Yet Another Tango Survey

They just keep on coming!

There must be something about tango that makes people desperate to understand the phenomenon--the why and wherefores of its aficionados. The tango mystique is huge in terms of blogs, books, articles, internet mailing lists, and yes, surveys. (Is it the same with ballet, flamenco, ballroom? Somehow I don't think so.)

This latest survey request, Correlation between cultural identity and tango, was posted to the Tango-L by "tangoresearch@gmail.com." I took the survey in about 7 minutes, but don't know who it's for or what will be done with the results.

The survey's goal is to relate one's culture to one's approach to tango. I could say plenty about that!

The survey is in three languages: English, Spanish, and Japanese.

You can take it anonymously or give your email address to receive the compiled results.

Someone should create a survey about the people who create tango surveys!

Timing is Everything!

More on The Circle of Tango:

Arlene asks on her blog, instead of why do we quit, why do we love tango? What are the reasons we hang in there when the going gets rough?

I'd just like to say that how one navigates their own personal Circle of Tango has a heck of a lot to do with timing. Checking the stats of Clay's survey, it appears that of those who responded, the majority who quit dancing tango were "older" women, over 45. And finding someone to dance with was their major problem.

It's true that the timing of partner dancing (including finding a dancing partner) must be right. For example, no matter how well someone does a "step," if it's not with the music, it's bad. My idea of hell is to dance with someone who hasn't a clue that he is way outside of the music and is off the beat. Torture for me: do I follow his bad rhythm or do I do what comes naturally and dance on the beat? Good rhythm and timing is #1 for me.

Like many of us in tango, I've been a dancer all of my life: beginning ballet at age 3, continuing on to be a Dance Major at UCLA, directing my own cabaret dance company The Perfumes of Araby, soloist in a large professional international folk dance company--Anthony Shay's AVAZ, teacher of line dancing, student and performer of flamenco in Mexico and Argentina, dance critic in Los Angeles for the Times, the Dance Librarian for Los Angeles Public Library, student and dancer of Argentine tango since 1996, teaching tango in Cuba, and dancing tango in the milongas of Buenos Aires since 1997. So indeed, when I started dancing tango, I too was an "older woman over 45."

In 2005 I met Ruben Aybar and we began teaching together the milonguero style of social tango that is danced in the milongas here.

I think if Ruben and I had met before then--before I was getting bored with all of my various partners in the milongas and how they tended to dance the same way every time with me (Jorge for the Tanturi tanda, Juan for the vals, Juan Carlos for the milonga, Hector for Pugliese, etc.). Although I continued to attend the several milongas where I was a regular, I began to feel that it was all so predictable.

Before this moment, I used to think--and say--that I didn't want to dance with only one person, even if it was Gavito. I wanted a variety of partners to keep me interested and on my toes.

Well, after all of those tango years, it was an epiphany when I first saw Ruben dance at Club Espanol. I could see that he danced like I felt; that he expressed the music in a way that I wanted to. So after two months of staring at him in an attempt at cabeceo, finally we danced for the first time together at Los Consagrados, in March 2005.

Ruben is always inventive, always has a surprise for me, is never boring--and is ALWAYS with the music and on time. Sometimes he dances to the bandoneon, other times to the violin, other times to the piano or the singer. Ruben has a lot of wonderful qualities, but first is his natural sense of rhythm and love of the music. He never dances the same tango/vals/milonga twice. When we do an exhibition, we never practice, because he wants to be spontaneous and dance as he feels to the music at that time.

So because we met when I had almost completed my own personal Circle of Tango, I surprised myself by only wanting to dance with him. For quite a long time I kept my independence by going to the milongas I faithfully attended every week (and he never did)--Canning, Gricel, I don't remember where all. But then I started going later and leaving earlier, with my mind's eye on the entrance, hoping against hope Ruben would walk through the door, even though I knew better. (He used to tease me that he would disguise himself with a fake mustache and sit in the back to keep an eye on me.)

We would meet at Lo de Celia, Club Espanol, and Los Consagrados, where, in order again to keep my independence, we sat separately, across the dance floor.
When we did share a table for special occasions, it was so much fun, so much laughter, that when I was back on my own on the women's side, I was missing him and the great comaraderie.

Finally we decided to sit together, let the codigos go hang. Of course, he as a milonguero, can dance with anyone he cares to. I am perceived as "his property," and out of respect for Ruben, the other milongueros don't invite me to dance.

But you know, that's ok. I occasionally dance with foreign men, and enjoy myself. But I have the most fun dancing with Ruben.

The question remains: if Ruben and I hadn't found each other at just the right moment, when the timing was perfect, when the planets and stars were aligned and my Circle of Tango was just about completed, would I have quit too? Thank goodness this is a rhetorical question.

Unless we have students or clients for milonga accompaniment, Ruben and I go to dance just once a week, at Los Consagrados. We love the salon, the lovely wood floor, the folks who go there without attitude, and always our table of wonderful friends.

I'm where I want to be--in reality, dancing a lot less in milongas than I used to. No more dancing every night, all night. But wherever I am on that big tango roulette wheel, it's a good place to be.

The Circle of Tango

The tango blogging "theme of the week" has been Why people quit dancing tango, a notion noodling in my head for quite some time.

It was all started by Clay's Survey.
Elizabeth wrapped it up perfectly for me.
Check out Modern Tanguera's post and the interesting comments.
And cranky Tango Pilgrim says, Who cares?


The thing is, if you've quit tango, you're probably not keeping up with tango blogs and taking surveys--you've moved on to other things. So how accurate can such a survey be?

These posts and the survey seem to prove that folks quit out of feelings of inadequacy, rejection, hopelessness, frustration.

