3695 Tango Communities from Tango Shows, part 2 - The opportunity and the problem
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:54:56 -0600
From: Brian Dunn <brian@DANCEOFTHEHEART.COM>
Subject: Tango Communities from Tango Shows, part 2 - The opportunity and the problem
(continued from Part 1)
So, the opportunity and the problem might thus be stated:
1) Our tango communities would benefit from growth. Here in North America,
we tangueros and tangueras count as successful a tango festival with 100-500
people that draws from several states. Yet every Friday in Denver, the
Grizzly Rose (country/western bar & HUGE dance venue) draws 800-2200 patrons
and up to a thousand dancers – every week! And there are other c/w venues
here in Denver that do the same or better. What would it be like to have a
tango community of that size? Think of all those potential new dance
partners. As far as festivals go, how about a festival like Tangomarkkinat
in Finland, which annually draws more than 100,000 people (hosted by a town
of 30,000! ) for a long weekend of Finnish tango? Sure, at the
instructional level, the details of the dance form and music are somewhat
different, but when I was there, from a short distance away it all looked
like close-embrace tango at your local milonga, except there were two to
three thousand people moving in line-of-dance out on the floor in any one of
several simultaneous indoor locations, plus 40,000 or so dancing in the
street. Tango community organizers take note: Trust me, these folks know
something about tango community!
2) Tango shows ARE successful at reaching newcomers, effectively using the
powerful time-honored tools of stagecraft to astonish their eyes and
(hopefully) rip open their hearts, souls and lower chakras with the power,
passion and intensity of theatrical presentation of this passionate cultural
treasure (See Susana Miller’s kudos above). Their financial success
demonstrates clearly that they meet the demand for a certain infusion of
tango culture in major cities around the planet. As Susana notes, the
spectacle and theatricality of their presentation reaches people very
powerfully, and would be very difficult to accomplish without these
qualities on the same scale in other ways.
3) But, at least in North America, this powerful impact is not optimally
translated into gracefully increasing the size of the local social tango
community. Historically, tango shows have a track record of blowing into
town, creating unrealistic stage-specific expectations among naïve audience
members, then blowing out of town again - while in the meantime the cast
teaches a few of their choreographies in local workshops, thus defining the
stage choreography as “authentic” tango for a fresh generation of “tango
babies.” If these babies are lucky, they may get a chance to be properly
introduced by their local social tango teacher/organizer into the local
social tango experience that will be their actual, attainable, ongoing path
to tango bliss. This somewhat painful process of “tango re-education” costs
time, energy, and often fails completely, creating local “problem dancers”,
frustrated fellow leaders and followers, and difficult milonga conditions.
The long-term effects are easily visible in several large tango communities.
All these conditions result in a squandered opportunity to spread the
connection-based culture of the tango salon, and smaller social tango
communities than might otherwise have been the case.
(continued in Part 3)
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado USA
www.danceoftheheart.com <https://www.danceoftheheart.com/>
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 10:46:21 -0600
From: Ron Weigel <tango.society@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Tango Communities from Tango Shows, part 2 - The opportunity and the problem
On 8/16/05, Brian Dunn <brian@danceoftheheart.com> wrote:
> 2) Tango shows ARE successful at reaching newcomers, effectively using the
> powerful time-honored tools of stagecraft to astonish their eyes and
> (hopefully) rip open their hearts, souls and lower chakras with the power,
> passion and intensity of theatrical presentation of this passionate
> cultural treasure.
> 3) But, at least in North America, this powerful impact is not optimally
> translated into gracefully increasing the size of the local social tango
> community. Historically, tango shows have a track record of blowing into
> town, creating unrealistic stage-specific expectations among naïve audience
> members, then blowing out of town again - while in the meantime the cast
> teaches a few of their choreographies in local workshops, thus defining the
> stage choreography as "authentic" tango for a fresh generation of "tango
> babies." If these babies are lucky, they may get a chance to be properly
> introduced by their local social tango teacher/organizer into the local
> social tango experience that will be their actual, attainable, ongoing path
> to tango bliss. This somewhat painful process of "tango re-education"
> costs
> time, energy, and often fails completely, creating local "problem dancers",
> frustrated fellow leaders and followers, and difficult milonga conditions.
> The long-term effects are easily visible in several large tango
> communities.
> All these conditions result in a squandered opportunity to spread the
> connection-based culture of the tango salon, and smaller social tango
> communities than might otherwise have been the case.
Brian,
What an accurate diagnosis of what goes wrong in North American tango
communty development!
