Tango Marathons – why are they successful?

Tango Marathons – why are they successful?

There are many reasons why tango marathons/encuentros became such a huge success, but few reasons are intuitive. Here we can name a few (I can always correct/update my post). After over 8 years of being a participant and a DJ in marathons, encuentros and festivals in North America/Europe/Asia, my personal learning points about those events are listed below. Small tango communities around the world never reach a critical mass of dancers, which satisfy the so-called “local advanced dancers”. Few exceptions exist in bigger cities, but normally advanced dancers are fragmented in many milongas and it is hard to find them all in one spot. When some advanced dancers teach and they start to make a living from Tango it further complicates things. Dancers normally complain about the bad environment of milongas in theirs own city, but generally it is the same all over the world. Tango is really like that. In Europe, festivals were (up to 2010) the biggest events where advanced dancers were found, but the festival organizers have to support the burden of their costs by offering classes and workshops that are packed with beginners creating a chaotic circulation at milongas. I do remember some festivals in 2006-7 with 1000 people, which now have less than 200 people. I do not say that festivals will disappear but their attractiveness to advanced dancers is diminished. It is good that festivals continue, which means that there will be enough newcomers to feed the tango community. Given the nature of festivals and local milongas, there was a gap in events that would appeal to advanced dancers such as marathons, and later on Encuentros Milongueros (see my note below). These events are relatively inexpensive because the organizers need to cover only the rental of the dance venue and DJs. Many people simply do not have the time or the economical means for long stays in Buenos Aires, while the weekly/monthly/bimonthly frequency of the Marathons allow people to fulfil their dancing needs for a low fee. Marathons become very successful - first in Europe, then in North America and more recently in Asia. Common features are found in all those events:

1- Participants are eager to dance without any interruption for shows/demonstrations. Even short interruptions / announcements are not welcome. Once these events get in your blood it is difficult to go back to the festivals.

2- Participants gain a complete fluidity in their tango. After more than 10 hours, all their previous patterns from a tango class are lost. Here improvisation really starts.

3- Obviously many people start frequenting these events too soon without even minimal technique which would allow them to grow as dancers. But for some talented, their passion for the music lets them adsorb the technique alone.

4- I’ve seen many “tango-babies” changing their embrace along a single event. Normally their embrace changes toward what the most others do at the event, either it is a V-offset, semi-open or close embrace.

5- The amount of dancing is completely dependent on your social skills and on your perception of room.

6- Dancers are really equal. And this teaches you some humility in tango and in life when you see a new-baby comer getting all the dancers while you are seated.

These events allow over 25 hours of dancing and fluidity in tango in a weekend for a small fee. How can you beat that? I am happy to see Asia so passionately embracing these events after visiting recently the Taiwan Tango Marathon.  This wave of events is growing, and ignoring it just ignoring the evolution of tango. Indeed, we are living exciting times in tango! Important links</p><ul><li>Marathons Wordwide<ul><li><a href="http://www.tangomarathons.com/">http://www.tangomarathons.com</a></li></ul></li><li>Encuentro Milonguero list (in europe)<ul><li><a href="http://www.gatomilongueiro.com/encuentros2/">http://www.gatomilongueiro.com/encuentros2/</a></li></ul></li></ul><p/><p/><p/><p>About encuentros (which is more my personal choice)</p><p/><p>Here’s a quote from <a href="http://melinas-two-cent.blogspot.de/2011/11/festivalitos-encuentros-for-milongueros.html">Melina Sedo:</a></p><p/><p>…Tango events for Milongueros who cherish the “Abrazo” to traditional music. …. The etiquette of invitation by Mirada &amp; Cabeceo plays an important role as does the respectful interaction of all dancers on the dancefloor. These are <a href="http://melinas-two-cent.blogspot.com/2011/11/whats-traditional-milonga.html">traditional Milongas</a> and no place for people who want to show off their newest <a href="http://melinas-two-cent.blogspot.com/2011/09/sentadas-montadas-and-ganchos-for.html">Sentadas, Montadas and Ganchos</a>. Please stay away, if you don’t like dancing in a close embrace!</p><p/><p><a href="http://melinas-two-cent.blogspot.com/search/label/Marathon">http://melinas-two-cent.blogspot.com/search/label/Marathon</a></p></rich-text-block></theme-provider></palette>Updated May 06, 2021 2:38:25 am

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Mar 05, 2016 8:23:23 am