[Tango-L] Fisking Chris and Neil

[Tom Stermitz]

On Jan 29, 2007, at 2:05 PM, Chris, UK wrote:

> Tom, Neil, Nina
>
>> Chris, are you engaging in hyperbole or gross hyperbole?
>
> Just reporting the facts, Tom.
>
>> Denver .... 2.5 million. We have 3 well-attended milongas per week.
>
> Paris, slightly smaller, has about 50 milongas a week.
> Berlin, a bit larger, has about 25 milongas a week.
>
> If you don't believe it, just ask around.
> ...
> Chris

You are pretending that Berlin and Paris as typical, average European  
tango communities?

As I understand it, the new wave of Tango started in Berlin before  
1980, and Paris probably around the samte time. In North America,  
Tango started before 1990 in a few cities: Montreal, New York, Los  
Angeles, San Francisco.

The big tango wave in the Canada and the US started in the mid-90s.  
Denver in 1995. So, Berlin has 25 years and Denver has 10.

When did tango start in London? When did it start outside of London?  
Is there tango in Slough?


There are cultural aspects to this, of course.

Big cities, especially world capitals like London, Paris, New York  
are usually ahead of the wave, and smaller cities trailing. These  
days in the US most big ciities and a lot of University towns have  
tango.

I suspect that the story is not that different in Europe, but it  
started particularly early in Germany, Switzerland and France.