What Is Tango Doing Right/Wrong: Recruiting and Retaining

[JournalInTime]

And by the way, does tango even have a unique selling point?

I often ask myself that question!

"Dance" in general is super-broad, as are subsets such as "dance style associated with a specific musical tradition," "dance style from South America," "dance style that's over 100 years old," "dance style with a romantic reputation," "partner dance," and "social dance." Objectively, Argentine tango isn't unique in any of those regards. Only existing tango maniacs – who are already recruited and retained, and so irrelevant to the discussion – believe otherwise, bringing us to . . .

Tango's selling points are, as with all dances, entirely subjective: "Its culture, history, image, movements, music, origins, traditions, etc. appeal to me." I want to underline "as with all dances": Argentine tango isn't unique in having subjective appeal to individuals on these bases, either.

Subjective, individual appeal isn't useful for growing communities (not just tango) through recruitment and retention, however. "Like tango? Then why not try it?" is circular and unhelpful. In general, you can't market anything with cold pitches that amount to tautologies or truisms that preach to the converted.

When a subject is hot, you can make somewhat similar pitches: "Admire the couple that won this dance TV show? They were dancing tango! Why not try it?" "Enjoy the dance scene in this year's hottest film? That was tango! Why not try it?" That's unsustainable, though, because interest is sharply peaked in time (close to a delta function, for those who know) and quickly decays to nil. Also, because tango isn't among the most popular of dance styles – or why would we be having this discussion? – the number of chances to make such pitches is small.

That said, tango does seem to have a special appeal to dancers of other styles. It has movements not often seen in other dances: barridas, boleos, cruzadas, ganchos, paradas, pasadas, etc. Cross-system walking is relatively rare elsewhere, as is pure improvisation of not just patterns but also individual steps, as is lead-follow passed mainly through chest and back rather than the arms. I say "not often seen" and "relatively rare" rather than "unknown" because such elements sometimes show up elsewhere, but the total cocktail is unique, which is interesting to established dancers who don't like to drink the same cocktail all the time.

Based on this, I believe that the best place to recruit tango dancers is at the socials and studios of other styles – i.e., among those who already know how to dance. That's a rarified target demographic, so I'm not sure it's going to do a lot to grow or even sustain the tango community. At least it's less peaked in time than the opportunities created by media productions, though, and capable of exploiting the popularity of other dances rather than competing with it.

 

[Tango Distance]

It's interesting, espeygiven the self-selection bias, but the key question remains: What is 'tango' doing to recruit and retain?

​

Sometimes there is an event that encourages some form of dancing with many others. From the Los Angeles Tango Marathon (LATM) ( Policies | LATangoMarathon ):

Please try to make an effort to dance with everyone, including unfamiliar folks and those sitting out for prolonged periods of time. Let's try and be generous with our community-building, all-inclusive and welcoming energy!

LATM also does flash mob Tango dances, a form of outreach, where they encourage "Please, be kind and rotate as often as possible to include everyone!". They also do a milonga on the beach (another form of outreach).

In my old region, we'd sometimes do demo dances at the park, cultural center, and once at a TED talk, and then invite audience members to come up and dance with us, the performers.

Multiple events near me have a class right before the Milonga.

That said, tango does seem to have a special appeal to dancers of other styles.

I agree with JiT, it seems studios with other dances have the best luck getting new Tango dancers -- they drift over from other dances.

In my old area, the by far most successful studio did promotion on the news, and worked hard to be #1 rated on yelp or something similar. The Tango club would get on the news for the International Celebration of Tango.

In my new area, a local studio gives a huge discount for tickets, good for classes or Milongas, purchased on Black Friday.

Another draw for Tango: Some very elderly ladies, who can only take small steps and depend on the leader for a little help with balance, can keep doing Tango (and give surprisingly good dances!). I can't imagine them doing Swing or Contra. Is there another organized dance where you can do tiny steps and still fit right in? I was able to do Tango sooner after breaking my leg than other dances would allow. I would tell my partner I was still recovering, and did smaller and slower steps than I usually do. It was fun, and most of the ladies said I was doing great. One even said "Don't change a thing!", that made my night.

Idea that just popped into my head: A dance studio offers a free first lesson to couples going on a first date, via a dating site. Note the distinction, not going to Tango to find someone, but doing a date at a Tango event. It might be a way to draw in more men and promote gender balance.