But there are other reasons apart from personality and popularity issues why someone quits tango. There is, just like in Life, a Circle of Tango. We start on the bottom and move around the wheel.

Most tango bloggers start blogging to chronicle their first baby steps on their tango journeys; it's such a new and fascinating experience, all of it--the trying to learn, the emotions, the man-woman thing, and we struggle to express it. Tango as we all know is unlike any other social dance. Tango opens up our hearts, which means we can travel the whole spectrum of feelings, from exhilaration to depression. Tango means taking risks.

So we write about it, and read the experiences of others, and try to understand the whole phenomenon, this new world. Then bloggers often get bored with trying to explain tango, or feel too exposed with their raw emotions out there in cyberspace, and the blogs languish. Sometimes blogs are made private, and sometimes they morph into photography, writing, belly dancing, art, family, or travel.

The Circle of Tango begins with dabbling in dance lessons; maybe we saw a movie or a stage show, maybe we're going to Buenos Aires on business, a friend invites us to a milonga. If we only dabble, we eventually move on. Once we realize that tango is not "vertical sex," that just because it's sensuous doesn't mean people fall into bed with us, that it's no more a pick-up activity than any other place where men and women meet, tango can seem like too much work.







If we stick around long enough to have a Tango Epiphany, then we can become addicted: chasing around for our next Tangasm.

Then those of us who can manage it try to be Tango Bums--traveling to dance, whether it's to a local festival, milongas a couple of hours away, to Europe, or to Buenos Aires. We'll do anything to satisfy our cravings for a tango fix.

Meanwhile we're taking classes and practicing and studying and figuring out how to dance who we are.

If we hang in there long enough, and bring enough to it, after several years we're finally pretty good. Other people like to dance with us (it's no longer based on our age, looks, or height but on how well we dance and who are friends are) and we manage very well dancing with others. We enjoy this point on the wheel for quite a while, proud of the skills that we've worked so hard to attain.

And then what?
What happens when we're as good as we're going to get, and danced with everybody we want to--over and over again?

If we're young, talented, limber and skinny, we take ballet classes and try for a stage career. This is especially true for Argentinians, as it's a way to get out.

And if it's too late for that, and our own personal Circle of Tango is complete, then we move on to DJing and/or teaching.

If none of these options is appealing, that's when we quit. Tango has a natural life span like most other things. For me, tango is a life-long pursuit; but even if I gave it up, I still would have the benefits, pleasure, experiences, self-knowledge that tango brought me. And traveling the circle would have been worth it.

Name Your Favorites!

Sick of complaining about bad music? Crowded (or empty) milongas? Endless debates on the best teachers and/or styles?

Now you can speak up about your favorite cosas tangueras.



La Tanguera at Del Tango, Amor, y Otros Demonios is collecting ideas from all of us to compile into a report on Favorites: milonga, teacher, tango, etc. You must respond in a blog comment, and you have until April 1st.

She'll publish the results on her blog. If enough tango people contribute, this will be better than endless arguments on Tango-L or other internet mailing lists that always end up nowhere.

Go on, get heard!

Which Tango Show?

This is a constant question, and the truth is, I don't have a good answer. Please take the survey (at right) if you've seen a show that you liked.

Cafe de los Angelitos above

Certainly I haven't been to every show in town, nor do I want to. In my opinion, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. They all have in common a live orchestra, a singer or two, and pairs of tango dancers; the music is usually Piazzola, and there is a comedy milonga number, with "historical" costumes; there usually is a scene in a brothel with a knife fight that ends (or begins) with men dancing together.

I admit to being fond of Tango Argentino because it's the first Argentine tango I ever saw--1988 at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. And I'm partial to Forever Tango because Gavito was in it. I really enjoyed Tanguera because it was much more than a "tango show," and in fact, went twice.




Here are some websites that list several shows with links. It's a tough to get a price on the web, though, but most of the big dinner shows are around $100 usd/person.

Gala Tango above
This site has photos and a listing of more shows.










Rojo Tango

Tango & Relationships Survey

Clay Nelson, of Portland, Oregon, has completed his Tango & Relationships Survey, and sent out the following letter:

Tango Dancers,

A few months ago, I wrote and asked for your suggestions of questions to be included in a survey on the topic of tango and relationships. Over forty of you wrote back with your ideas. As much as possible I've tried to include your thoughts and have ended up with a 34-question survey that is now complete. So...if you're ready and willing, jump in and take this survey.

I took it this morning, and it's fun to compare one's answers to the statistics. However, much of it doesn't fit Buenos Aires. There are opportunities however to write in your opinions if there's no check box for your own experience.

Another Tango Survey, This Time About Music

For all the survey takers out there (and I know you are Legion), here's the latest:
Sorin has compiled a detailed survey on his blog about your opinions of dancing to various kinds of music.
Click to input your point of view here.

Tango Surveys

As long as I've been dancing tango (nine years), people have been taking tango polls and surveys. Why, in case you haven't noticed, there's even one here on my Blog!

But Clay from Portland, Oregon, has organized the grandaddy of them all in his elaborate Survey on Beginning Tango Instruction. Some of the terminology might not be familiar to everybody (cross walk system, molinete, etc.), but there's lots of space to write in your opinion and you can read the results immediately of more than 400 fellow pollsters.

Granted, these kinds of things tend to appeal to the nerd in all of us, but it can be a very useful tool for teachers who want to improve their teaching methods, and for beginning students to know what is valuable to look for in their first classes.

Clay then writes an occasional post about the results on his Blog.

One thing that really shocked me was the low emphasis placed on Musicality by many dancers!!

He plans to conduct other tango surveys in the future, so if you're interested in how Tango America views learning this complicated, inexplicable, mystical and mysterious dance, stay tuned.