[Tango-L] Buenos Aires Tango Festival

[Deby Novitz]

The issue is that this tango festival is run by people who could care 
less about tango.  It is run by people who found tango an excellent way 
to make money.  Everything they do is to create more money for 
themselves.  The dancers, students, are a way to get that money.  The 
videos create more money for them.  They could care less about the 
dancers they are filming.

What many of you do not understand is that tango here unfortunately, 
thanks to the government is big business.  During the crisis the 
government found that tango along with football were the two things the 
world connected with Argentina.  So they began to market the hell out of 
tango to bring more tourism here.

The other day in the paper they said that tango brings 400 million pesos 
annually to the city via the foreigners who come here.  They cited 
figures for hotels, apartment rentals, classes, etc.  Last week the 
government hosted a workshop for all tango related businesses.  This was 
NOT for dancers, musicians, etc. it was for business people.  It was to 
discuss how to better market to foreigners to make more $$$$.  It was 
for all those people who love to overcharge you for poorly made but 
"beautiful" shoes, the ones who charge you 25 pesos for a homemade CD, 
the ones who open schools to charge you a fortune for teachers you never 
heard of because the ones who were supposed to teach the class are 
unfortunately - out of the country.

Add to that, dancers who get filmed in a class teaching and the people 
who use that film and sell it.  The dancer receiving nothing.  Many 
dancers are refusing to be filmed.  It is one thing to allow your 
student to film his class, or to film an exhibition to share with your 
friends.  It is something else to film someone and make money off of 
them doing it.  Then to tell them, hey, look at all the publicity you 
get - while I get rich.  Sorry....but these festivals and these types of 
promotions are what ruin tango not help it.