[Tango-L] Marketing or hype?

[Astrid]

The URL for the 2007 World Argentine tango show championship's list of 
winners  is this:

http://www.mundialdetango.gov.ar/tango_escenario_e.php

The Japanese winners and finalists are all dancers I know personally, 
Chizuko still  works at the studio I go to for their milongas while her 
partner Sebastian has returned to BA. The Korean couple who won 1st prize a 
couple of years ago paid our milonga a visit on their way home to Seoul. 
Gonzalo who won 2nd place last year with a Japanese partner never returned 
to Tokyo after that. Cristian Lopez who won 4th place the year before that 
with Rika has been bought up by another studio in Tokyo, I used to dance 
with him every week.
So, don't rush to conclusions if you just lack information, Chris. The video 
of the teaching couple you posted does not look like they would be able to 
win the Mundial in BA, but then you never know. Sometimes dancers just have 
to know the right people and take lessons with someone who is on the jury to 
score in these kind of events.
There are also "world tango competitions" held in Florida, or were, at any 
case,  the teacher who organised them would then proudly announce on tango-l 
that all the winning couples had been among his students, except for Gavito 
and Marcella and such...
So, no need to take these results all that seriously, but these competitions 
do exist. The proper name for th BA event is Campeonato Mundial de Baile de 
Tango. Copes, Sergio Cortazzo and such people are on the jury.
I would love to know more about the salon tango competitions but 
unfortunately, teachers from Japan (Japanese or Argentine) do not usually 
compete in that, but there were a few who went and one or two couples 
scored.

Chris wrote:
this UK teaching couple http://tinyurl.com/5pmbh4 who
> claim to have won the World Argentine Tango Show Championship. Despite
> there being no record of a World Argentine Tango Show Championship ever
> having been held.