[Tango-L] Tango Marathon Directory is now in beta!

[De Gentile Benoit EXT]

I can confirm what Daniel answered to Trini about Tango Marathons, as far as I could notice from our first marathon in Marseille (France) during the latest week-end.

Attendance was varying from 160 persons (10pm-3am) to 80 persons (3pm-7pm) and 30 persons (6am-10am) during two days and half. One third of dancers were Marathons fans coming from different countries in Europe. With a high dance skill, a very high level of attention to the music, most of them did not select close or open embrace as they continuously switched from one to the other. The other dancers were "normal", mainly dancing in close embrace style.

The floor area was 160 square meters, that means that we were at the level such as ballroom begins to be dense (as felt in Europe). In those conditions, we could observe that everything went smoothly despite differences between dancing styles or energies, thanks to the mutual respect observed among dancers. "Smoothly" means: I experienced 5 or 6 bumping within 28 hours of dancing.

Last but not the least: the music played was very classical (40's, 30's) except a couple of "nuevo" or "alternative" tandas during morning sessions (7am-10am).

Benoit

> From: Daniel Käsmayr <daniel at kaesmayr.net>
> Date: 3 mars 2010 08:25:09 HNEC
> To: "tango-l at mit.edu" <tango-l at mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Tango Marathon Directory is now in beta!
> 
> 
> Dear Trini,
> 
> of course, the definition is not perfectly sharp, but here is one I 
> found in a facebook group called „Tango Marathons“ 
> (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109434249880)
> 
>    What is a tango marathon?
>    As it sounds it is a long weekend of almost non-stop dancing.
> 
>    What is the difference between a marathon and a festival?
>    Marathons do not have live music, they do not have shows. They have
>    a smaller number of people - usually balanced in gender, eg: 60 men,
>    60 women (or this is the idea anyway!)
> 
>    Who is it for?
>    Generally Tango Marathons are for advanced dancers who just wish to
>    dance and are not interested in classes, shows and live music that
>    you find at festivals. There is usually a limited number of people
>    so there is more space to dance, and in general the dancers are from
>    many countries and of a high level.
> 
> 
> This may help to distinguish, but reality is often also a bit less 
> specific: just look at what‘s going on around the world, with tango 
> marathons being part of festivals :) etc.
> 
> Oh, and there are those tango camps as well… at least here in 
> Europe… like Phantastango, Taboe Camps, etc.
> 
> Daniel
>