 

[Tango Distance]

Forgot this: I can do weekly Milongas at one site. Alternatively, I can do 5 monthly milongas (there's one every week) at 5 different sites. I'm fortunate I'm in a land of plenty, all 5 sites are within 22 km of my home. This promotes having more Tango, makes Tango more robust (loss of organizer or building not a big deal), and I get around 3x more dance partners this way.

Just remembered, I had an instructor do a match maker type event as a Tango lesson and mini-milonga. He said it didn't go perfectly, it drew way more men than women.

 

[TTanguero]

Let tango die if no one longs for it

Well, the point of this thread is that those of us here do, and wish it to continue.

 

[opendoor]

• Ganchos

There also are ganchos in bolero-son, cumbia and kizomba.

 

[Brummbaer]

There also are ganchos in bolero-son, cumbia and kizomba.

ChatGPT disagrees!

But in authentic Cuban bolero-son,
ganchos are not part of the traditional
movement vocabulary. Other fusion dances may insert tango-inspired ganchos.
Traditional Cumbia does not include
ganchos as Part of its core dance vocabulary.

In some partner dance improvisation or
fusion settings (e.g., salsa-tango fusion),
you might see tango-style ganchos
inserted for flair, but these are not
authentically Cumbia.

There are no sharp, hooking, Or flicking leg
movements (like ganchos in Argentine
tango) in traditional or urban Kizomba
technique.

In Kizomba fusion (especially Urban
Kiz, Tarraxinha,or experimental
choreographies), you may occasionally see movements inspired by other dances, like Argentine Tango

Maybe it's something it hasn't learnt about yet?

Outside of Argentine Tango, ganchos (sharp hooking actions of the leg around a partner or object) are rare but do appear in a few other dance styles, either directly or in fusion forms.

It seems to hint that other options may be derived from Argentine Tango.

I wouldn't take this necessarily as the whole truth, but doing the actual dance research is pointless and detracts from dancing, so it looks as if ganchos may have been an original USP of AT. It's also a diversion from the thread!

 

[opendoor]

ChatGPT disagrees!

I feel great, I'm better than chatGPT

(what actually is not difficult as AI is based on mediocrity and average)

 

[opendoor]

..those of us here do, and wish it to continue.

But you're not dependent on the existence of a large tango scene!

For example, I always carry a Bluetooth speaker with me; wherever tango is played, tango lives. Years ago I even used to travel with my bando, and tango resurrects itself in the most unlikely places. Recently, I grabbed a passerby while a street musician was playing Libertango in the shopping mall. Tango is where you are!

Moreover, even mini-scenes have survived, think of courtly dances, renaissance dances, or folk dance groups in costumes.

And honestly, there are also other beautiful dances in the world. You'll miss them if you focus too much on tango.

When you dance for a while, things become more relative. Tango simply opens the door to a new continent. But other doors lead there as well.

 

[TTanguero]

But you're not dependent on the existence of a large tango scene!

I'm not, but a reasonably large tango scene adds a lot of value to my life. For example, I like being able to turn up in any city, anywhere in the world, not knowing anyone, and be able to go out and dance.

 

[JournalInTime]

It seems to hint that other options may be derived from Argentine Tango.

Commentary re: ChatGPT aside, what I take away from this is that other dance styles are better at borrowing from Argentine tango than AT is at borrowing from other dance styles. There's really nothing in AT's music or "classic" movements that prevents borrowing-in . . . but there does seem to be an undercurrent of "tango purism" that rejects even the smallest shift toward hybridization, fusion, and outright theft. I've heard a lot of tango teachers and even more tango dancers huff, "Well, that isn't tango!" in response to something taken from another style.

And maybe that's an (though not necessarily the) issue: Tango's problem is less not having a unique selling proposition and more having a "unique repulsion proposition."

Tango has a large number of people who are purists and who desperately want tango to be different from all other dances. That isn't going to make a lot of friends among people who can dance already, who are the ones you most want to attract, because they (1) are proven takers of lessons and attendees of socials, who'd be willing to invest (money as well as time) in AT, and (2) would least dilute the overall level of general dance technique (if not tango tango technique) on the floor.

