@ a festival
There are so many things to know and to see and do at a festival. I am a veteran of many many many tango festivals at this point and while I don’t want to sound arrogant like a know it all, I have seen and done nearly every festival in the United States. They are all very similar to be certain. However, there are 3 types of festivals that you as a beginner dancer will likely see on the horizon. 1.) The Social Dance Festival. 2.) The Performance Festival. and finally 3.) The Under-The-Wire Festival.
First things first, going to a tango festival for the first time, and even the 100th can still be an exciting and thrilling experience. To see your friends, make new friends, see what’s possible, see where you fit, where you don’t fit…etc. All of those things, and none. While I’m not going to give you advice as to which festival to attend or not to attend, that would be disrespectful of those tango festivals out there, I can tell you that all have something to offer everyone. I have a strong personal preference for the Social Dance Festival and the The Under-The-Wire fests…but that’s me. Your tastes may differ.
3 flavors of Festivals ?
1.) The Social Dance Festival – This is best described by one of its progenitors. “A festival by social dancers, for social dancers”. The whole reason a festival like this exists is because it is a reaction to the 2nd flavor of festival, which I’ll get to in a second. This flavor of festival, is focused on dancing, social dancing. Not so much classes, but having more dancing than classes. The plus side about this flavor of festival is that you will get an amazing cross section of festival dancers that are really focused on their dance and want to dance with others that are at the upper level of their dance.
2.) The Performance Festival – This flavor of Festival is all about showing off. Its very name, is all about performance. The focus is on presentation and not so much social dance. IE: Less dancing, more presentation. To be certain there are classes and what not, and lots of them, but for the most part, its more of a show, hence the classification.
3.) The Under-The-Wire Festival – This is a word of mouth and generally an invite only festival. You have to be out there a while to get the invite to these festivals. They do exist. They are hush-hush, and very small gatherings of the best of the best. I have attended a few. There is a reason these festivals exist, and that’s because they service a very select group of dancers that don’t want to be inundated with less than desirable dance experiences but instead want the ability to commune with others that are at that same level of dance or above.
A Festival List ?
Where do you find tango festivals ? Boy you are full of good questions…. I used to maintain a festival list but it became too cumbersome to maintain that level of data and how frequently it changes. However KnowTango.com to the rescue. Probably the most up to date information. Aside from that…try this one: http://festivals.tango.info/US/. And here is still another from a friend of mine: http://www.tangoforlife.com/Tango/North_American_Tango_Festivals.html
So here are some helpful tips for going to a festival.
Your First Time:
a.) Expect the level of dance to be higher than you expected it to be. Much.
b.) If the class says, BEGINNERS, or INTERMEDIATES, or ADVANCED, don’t take classes that are above your ‘level’. Really. Everyone, myself included have ‘level jumped’, and its not a pleasant experience, so respect the level of classes. So how do you know what level you are ??? This document should help answer that question: What Level Am I ?. Its from Clay Nelson’s website used with his permission (read the doc). If you’re still unclear, ask your teacher before hand to help you identify which classes you should take.
c.) Rotation in classes, if you’re a married couple, or you’re going with your significant other, that’s a challenging area. If you haven’t figure it out by now, dancing with other people is one way to expand your abilities! I know its difficult and it will push your relationship buttons, but trust in the long run, you and your romantic other will be much better off as dancers! So, ROTATE. At the same time, you don’t need to rotate. So here’s my rule of thumb, I go to a class with a friend and find another couple that we can swap on and off with. Especially for the couples only advanced classes.
Costs ?
What’s it going to cost you ? There are hidden costs to going to a festival that you probably don’t see on the registration page for a tango festival. And those hidden costs are mostly in travel, lodging, and food.
Lodging. Most Tango Festivals happen in ‘hotels’, or grand ballrooms of hotels. However, a good number of them do not. For those that do, you’re going to think that its easier to stay in the hotel that the festival is in. That would be fine if you’ve got wads and wads of cash to throw at the situation. And its nice when you do, however, my suggestion is either a HOSTEL [or this site] (yes a hostel) down the road a piece from the event, which is typically about 15 to 30 dollars a night vs. 100 to 150 a night. OR (there is an OR here) find a friend in the city that you’re going to. Really. Cheapest option there is. The caveat to this is that said friend will probably want you to spend time with them and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s going to cut into your festival time. You do the math. There is one other option if you really want to travel on the cheap, and that’s to join couchsurfing.com, its free. And all of the couches on that site are verified and validated. There’s no sketchy behavior in my experience. They have a good reputation, really. You’re not going to pay anything for surfing on someone else couch, but you are expected to return the favor at some point along the curve, passing the love around as it were. Besides, you’ll meet some really cool people along the way. I have.
