What Is Tango Doing Right/Wrong: Recruiting and Retaining
- Thread starter JournalInTime
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Miradamiranda
Well-Known Member
In my scene we have a healthy community of young people from teens to low 30s. They have their own community building dynamics. One girl is the daughter of regulars and a few years ago she was quite alone in her age group. Then an Argentinian instructor and organizer who had moved to the area brought his daughter over. She helps him teach. These young women are fantastic dancers and stunning beauties. Some of their friends have been adding to their group little by little, guys also. Then our organization established a 9€ ticket per semester, which covers all classes and milongas for students. Then, our scene’s reputation of good young dancers gets around, so other young dancers travel a couple of hours to get here.
Otherwise, we have a lot of old people my age + a couple of decades.
Otherwise, we have a lot of old people my age + a couple of decades.
I don't think that will be an option to avoid, unless you tango-out early. Keeping on with AT is at least a good retirement plan.
As you age that becomes the norm. People are surprised you're still alive; policeman seem to be very young, immature, kids...
But there are some good tango dancers rather than 'hotshots'.
pianistamediano
Forum Master
What are these senior citizens doing, kneeling on the floor!? They'll break their hips trying to get up!
Miradamiranda
Well-Known Member
I’ve heard about this issue but not seen it. Do people simply not dance locally in between the bigger events? Are they really away all the time? Can so many people afford that?
I’m not a poor schmuck, but I thought I was being very very generous to myself with the following events in 2025:
January: 4-day marathon
April: 4-day large combined marathon/festival
May: 4-day live tango music festival
June: 3-day Encuentro
July: small 2-day festival
August : 3-day marathon
(And then nothing till next January and then nothing till following April.)
All the traveling is quite cheap with trains and busses and some smart planning although these 6 events are in 5 different countries (US, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Germany, and Czech rep.) but all the hotels and meals in desirable expensive cities ads up, plus the registration fees. Also, when I know I absolutely want to return to a favorite event, I book refundable hotels sometimes almost a year ahead at early bird prices, like in Innsbruck and Basel.
I do do it, but without the dance. I really did mean "just hug them."
Not to throw @JournalInTime into the line of fire, but what he said resonated with me: in the dance of the walking hug you need to both hug AND walk. I love a good physical connection, but having established it, I want to do something with it. I am totally ready to believe that the "pensioners" feel great, but if I were in that scenario, I would feel like someone who owns a Ferrari supercar but only ever drives it down to the corner store to get eggs. Why do I even own a Ferrari, if I'm never going to put it through its paces? What is the point? A bicycle could get the job done just as well, for far less time and expense.
This, however, makes a lot of sense. If you are someone who is limited mobility, or worn down from prior dance and needing a break, then this style of dance is indeed perfect.
Even still...if it were not forced on me by circumstance, I don't understand why this style of movement would be a goal I would reach toward. Just getting a good hug from a friend is much cheaper, much more available, and satisfies the same sense of connection, for me. That's my bicycle.
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JournalInTime
Forum Master
I almost only dance locally. I say "almost" because when I travel for other reasons – work, family, whatever – I take dance shoes and seek out whatever milongas I can find. But as a contractor of modest means in a low-paying industry, I can't afford to pursue encuentros, festivals, marathons, etc.: Distances are long here in North America, the population of Canada is too dispersed for volume to drive down the prices of plane tickets to cover said distances, the train system is uncompetitive (it costs as much as a plane and is always behind schedule), and land-based transportation in general is too slow for the great distances involved (as a contractor I don't get paid time off, either, so extra travel days are off the table).
Do I like this reality? No. It's what I have, though. Changing it would be hard, given the nature and depth of my obligations. Yet I get a lot of tango locally – at least 3 milongas a week, if not 4 or 5, plus prácticas, plus weekly coaching (at times with two coaches), plus being an assistant teacher. So, I have lots and lots of tango contacts, both local and from abroad.
Thinking of those contacts: There are many people who are away so often that dancing locally is novel for them. I see the local ones at the local milongas once or twice a year because they're nearly always away; I see those from abroad at the local milongas once or twice a year because that's how often they come to visit. Otherwise, they're flying from one big event to another – it's almost their entire life.
Are these people numerous? As an overall percentage of dancers, probably not. But because they dance far more often than most dancers, they represent a disproportionate number of dancer-hours. They may be 2-5% of the gang, but they account for 5-15% of the cumulative headcount over time,, and probably 15-30% of the cumulative headcount at major events.
This isn't sour grapes. I accept that I made my choices, that those choices didn't prioritize wealth, and that I must live with the fiscal consequences and their impact on my lifestyle. I have but two disappointments that are hard to stomach: (1) not going to major events where people who dance a lot with a wide range of different partners surely slows my improvement speed, and possibly caps my ultimate level, and (2) as a person who wants to teach tango one day, I am taken less seriously than other hopefuls whom I know are below my level (not in my opinion, but in the words of others who know us all) but who travel more.