In the words of my coach, "Dance is dance. Once you learn good dance technique, styles are just different applications." Tango people often like to imagine that AT is as different from, say, salsa as biology is from physics, but that's ego. At their most different, they might be as different as two close specialties of biology (say, genetics and molecular biology) or physics (like quantum and mathematical physics). I didn't choose examples at random . . . back at the university, scientists in some fields liked to imagine that they were special, and they didn't like cross-pollination either.

 

[pianistamediano]

I've heard a lot of tango teachers and even more tango dancers huff, "Well, that isn't tango!" in response to something taken from another style.

It really depends on your community and people around you, I think; in the European events I go to, people are generally way more open than that.

 

[JournalInTime]

It really depends on your community and people around you, I think; in the European events I go to, people are generally way more open than that.

This is the case from person to person and place to place here, too. I recently danced a tanda with a woman who laughed, "That's a chachacha move, not a tango move!" . . . very funny, as I've never danced chachacha. Then I saw the frowny faces of all the people who saw it. So, she was fine with it but some of the onlookers were grumpy over it. The trick is getting everybody to be fine with it, at least on their faces. It doesn't take many frowny faces to give AT a bad name.

I had a similar experience dancing a milonga with some hip action. "But that's candombe!" Yeah, friend, and that's an ancestor dance to milonga, and you can really dance them interchangeably if you work a bit on the technique. Purism of style does nobody any favors.

 

[pianistamediano]

Purism of style does nobody any favors.

I'm all in favour of the evolution of tango and diversity of styles; I just don't want people to dismiss everything that's gone before — the history, culture, traditions, the lyrics, all these should not be discarded and regarded as useless.

 

[Bailango]

ChatGPT disagrees!

But in authentic Cuban bolero-son,
ganchos are not part of the traditional
movement vocabulary. Other fusion dances may insert tango-inspired ganchos.
Traditional Cumbia does not include
ganchos as Part of its core dance vocabulary.

In some partner dance improvisation or
fusion settings (e.g., salsa-tango fusion),
you might see tango-style ganchos
inserted for flair, but these are not
authentically Cumbia.

There are no sharp, hooking, Or flicking leg
movements (like ganchos in Argentine
tango) in traditional or urban Kizomba
technique.

In Kizomba fusion (especially Urban
Kiz, Tarraxinha,or experimental
choreographies), you may occasionally see movements inspired by other dances, like Argentine Tango

Maybe it's something it hasn't learnt about yet?

Outside of Argentine Tango, ganchos (sharp hooking actions of the leg around a partner or object) are rare but do appear in a few other dance styles, either directly or in fusion forms.

It seems to hint that other options may be derived from Argentine Tango.

I wouldn't take this necessarily as the whole truth, but doing the actual dance research is pointless and detracts from dancing, so it looks as if ganchos may have been an original USP of AT. It's also a diversion from the thread!

There were no ganchos in Kizomba when it started. It is a young dance which only started in mid 2000s. The original Angolan dance from which the Kizomba evolved didn’t had any ganchos either.

Bachata Sensual and Kizomba dances are new and have borrowed a lot of things from other dances.

Similarly I don’t see any evidence of gancho being part of bolero son. The stage dancing frequently borrows from other dances. Choreographers are always trying to bring something fresh into stage dancing. Therefore they freely borrow moves from other dances. In salsa performances you will see moves borrowed from flamenco, jazz, tango, and other dances. The bachata performances then started borrowing from salsa performances. Because all easy bachata performers were salsa dancers.

Also I never seen ganchos when dancing cumbia socially. Neither with Colombians nor in Mexican colombia which is very popular in the USA.

ChatGPT is only telling you what it can pull out from vast encyclopedic knowledge base encoded in its memory. Therefore it is more trustworthy. It doesn’t have anything to learn, unless it is something more modern and evolving in current time.

 

[fiesta0618]

ChatGPT is only telling you what it can pull out from vast encyclopedic knowledge base encoded in its memory. Therefore it is more trustworthy. It doesn’t have anything to learn, unless it is something more modern and evolving in current time.

I didn't say anything before, but I have to speak up in regard to this.

Chat GPT does not know anything. It has no knowledge base. It is not an encyclopedia. If you wanted to compare it to something else, It is most similar to the autocorrect feature on your phone.

You literally cannot trust anything that it says is factual. It is very good at producing syntactically correct language, and it can be instructed to say things that are stylistically rich. But you cannot trust any of the semantics of what it says, because it doesn't understand the meaning of anything.