446  Attracting more dancers and leader/follower balance

Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 19:26:22 EST
From: No Name Available <TANGOMARTY@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Attracting more dancers and leader/follower balance

Mika Frankaite wrote on 2/27/02,
<< But there are always much more women at
tango lessons / practicas / milongas, than men. >>

I dont know where you are from, Mika, but you should come to NYC, where, with
rare exception, (usually absolute beginner classes) there are more leaders
than followers at classes, practicas, and milongas. I have taken dozens of
intermediate and advanced classes over the past year, and have seen more
leaders than followers in all instances except one. Also, the milongas in
NYC tend to run late, and the women who do come and leave solo tend to leave
much earlier than the men.
It would be interesting to examine the different approaches in different
tango cities to analyze why leaders outnumber followers in one city and vice
versa in another. Note that I say "leaders and followers." In NYC, one often
sees women dancing together in classes as well as at milongas, even with many
men waiting for a partner. However, you will only see men dancing together
in a class when there are no women available, and you will hardly ever see
men dancing together in a milonga, and when you do see this it is the last
dance or two before the doors are locked. Perhaps it is not a coincidence
that Tango Mujer, an all-female tango production with some of the top female
dancers in NYC, is a popular production, yet there is no corresponding
all-male tango group.
So, Mika, please, give me your secret for attracting more women to tango.

Tangomarty