[Tango-L] Tango Mentors and Retaining Beginning Tango Dancers

[Alex]

Hi buffmilonguera! 

Thanks for writing...good point... Aspen has had influences from Denver
(teachers and dancers)...and visiting teachers from Argentina and NYC (Robin
Thomas) and Seattle (Jaimes Freidgen). The local teacher/organizer, Heather
Morrow, has been great about bringing in outside teachers. And, the Aspen
community has in turn influenced the Glenwood Springs community - 45 minutes
away.

Very good point though - community level mentoring - I think this goes on to
some degree already - but could be utilized more efficiently.

I know what you mean about the "less gracious". Some teachers and
communities don't realize that it's all good - no competition is necessary
between teachers nor between communities. As an example, if the Aspen
community grows - then that is good for Glenwood Springs tango. If a new
tango teacher crops up in Glenwood Springs, and their community grows - then
that is ultimately good for the Aspen tango community as well. And the same
is true for the different teachers within a community. It's like a symbiotic
relationship.

On a technical note...

RE: tango-L...you have to go to www.tango-l.com and register...

Then, when you want to post, you send an email to Tango-L at mit.edu - making
sure the email is sent from the same account you registered with. Be sure to
read the rules about posting and the subject line requirements on Tango-L -
especially when posting to Tango-A.

I'm sending this message to this list...both your message and my
response...for your convenience...

Take care...happy holidays!

-----Original Message-----
From: buffmilonguera at aol.com [mailto:buffmilonguera at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 1:12 PM
To: alex at tangofuego.us
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Tango Mentors and Retaining Beginning Tango Dancers

Hi

for some reason I still can't figure out how to respond on line - but I 
thought your e-mail was important and wanted to respond.  another 
variation is having larger tango groups mentor beginning communities.  
I am from Buffalo - where we have a really enthusiastic and growing 
community.  Not all, but a lot of that was helped by folks in more 
established communities within a few hours ride who came came to our 
milongas, gave workshops (which could NOT have been profitable) and 
danced with us "beginners" at their own milongas - some other 
communities were somewhat less gracious.....


Have you joined the Buffalo Argentine Tango Society Yahoo! group yet? 
It's easy, and the best way to make sure you know what we're doing and 
what's going on with the Argentine tango in and around Buffalo......go 
to www.yahoo.com > select Groups > search for Buffalo Argentine Tango 
Society > follow the directions to join BATS_tango. Thanks!


-----Original Message-----
From: Alex <alex at tangofuego.us>
To: 'Tango-L' <Tango-L at mit.edu>
Sent: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:35 pm
Subject: [Tango-L] Tango Mentors and Retaining Beginning Tango Dancers



Hola List!

I'm not a member of TC [Tango Colorado], so I can't post to their 
message
board on Yahoo Groups- so I am posting this to Tango-L - because it 
concerns
all tango communities around the world.

Tango Colorado is an umbrella organization in Denver and they are 
holding
their officer/board elections soon. This is from Jeff Brenman's 
Candidate
[for President] Statement on Yahoo's TCDiscuss Group.

Jeff wrote (in part): "I would also like to see an affirmative 
commitment
 from our more experienced dancers to better mentor the newcomers. This 
will
take a concerted effort, but it is something I believe would pay 
handsome
dividends for all of us if it were to succeed."

Jeff's words are important to all of us. In my former tango community, 
Aspen
and Glenwood Springs (Colorado, U.S.) - retention of beginning dancers 
has
not been good. It's a very small community - and retention is key for
continued growth. In a very small community, three or four people can 
quit
tango or move away and you have lost 25%-50% of your community - that 
is,
the dedicated people who are showing up every week. One or two 
experienced
followers can quit or move and you have lost 50% of your experienced
(dedicated) followers.

We all know the reasons/causes people don't stay with tango - there is 
the
cyclical/random nature of tango (like all things in life); people quit 
for
their own reasons - just giving up (too hard to learn), not "getting" 
(or
not liking) the music, pregnancy, ski season, injury, not enough 
milongas,
not enough good leaders, not enough good followers, kids & family, 
takes too
much time and effort to learn or "get good", close embrace issues, too 
many
work responsibilities (not enough time) - these are all actual reasons
beginners in Aspen have told me they chose not to return to tango. 
People
have their reasons and there is probably not much that anyone can do to 
make
them stick with it.

But, the real question is this: are we all doing everything we can for
beginner "retention"? It is my belief that simply sending out emails
announcing classes and events, or posting classes, workshops and events 
on
our websites or on Tango-A is not enough. When I was (much) younger, I 
was
involved in the Sierra Club - the environmental organization. Our local
group had a phone list - wherein all of the members (and newcomers) of 
the
organization were divi'ed up amongst a few of us - and we would call 
people
about meetings and activities. This was in the days before personal
computers and email and even cell phones!

I like Jeff's idea of "Tango Mentors". Teachers, organizers, 
organizations
(like Tango Colorado) and communities should consider the concept of 
"Tango
Mentors" or some other name. It could be modeled similar to university
sororities and fraternities - the big sister and big brother concept. 
Each
"experienced" dancer could have two or three or four beginners 
"assigned" to
or "adopted" by them. It would be that dancer's responsibility to call 
and
email them about classes/practicas/milongas; give encouragement and 
advice;
impart knowledge of codigos, the history of tango and tango music; help 
with
technique and practice - you get the picture.

Just a thought...just an idea. This concept would be a lot of hard work 
and
commitment for those undertaking it...but I wonder how the world tango
community would look after one year of these types of efforts.

But then again, it is "just" tango, "just" a dance...and I suppose I 
have
too much time on my hands right now...

We have all probably thought of some version of this concept at some 
time in
our tango evolution - but my thanks go out to Jeff Brenman of Tango 
Colorado
for the originating idea for my post. Thanks Jeff.

Happy Holidays to all!

Alex




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