3669  Festivals and Gender Balance

Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 00:36:02 -0600
From: Cammie <milonguera@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Festivals and Gender Balance

Susan Munoz, susanmunoz@9DOTSOLUTIONS.COM wrote:

"...I've always wondered what would happen to the tango festivals if only
couples signed up? What would happen to the tango classes? Would there
be enough revenue to support the classes and festivals on a dependable
basis? I do not know the answer to this. Certainly, neither the
classes nor the festivals would disappear but it does seem like there is
a large amount of single women who attend both. Generally (or so it
appears) there are more women than men who want to dance in this
Country. I am aware that some of these women live in communities where
there are no classes, no practicas, no milongas and no festivals at all.
Some live in communities where there may be a class of 2-8 people...."

One of the most magical experiences of my tango life was attending the last
two years of Stanford Tango Week, in 1996 and 1997. Registration was
strictly (100%) gender balanced, 75 men and 75 women, from all over the
country and a few from other countries. My recollection is it was mainly
single people and a few couples. There were classes all day Monday through
Friday, with four classes in each time slot, and milongas Sunday night
through Friday night. The milongas were closed to the public except on a
limited basis the last night, which made for a wonderful mix of people to
dance with, and a wonderful size group, too. Big enough to have many
choices, but not so big to as to have to start all over with new people each
night, and not so big you can't even connect with everyone you want to dance
with, and just as many men as women!

I recall, however, that it was partially subsidized, which obviously helped
keep the cost down. There was also live music almost every night by the New
York Tango Trio. I wished I could go every year for the rest of my life,
and was very sad when it was discontinued, although I realize I might not
have always felt the same way. But the second year was every bit as
wonderful as the first. I learned many things just from following in the
milongas, but also still have very strong memories of many things I learned
in classes there. All the festivals I have attended since then had many
extra women, many milongas which were way too huge, and made me long for the
wonderful days and nights at Stanford, although I realize it would be hard
for anyone to duplicate that now.

Another concern about festivals today is there seems to be a group of
dancers and teachers who travel around the country attending various
festivals and primarily dancing with each other. This seems to be getting
more and more cliquish, unfortunately. I also attended Valentango in
Portland last February and in 2004. I had a worthwhile time in 2004 but
this year found it to be more cliquish, with lots of hot young dancers only
dancing with each other and the teachers. Of course, men of all ages wanted
to dance with the hot young female dancers. It almost felt like being in
BsAs at times in that sense.

About the smaller tango communities, that must be very difficult for
learning and having fulfilling dancing, especially for the women. On the
other hand, I live in a large community and we still struggle with extra
women at the majority of the events, not getting to dance nearly as much as
the good male dancers, and the related issues of age, size, etc. So that
frustration isn't specific just to small communities.

Cammie in Colorado.