[Tango-L] Buenos Aires Tango Festivals - Criticism

[Alberto Gesualdi]

Enclosed herewith is TITO PALUMBO'S PUBLISHER'S LETTER edited in 
B. A. TANGO – Buenos Aires Tango magazine, Nº 184, June 2007.

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 PUBLISHER'S LETTER
 Dear reader friend:
 
 Some readers propose the creation of different categories in the 
dance championships organized by the city government; one category 
for amateurs and another for professionals. And I am going to give 
my opinion; I do not think that this proposal will become a fact. 
 
 The diffusion and sale of the dancers' filmed 
material is a business. And dancers do not obtain any income from 
the revenues generated by this business. In other words, videos and 
DVDs are sold; rights are assigned for the broadcasting in the 
country and abroad; movies are shown in theaters; but the true 
main characters, the dancers, do not receive a single cent of the 
money collected from these commercial activities. 
 
 Provisions 35 in the Metropolitan Championship 
Regulations and 04 in the World Championship Regulations stipulate 
that the General Office of Festivals of the City reserves to itself 
the right to record all the phases in these championships and to 
retain the ownership of those records –as well as to do any type of 
business with them– WITHOUT PROVIDING DANCERS WITH A SINGLE BUCK AS 
FEES OR REMUNERATION. 
 
 If in the championships it was created a category 
for Professional Dancers, then the Argentine Actors Association, the 
union which represents these workers, could claim for the right to 
the corresponding remuneration. This organization' s additional 
interest would be due to the fact that they would receive a 
percentage. And in this way, the exploitation of others' work that 
the authorities of this city are carrying out in agreement with 
pseudo businessmen would be finished. 
 
 While amateur dancers and professional ones are 
mixed up, it is difficult for the union to find good arguments to 
get involved. 
 * * *
 I feel shame on behalf of others because the 
associations that gather dancers –though they are not unions– do not 
care about claiming for the image, the interpreters and the 
choreographic creation rights corresponding to their members and, 
besides that, sponsor and actively cooperate with official 
authorities to carry out this dispossession. 
 * * *
 With a tanguero embrace, I remain very truly yours 
sincerely
 
 
TITO PALUMBO
 
Publisher


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