I'm not sure exactly how I can link all that to our subject – tango recruiting and retaining – but I do feel that people in my socioeconomic bracket might be discouraged from ever getting involved, which would work against "recruiting," and that a less dogged person than me might grow frustrated with the de facto class system, which would work against "retaining" as well.
I certainly am.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
I don't feel thrown into the line of fire! I wrote what I wrote publicly, so it's there to be quoted.
I write for a living, and I understand that anything I write (hastily, and usually below my true writing skill level) online has to fend for itself in the wilds of the Internet.Anyway, I stand by my words. A good tango dancer needs a good hug and a good walk. Someone who can dance only at arm's length and never in a hug isn't good . . . that isn't a shot at style, because even the most wildly experimental dancer who likes big, elastic movements needs that hug for those times when the floor or their partner insists on it. One who can dance only in place and never walking, eating up some floor, isn't good . . . and that's a far more serious issue, because the dance is innately walking and traveling, so parking in the ronda underlines both a technical flaw and a social one.
This resonates with me. I work extremely hard to improve. I have no illusions of being "a master," "beyond advanced," or possibly even "past intermediate-advanced" in absolute terms, but neither am I a slouch. I get coached, I practice, I adapt to dozens of partners a week, and I try to identify and solve my problems, and to set goals for myself. So, I'm unhappy when I'm forced to dogpaddle in place with nonathletic movements and partners for any appreciable length of time.
My social self can definitely find pleasure dancing a tanda or two with my less improvement-oriented friends, not because the dance is interesting but because I'm hugging friends. That same self can smile through the crowded, slow moments of the evening with a largely immobile floor, not because the dance is interesting but because I'm among friends. However, I do eventually expect to walk, move, mark swift music, explore my vocabulary, and have what I call "technical pleasure" as well as the social kind.
Neither do I.
My work with my tango coach, who is also a Pilates and yoga coach, is on how to "dance sustainably," so that I can keep dynamism and athleticism in my body and in my dance past my current age (58) and into the next two or three decades. I dance with a few women in their eighties who are more mobile and energetic than a couple I know in their thirties, so I know my goal is realistic. If ever I reach the "I can only shuffle in place" point, I'll know that I screwed up somewhere and that it's time to take up another activity.
This isn't the same as saying that I insist on dancing too big or too fast when the circumstances don't allow. As you wrote, the shuffling dance can be forced upon us by circumstances. But I'll be totally honest and say that I prefer the "flying dance," where the world is whizzing by as each note in the melody impels me down the floor.
While I could drop some of the flashy tricks, a large dynamic range is just a non-negotiable fundamental of how I view dance, if I can't embody that then I intend to quit.
9 euros!? Do they get the venue free or something? it would certainly help recruiting if we could charge people basically nothing
(the universities here have cheap classes but not THAT cheap)
Miradamiranda
Well-Known Member
I know, it’s exceptional. Our association swallows the cost. Normal membership for non students is also cheap, only 45/y (or 105/y if we buy out 6 hours of volunteering), and covers entrance to our milongas. Rotating leadership and volunteers working off their 6 hours a year assures fresh ideas don’t let things go stale. Very nice community and members from even 2hours + away join.9 euros!? Do they get the venue free or something? it would certainly help recruiting if we could charge people basically nothing
(the universities here have cheap classes but not THAT cheap)
The student package came out of a group discussion, trying to think out of the box, what can we do to attract more young people.
This small city is a desired but expensive retirement destination and a university town. The demographic missing is families with kids. (Jobs.)
itwillhappen
Forum Master
I would estimate that at least half of the dynamic (female) tango dancers have danced salsa more or less intensively at some point. So, in a way, salsa does the recruiting for tango; you just have to wait long enough.
And if complaints about the culture of tango come up, you can politely ask why they don't go back to dancing salsa. Here, too, I have to estimate, but in half the cases, competition from younger, more attractive dancers is cited, while in the other half, declining physical ablities.
So, what this means is that some of these are the same people, just 10-20 years older. The party time is over, they seek and create a different environment.
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How to dance sustainably is good topic. I am having 1-2 TRX training weekly, in summer I use bicycle as much as I can, in winter more hours in gym. Last friday I had interesting experience. I am hobby beekeeper. My bees are extremelly kind to me, but I made some mistake and they attacked my black sock (black color is obvious target for bees, it reminds them bear nose. I received 5 stings to my right ankle within couple of seconds. This evening I visited latino party. I was almost unable to walk, but when I entered dancefloor, magic happened, endorfin masked my pain and I could dance without major limits. Till the time when one lady kicked me to this ankle by mistake. Ouch! Guys, that was a pain, but I kept dancing till the end. Finally I hobble to my seat and quit this evening.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
When I look out the window, I see practically no Ferraris. I see everyday cars, cyclists, and pedestrians. Most of them won't own a Ferrari in this lifetime. Even when I'm in the woods, I see orders of magnitude more people on paved paths than cross-country. Why?
Personally, I believe that many work so hard to remain in the tango community and react so violently when that is threatened because they suspect that quite rarely will anyone hug them like that again. A hug from a window cleaner is not the same.