supposed to be improvisational.  It is 
supposed to convey the feelings of the music through dance.  These 
commercialistic competitons push this social art form in the same 
direction as ballroom.  What a shame.  What is next?  Learning to dance 
with a rose in your teeth while people film you and post it on the internet?

On Saturday I was at El Beso.  I ran into an old friend.  He was one of 
the first people I met in 2000 when I came here.  I was shocked to hear 
the anti-foreigner sentiment coming from his mouth.  This is a guy that 
loved to have the foreigners in the milongas and to visit.  He used to 
say it made him proud that people would come here to his country to 
dance his dance.  Now he is talking about people ruining "our family."  
Taking over "our places", not respecting "our culture."  He blames the 
foreigners for the rising prices. How sad if this were to turn into a 
backlash.  I have met so many fine people from all over the world.  
Unfortunately it is always a few who do not understand and ruin it for 
the rest of us.

As for Janis.  Probably it is best she answer on her own.  We talked 
about this.  This year she does not have the desire to stand in line 
forever to get a ticket for this event.  She has covered it in the past 
because she thought people who could not come here might be interested 
in her perspectives of the event.  Believe me, she does not support this 
commercial format.