Bad dancing is not a style
I happened upon an old post from one of my favourite bloggers Debbi “It’s another style..stupid”. After re-reading the post, I just could not shake off a sense of dejavu; it is amazing how what Debbie observed is applicable even two years later. 😉
Here’s a “classic” quote from this particular post:
“What is it about tango that people make so many excuses for it? When badly danced, they say it is another style.”
As a postscript, just to add a twist to the story two years on, nowadays a few trendy ways of dancing seems to be in vogue around the world, each proclaiming to be the “authentic” style from Buenos Aires.
A simple tale
This is a true story.
A few years ago, a small dance studio began a fortnightly milonga. Months later, once the attendance started to stabilize, a larger studio which opened later promptly decided to hold a competing weekly milonga on the same night – despite already running a weekly milonga on the following night.
Could the organisers of this fledgeling milonga have kicked up a big fuss under the circumstances? Certainly it was an option. However, seeing that both studios were supposed to be serving the same smallish tango community, the owners of the first milonga decided that it was unhealthy to create divisiveness in the community, so instead doubled their efforts to create a friendly and conducive environment with excellent danceable music. The rest, as they say, is history. Dancers voted with their feet and the new milonga remained largely empty on the nights when the “small” milonga was running, which was also unofficially known as the milonga for experienced dancers… 🙂
Moral of the story? People are intelligent and sensitive enough to see when you care about them and not trying to make a quick buck. It is not by coercion (if it is even possible?) or otherwise, but by delivering good services and, of course, a demonstrative passion for tango that you earn the respect of the community.
Andrea Missé
2012, like all new years, is supposed to start with a bang. Unfortunately the tango world has lost yet another of its stars – and a great personal teacher – Andrea Missé. Having hosted a couple of her previous tours to Singapore with Javier Rodriguez, no words can describe how saddened I am by this tragic news. Thank you for your guidance and generosity. RIP.
My prayers go out to her family, some of whom I understand still remains in intensive care at this moment.
Taking stock
As the end of 2011 draws near, time to take stock yet again of tango happenings here in Singapore.
In 2011, there have been at least four major events hosting internationally well-known Argentinian maestros every 2-3 months or so, and other visiting teachers in-between. While leading to many tired legs and bodies, they sure generated quite a bit of excitement in the local tango community. At the same time, the number of weekly milongas stands as of now at 6 – which I have to admit is surprisingly high – with steady attendance for all milongas except 1. Seemingly there are also more dancers but I suspect at least half of this is due to a) influx of expats, 2) Singaporeans returning from overseas stays, 3) more people travelling to festivals outside of Singapore, rather than locally trained dancers. Fortunately the tango scene remains relatively “intimate” (and not too large) in that I am still able to name each person at the milongas I frequent.
After having been involved in organising tango activities (more heavily and larger scale in the last 5) in Singapore for the past 9 years, well it is perhaps time to look out for new “organisational” talents to pass the baton too?!