[Tango-L] Surplus Tanguera - Not

[musette fan]

I don't know the tango scene in San Diego, but I've danced in NYC and wonder if in
general at least some of the women have fled precisely because of the intense
aggressive energy, and a certain lack of respect or boundaries, if you will. (Also,
we shouldn't confuse quantity with quality of leaders--no offense.)  

The cabaceo-less "feeding frenzy" or meat market environment where women have to
hide sounds seriously uncivilized and unpleasant.  I can totally understand why
women would avoid it, which just further increases the imbalance.  

Terri



--- Brick Robbins <brick at fastpack.com> wrote:

> Another community with too many men (or more accurately, not enough
> women) is San Diego.
> 
> During prime time at one of our more popular milongas recently, with
> maybe 40 couples on the floor, I counted 10 men sitting out.
> 
> This doesn't mean that *every* milonga is leader heavy, but it has
> become so typical, that at event  recently, a woman complained that it
> was"follow heavy." I counted, and discovered that there was actually
> one extra man in the room.
> 
> This causes some interesting problems.
> 
> Most men I know prefer to hear the beginning of the Tanda before
> choosing a follower. In this environment, if a man wishes to dance he
> must obtain a follower before the cortina ends, so couples often end
> up dancing to music that they might prefer not to. Also the cabeceo
> becomes problematic, because by the time one makes eye contact,
> another leader has verbally asked her to dance.
> 
> Sometimes the cortinas take on appearance of a feeding frenzy, with 3
> or 4 men standing around each of the better followers, with the
> follower begging for the chance to rest. I once found a follower
> sitting  behind the counter in the kitchen, hiding. She said she just
> wanted to rest a bit without having to turn down someone every 30
> seconds.
> 
> And as an interesting aside, we have a Tango Studio in town which
> primarily teaches "cool moves" and "patterns" and has several "in
> house" milongas every week.  For whatever reason, not many of their
> students or teachers join us in the general community, nor do the
> members of the community often attend their milongas. That studio's
> milongas have an excess of women.
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