>Hypothesis:
>
> What if first-class tango shows were designed from the ground up with their
> *primary purpose* being the fostering of the growth and development of local
> tango communities? What if specific steps were taken to effectively teach
> the "lessons of the salon" to the newcomers as part of the show's
> choreographies, while still taking advantage of the persuasive power of all
> the techniques of theatrical presentation? What if, immediately after the
> show, audience members were invited down onto the stage for their first real
> "social tango" lesson, to properly cement the connection with the "lessons
> of the salon" while their minds, hearts and lower chakras are still raw and
> sensitive with the impact of the theatrical expression? What if, after the
> lesson, cast members joined the newcomers for an "onstage milonga" of social
> tango? What if the show incorporated local teachers in the cast who would
> help continue the tango education of all the newbies after the show closes?
It will be interesting to hear about the results of your experiment.
However, I'm wondering if using performances to attract people to
tango is still operating in the wrong sensory modality?
Shows present tango as a 'visual' experience, yet the essence of tango
comes from 'tactile' and 'auditory' sensory modalities. It is in the
connection with partner and music that one achieves the unique tango
experience. Having newcomers dance with experienced dancers is a good
idea to communnicate some part of that.
However, I believe that in using performances of any kind to recruit
people to tango, we're still sending the wrong message. Maybe if this
is done within the context of a drama, where the dance is part of a
story of social interaction, this might be better. In general,
performances per se attract people with exhibitionist tendencies. If
tango is advertised as a social experience, it will attract more
people who are interested in connecting with other people. With the
right follow-up in instruction (teaching social tango rather than
modified tango fantasia) this will eventually result in retention of
more dancers who connect with tango as a social experience rather than
as a dancesport.
Of course, in doing that we're still fighting all the advertising
messages from the North American tango culture where attention is
focused on tango as a performance dance.
Ron
Urbana, IL
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 14:34:24 -0600
From: Brian Dunn <brian@DANCEOFTHEHEART.COM>
Subject: Re: Tango Communities from Tango Shows, part 2 - The opportunity and the problem
Ron wrote:
>>>
However, I'm wondering if using performances to attract people to
tango is still operating in the wrong sensory modality?
<<<
That's sort of what we're trying to test. Our hypothesis is that people
attracted to the show aspects can be further attracted to discovering the
origins of all this excitement, through high-quality visual and auditory
experience during the show. In this post-show excited state, we then invite
them down onto the stage for the "tango touch" part.
Early indications are that it is a promising strategy - in a smaller-scale
performance last year, out of a sold-out standing-room crowd of 260, we got
seventy people to stay for the lesson. Virtually all of those stayed for
the milonga. This year, we hope to track the "conversion rate" into the
ongoing tango community better - we left the country soon after last year's
show, and didn't have time to effectively follow up on what was a
startlingly unexpected outreach success.
>>>
However, I believe that in using performances of any kind to recruit
people to tango, we're still sending the wrong message... In general,
performances per se attract people with exhibitionist tendencies.
<<<
This idea bears closer examination. In addition, there may be significant
cross-gender differences.
In our experience, many women truly are attracted to the idea of a leader
providing them a social dance experience where he creates opportunities for
them to move beautifully, to use their bodies in ways that make them feel
beautiful. I'm hesitant to negatively label this desire as "exhibitionist"
because I think it's a natural part of the feminine archetype's attraction
to tango.
And as for the guys: many leaders truly enjoy the prospect of being able to
provide this kind of experience to their partners. They like the feeling
that they are giving her a chance to feel beautiful in her own eyes and
heart. It makes them feel more masculine to do this. We think these kinds
of guys are attracted to our show as well - and they ARE out there.
And, sure, there are "selfish" guys who at their current level of spiritual
development mostly want to use the woman to show off their stuff to friends
and strangers - they were there quite prominently at the birth of tango, and
there will always be a fresh supply of them. But competition, and its
attendant public displays of male prowess, IS in my view an important,
durable, and even potentially valuable feature of the masculine archetype.
I don't think there's anything gained in throwing out the baby with the
bathwater through dismissing this competitive attribute because some of its
consequences appear "exhibitionist". Competition has been a strong
motivator for many guys to work hard on their tango to become good leaders.
But our whole point is that the "exhibitionist" "problem dancers" have
tended to arise in the absence of the kind of tango social context that
Buenos Aires residents always took for granted, a context of appropriate
tango behaviors which reined in the worst of the "exhibitionist" problem
children.
As you point out, all us social tango dancers confront the default tango
indoctrination for North Americans, which tends to be the stylized Hollywood
stuff - but you know, even Hollywood has its moments of support for the
connection-based aspirations of social tango dancers. How about the look on
Al Pacino's face in his tango in "Scent of a Woman" when he is leading
Gabrielle Anwar in a simple backwards walk toward the camera? Talk about
tango trance...and some guys ARE attracted to that too.
In any case, we think we can approximate for our purposes this "corrective"
social context with the post-show activities. In addition, our show also
portrays the transition away from the male-peacock archetype toward a
recasting of male-competition into a striving for the perfect union between
leader and follower, as they exchange their respective gifts of protection
and inspiration in the creation of their collaborative work of art.
All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado 80302
www.danceoftheheart.com
