[Tango-L] Tango Co-op?

[Tom Stermitz]

The first and most important question is "What is the purpose of the  
Club?"

In my opinion, the best role of a tango club is to nurture community,  
which means taking a neutral or encouraging stance with respect to  
local teachers.

So, look carefully at whether your goal is to help or compete with  
local teachers. If you are doing workshops and classes, you will be  
setting up an antagonistic relationship with local organizers. Also,  
consider financial risk and liability (injuries from poor instruction  
or what to do when a creepy guy grabs a sixteen year old).

There is a particular rule of thumb for community building: You need  
to have 25 couples in one room in order to create the critical mass  
for good social interaction and growth. Maybe there is enough Salsa in  
Buffalo so you can have five teachers with 50 people each, but tango  
is more specialized, and an individual teacher has a hard time  
creating the snowball effect.

On the other hand, Teachers are usually better than organizations at  
one-on-one instruction, group classes and privates. Organizations are  
usually best at nurturing the broader community. Individual teachers  
should be able to succeed or fail on their own merits or personalities  
without causing a rift in the community.

In cities without a broader organization, there is a tendency for the  
tango events to be "silo-ed" with individual teachers, (Class 1, Class  
2, Milonga). Competitive instincts (and insecurity) motivate teachers  
to hold tight to their students and not inform them of other events.  
If you have a club that is neutral and serving the needs of all the  
teachers, then the confident teacher will want their students to mix  
in the community for marketing purposes.


Economies of scale favor a larger organization when it comes to  
advertising expenses, relating to arts funding and grants, and renting  
a dance space.

A club needs to serve the broader needs of all the dancers, so it may  
be constrained to serving the lowest common denominator. If the club  
is inviting teachers for workshops, they have to serve everybody, not  
just the young and athletic.

An individual teacher can choose a tighter focus, for example,  
specializing in show dance or nuevo which are accessible to a smaller  
subset of the community. Also, an individual teacher can sponsor a  
workshop, and then offer specific, follow-on instruction so the  
visitor's contribution isn't just wind blowing through the grass.


Tango Colorado follows the model of cooperating with and helping local  
teachers.

The club doesn't really "do" anything, except organize the community- 
wide practices and a few special events. They rotate through the local  
teachers for beginner classes allowing them to pitch their on-going  
classes. If a newcomer doesn't fit with teacher X, they might fit with  
teacher Y. Teachers all have their own styles, but the students end up  
trying out different teachers and mixing with each other at the  
practices, so most people can dance a variety of styles, not just the  
one favored by their teacher.

Tango Colorado can afford to rent a big space (actually we own it,  
now). It can afford advertising. Officially neutral, it lists all  
teachers, DJs and local organizers in good standing on its web site.  
Good standing pretty much means dues are paid up; it doesn't say  
anything about teaching ability, that is up to the wits of the  
individual teacher. A teacher has to be pretty egregious to be removed  
from approval. Yes, there is a behavior code, but again, nothing about  
skill or ability.


There are other models around the country.

One of the most successful is the U of Michigan tango club. For the  
past several years they have had three ongoing classes operating in  
adjacent rooms, followed by a practice. The Advanced and Intermediate  
classes come over to the Beginner room for the practice, so in effect,  
the community comes to the newcomers. If they have 50 beginners in the  
room, suddenly the social energy explodes to 100 people. I imagine  
that it takes good people skills for a club to manage the  
personalities of the different teachers.

Boston Tango Society follows the model of a club that does a lot of  
teaching and workshop organizing. In the old days, they did not even  
permit professionals (income earning dance teachers) from belonging to  
the club. Maybe they have changed that policy.

You'll have to ask people in Michigan and Boston how well their clubs  
work for the greater community.


On Jan 15, 2008, at 8:06 AM, buffmilonguera at aol.com wrote:

> I am sort of playing around with the idea of setting up a membership
> organization - but even if I do something like that, it's way, way far
> off - but I'd love to hear from anyone who has done it....basically I
> imagine folks pay some amount per year as members which entitles them
> to discounted workshops, free admission to milongas, etc.  If you  
> are a
> member of something like this in your community - can you let me know
> how it works/is working?
>
> thanks
> b