itwillhappen
Forum Master
As an encentro grows in size, it becomes more impersonal and the rules carry more weight. You just have to make a decision.
Encuentros - pros and cons
- Thread starter ardix
- Start date
I was invited to a local January encuentro several months ago by the female partner of the organizing duo. I only remember once hearing about it from a local dancer in 2018 but didn’t hear of it from anyone else before or after.
First time I danced with her was about 1.5 years back in 2021. I invited an unfamiliar person at a local milonga location I rarely attend. She was very grounded in her dancing. A positive in my perspective and not something I encounter with the followers at that milonga. After the first song of the tanda she gave some some compliments on musicality. After the second song she asked where I learnt. Was very surprised to learn locally. She remarked that I moved like milonguero in BsAs. I said I never been there. After third song she tells me she and her partner host encuentro, and they also teach. When I came back home looked up and they indeed had been teaching in the area for a long time. Though their names were my familiar to me.
Around Oct I was at a practice. She asked me for the last tanda. In the day time I spent recognize her till she mentioned her name after the first song. I don’t think she remembered me either. I thought this is interesting. We are dancing after a year. After the second she said exactly the same thing as the year before! At the end she invited me to their encuentros and even added I could attend it for free as her guest. Sure enough the next day I got an email from her partner with the invitation.
I didn’t attend out of mixture of laziness to RSVP, not sure of my travel plans and accidentally deleting the email. When I looked up the website during the week the encuentro was starting I learnt it was 120 people strictly by invitation from around the country, gender balanced, six hours of milonga on Fri, Sat, and Sun.
opendoor
Forum Master
My reasons are not relevant to you, ardix, after the knee surgeries I'm just trying to break the 50 minutes barrier.
But maybe you didn't understand the subtext to my first post? The typical signature attendee of an encuentro is female, an excellent dancer, professionally successful, freelance or lawyer. In other words, she finally wants to dance, dance, dance, because she doesn't have time to sit around waiting for one or two mediocre dance opportunities in the evening at her local mlilonga. I myself have never been to an encuentro, I only report what my tango family tells me. All my former dance partners don't actually go to milonga anymore. When the conversation turns to tango, the first question among them is: and how did you get in there?
When I could still dance 50 hours in one go, there weren't any encuentros, or only those few whose organizers I didn't get along well with. I did a lot of marathons and they were like a short vacation for me. Marathons were and still are not that cramped. Chatting, eating and having fun also have their place.
I broke up with my girlfriend last summer. She then became a marathon hopper. Whenever we meet, she enthusiastically talks about her experiences. And my impression is that each of the now nine marathons she attended was a great event for her. She's a little shorter than average and if the hight size doesn't match, she can dance openly at marathons. There is no such thing on encuentros. At least not on the typical European ones. So that is all I can contribute!
opendoor
Forum Master
Please understand my comment as a little joke. I don't know you well and can't afford to judge you. But I can't help it right now: Every time I say this sentence, I try to wrap up a devastating judgment in beautiful words!
ardix
Active Member
That is correct...
itwillhappen
Forum Master
About half of Encuentros attendees are longtime life or tango partners over fifty. This is not very exciting for them, they make decisions based on common interests. So the tanguero may not have advantages from the gender balance, but the line is "happy wife - happy life", something that can get difficult at local milongas.
ardix
Active Member
New perspective indeed ;-)
itwillhappen
Forum Master
I was in a relationship with a tanguera for roundabout six years - I can only find that funny in retrospect.
opendoor
Forum Master
Honestly, if I had to choose between Encuentro and Marathon, I would take the tango Vacation!
Check out these business' (international participants always welcome)
- LaMilonga (been several times in Crete)
- Tangotours (been several times in La Gomera)
I can recommend either of them!
Check out these business' (international participants always welcome)
- LaMilonga (been several times in Crete)
- Tangotours (been several times in La Gomera)
I can recommend either of them!
Last edited:
itwillhappen
Forum Master
If you also want to take lessons, that's an option. The weak point is often the offered milongas. Without participant numbers that require two pairs of teachers or integration into the local tango scene, these can become yawningly boring.
opendoor
Forum Master
Actually, Not! Those proprietary milongas do represent unforgettable jewels in my tango life.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
As a rule, an encuentro is not very elitist on the inside because the barriers are moved to the outside, to the registration. But you have to look closely, encuentro is just a label.
I recently did a half-marathon, a 12-hour milonga: registration, gender balanced, first come first serve. The organizer had approached me in advance, his wife and his host were very nice, I also had great tandas at the beginning.
And at half ("half-marathon"
) I noticed that about half of the women didn't want to dance with me. No problem, I'll just book them out, you never know what's going on in the heads of women. But there was one local tanguera, I'd danced well with her elsewhere, where that wasn't ok, she wasn't there when I needed her, emotionally speaking that was "treason". But in the end she came surprisingly to me, hugged me, kissing left, kissing right. She didn't have any good options either.So it was probably a simple conflict of interest. The organizer wanted to have foreigners at his event. But from the view of the inner circle of locals, I took one of their seats away. And in the end it doesn't matter that much, tango is just a leisure activity...
Last edited:
Miradamiranda
Well-Known Member
Hmm, I wonder if this is why I tend to dance much much much more (as a follower) in non-role-balanced events. Where the guys go because they want to dance dance dance, and not just go because wifey made them. Sometimes I also have the suspicion that female dancers in dance relationships prefer these events with selection criteria because there’s less a threat of a single lady coming in and swooping away their partner. They don’t want to share their men, even if it’s just for an innocent 12-min dance.
I just come from a huge event that was billed as simultaneously a festival with courses and a marathon. No pre-registration needed. Show up and dance. I bought a day-ticket and had so much fun that I bought a day ticket the next day (after scrambling for another hotel). I literally danced SO much with absolutely fantastic dancers. Probably the best dancing of my life - I’m still on a high from it. I knew nobody ahead of time but did run into a couple of guys I knew on the second day.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
Is it perhaps more a matter of age structure?
This is not an option at an encuentro, changing partners after each tanda is the rule, whoever has a problem with that is at the wrong event.
I think women in couples sign up because they can, because they have a partner on hand.
Great. For me, a festival here (in Germany) means so many women to choose from that it's no longer nice. And the dancing skills are also very mixed at both, men and women, to put it diplomatically.
Miradamiranda
Well-Known Member
How that? I dance mostly with the same age group 50’s through 70’s regardless of the type of event. Although at this event I had a couple of tandas with younger guys but only after the floor started thinning out and there was space for some more energetic technical moves.
in fact I made the observation that the audience was clearly divided tall / short, under 35 / above 50 (nobody looked like they were in between), UNTIL there were less crowds and it mixed up more.