Fact 1: Tango has been in Singapore for close to nine years.
Fact 2: Group classes with local teachers started at Jitterbugs, a fairly large dance studio in Singapore, since late 2000.
Fact 3: Size of a typical 8-week beginners classes is around 15-20.

Just imagine, 4 such group classes per year, for all of the preceding eight years. And let’s say that 1/3 made it to at least one milonga or practicas and went on to stay in the community for 6 months. This actually means an annual increase of about 20-25 people! Over a period of nine years, even assuming that only 1/2 of the ones who stayed for 6 months eventually became regulars, we are still talking close to 90 new people in our small community!

What an exciting thought: to have 90 people just from one studio alone!

Alas this exists only in imagination, as this is very far from the reality in Singapore…

For me, after taking up Tango about 8 years ago and with the recent changes in circumstances, I feel that I am getting to the stage where a trip to Buenos Aires can signal either a new beginning, or the end of it all.

I wonder what it will be when the time comes?

I will try to paraphrase some of the discussions below.

Firstly, it is fair to say that established communities are more or less self-sustaining, which in turn suggests that there are no essential members. However, as many of us is well aware, established communities don’t spontaneously appear. Communities need to be started by someone, and those pioneers deserve credit for that. As a community grows, some people become the essential, sustaining members. Unfortunately, those same members often end up being the very people who arrest the growth of the community when it is on the verge of becoming self-sustaining. They aren’t prepared to become mere “mortal” and therefore nonessential members. In other words, they don’t want to give up their power.

To illustrate, Sean and his partner right from the start acted to marginalize their own importance, who went on to mention that their most successful strategy for community building was to foster their own competition by:

• Helping to start tango clubs at two local universities, and then leaving the operations on their own.
• Promoting everyone’s events in a weekly email newsletter.
• Inviting all of the competing teachers in Pittsburgh to take turns teaching the class before their weekly milonga. This apparently gave every student a chance to meet all of the other teachers.

Finally, some tough questions from Sean (which I whole-heartedly agree) for all the self-proclaimed community leaders:

• Are you building a self sustaining community (one that doesn’t need you)?
• Are you building a little tango fiefdom, totally dependent on you, so that you can play petty tango tyrant?
• Or are you just a tango merchant, building a captive customer base for your personal profiteering?

My comment: While this approach may not be the only or even the best and there will be skeptics, but from my personal involvement for the past two years in a Tango studio as a venue to foster commaraderie in our community at a time when there was no fixed venue devoted to Tango, I can definitely see the merits for potentially minimising conflicts that arise as a community grows. Naturally the process can be accelerated if so-called community leaders are more willing to give up their power.

Some food for thought.

In case you are still wondering about the title of this post, look carefully at the clip again, and you can see it’s actually three people dancing…

On the other hand, I am quite sure that all of us at some stage has experienced music from DJs that we find “disagreeable”, to put it mildly? Mind you, here I don’t mean just a tanda or two, but for the bulk of the night!

Firstly, I’d like to be a little bit “politically correct” by saying that, as a DJ, I do like to receive feedback. Such comments, naturally, can be both positive or negative as you can easily imagine. However, while fully retaining a DJ’s right to self-expression, I will consciously place more emphasis on remarks from the more seasoned dancers, i.e. the ones who observe the codes of milonga and have a better affinity with Golden Age music that I play predominantly. If this sounds a bit like self-selection, well, it is quite true. However, granted that there will always be differences in individual tastes, e.g. melodic versus more rhythmic pieces, etc., my aim is to try to always play solid, danceable tunes with the very occasional alternative tanda for variety. I fully subscribe to the following statement on Stephen Brown’s website:

“If the DJ plays music that has clear dance rhythms and inspires the dancers, they are more likely to move with energy and with a connection to the rhythm of the music.”

Anyway, back to the point of this entry. Last year, Isaac suffered through a night of music he simply could not stand, and I was there to witness it. Apart from some not-so-subtle hints with body language, nothing was relayed to the DJ of the night.

What can we do in this situation?

Can we simply stomp off into the sunset, never to revisit the same milonga? Well, in places like Buenos Aires, this is a very real option. However, in Singapore where the choices are more limited - like, one place on any night!? - is this still feasible? My personal feeling is that, for small communities like Singapore, it is much better for the DJ to listen and try to understand the frustrations of dancers, should they arise.

Any other suggestions?