[Tango-L] Subject: Re: [SA] RE: San Diego close embrace Festival 2010

[Tony Rathburn]

>From Have To Tango...
The ad for this past New Year's festival (http://tango.org/festivals/sandiego/2009sdtangofest) says (and I quote):


"The 3rd Annual San Diego Tango Festival will be a Southern California treat for all tango dancers who love the social tango popular in the milongas of Buenos Aires: close, subtle & romantic."

Further down on the page, the site claims that San Diego has a "great close embrace community." 


My note... 

I don't think you can rely on past year's postings as being an accurate representation of this year's event...

Also... i think there is a difference between being a 'close embrace festival'... which implies exclusivity, as in the case of Phoenix... and, an attempt to appeal to a particular audience...

The instructors and DJ's are a good indicator of what to expect... 
more so... look at the schedule... would an exclusively 'close embrace' festival have an alternative milonga?   which Denver also has, btw...

>From Have To Tango...

A very fine dancer once told me that his first priority on the dancefloor was to protect his partner. 

I feel it is as much the follower's obligation to stamp out bad floorcraft as anyone's.  Followers must turn down (or abandon) a leader who can neither protect her/him from poor dancers nor avoid causing harm and inconvenience to others.

My note:

May I applaud now?  I couldn't agree more...


>From Huck:

You're looking at the "wrong" website, so to speak.  The festival
organizer is Tom Stermitz, and his website is as follows:

My note:

Sorry Huck, we may have to agree to disagree on this one... but I'm going to go with the official site for the current year's festival regarding what to expect... including crowd, instructors, DJ's, schedule...

>From Huck:

"The San Diego Tango Festivals are a special treat for all tango
dancers who love the social tango popular in the milongas of Buenos
Aires: close, subtle & romantic."

      This is exactly the same verbiage Tom uses in his announcements
of all the Denver tango festivals.

My Note:

As with Have To Tango, seeking to attract, does not imply exclusivity... i might also argue that many of the milongas in Buenos Aires that fit this relatively vague description, are also not exclusively 'close embrace'... also, neither the Labor Day, nor the Memorial Day Denver festivals are exclusively 'close embrace' festivals... regardless of how they may have started...

Note to Vince...

Thank you for the reference to the Phoenix Festival... based on their site, I would expect it to be an exclusively 'close embrace' festival...