Food. find a WholeFoods and bring your own. Really. You’ll save a lot more money that way by bringing your own food, and you’ll get exactly what you want.
Lastly is the travel part, which breaks down to Local Transit and Air/Train Travel to the festival.
Local Transit – Public Transport is not always the best option. Really. And that’s primarily because it can take forever to get from point a to point b, and point b may not be accessible via public transit and there’s a lot of walking involved. My suggestion is rent a car. If you’re in a large city like Montreal, New York, San Francisco, or Boston, then Public Transport is an option because they have great transit systems, especially NYC! You can literally get anywhere you want to go that way. I have. However, in the smaller national cities or where cities are really into the whole urban sprawl thing – rent a car and get the insurance option with your car. You’ll thank me later!
Air Travel/Train Travel – This one is a no brainer but it needs to be spelled out. If you’re within the region of a festival, anything less than 1 to 300 miles, take the train. Its much cheaper than air travel. Really. It’ll take a little longer but its a nice ride and you get to see the country side. I’ve done this a few times and I’ve seen parts of the country I never would have seen had I just flown over it all. The key to train travel just as in air travel is register weeks ahead of time for your passage. You’ll get a really great rate! Now for the Air Travel parts: Go here, SIDESTEP.COM, and then say “THANK YOU MILES!”. Really. Ok that solved, what about those folks that wait until the very last minute, and haven’t made their air travel reservations yet (shame on you!), here’s the solution, and its a bit dicey at first and there is some trust involved. Go out to Craigslist.com and change the search area to the SF Bay Area. Now enter in the search field: TRAVEL VOUCHERS. What you’ll get back is a list of southwest or jet blue one way travel vouchers as long as my arm for days on end. Usually these vouchers run about $150.00 a pop. Transit from any city to any city. Expect to pay that and a little more for the change fee to sell you the voucher. So that same ticket if you go out to Southwest’s page, will cost you 350 or more ONE WAY, now the round trip will cost you that and a little more. Tadah! Cheap, right ? There’s the downside to this option, which is that you’re trusting someone else to give you the vouchers after you’ve ponied up the cash. That’s the catch right there. That’s as cheap as it gets folks for last minute travel.
Classes, Festivals, and The Cool, ‘Fancy’, New Move!
This is mostly for leaders, but applies to followers as well. Just because you have learned a cool new move at a festival class and you feel like you’ve ‘mastered’ it, trust me when I say that you haven’t. The general rule of thumb I tell my students is that the only time you pull out that cool ‘new’ fancy move you just learned is months and months and months from now, after you have practiced and practiced and practiced that thing to death, and when you’re done doing that, practice some more. Then some night when its very late, near the end of the milonga and you’re dancing with a very familiar partner that you’ve danced with a hundred times before, you perform the cool fancy ‘new’ move, ONCE and ONLY ONCE and then let it go. That’s the only time you perform the cool ‘new’ fancy move. There’s a reason for this, and its rather complicated but the gist of it is that it takes months, if not years in some cases to properly understand and apply the necessary techniques involved with some moves in tango. And unless you’re getting proper instruction on exactly how to apply said cool new fancy move, don’t take it out on a social dance floor. Period. No one and I mean absolutely no one likes to be on the dance floor behind a lead that’s throwing all kinds of crazy vocabulary, and endangering himself, his follower, and the lines, lanes, and progression of dance. So, please, for the love of pete, do us all a favor and keep the fancy moves to yourself!
Lethal Weapons, Navigation, and Floorcraft ?
Usually at Festivals after about a day or so, especially the Social Dance Festivals, the Line, Lane, and Progression of dance becomes REALLY obvious. Follow it religiously! There’s a reason for that, and that’s because at a festival there are literally hundreds of people, at some of the larger US festivals (Portland, Denver, NY) you have 800 to 900 ppl on a social dance floor! Read that again… So you really do have to be careful about navigation and floorcraft! If you don’t know what floorcraft is….Tom Stermitz (Denver Tango Festival) wrote a very wonderful treatise on the subject a while back and it is reprinted here.
In short, floorcraft is all about navigation, vocabulary choices, keeping things contained, and so on. Because the last thing you want to do at a festival is boleo someone! Trust me, I’ve done it in the line of dance, and it was NOT pretty, fortunately there was no blood, but let’s just say that after that a certain nationally known DJ avoided me on a social dance floor for a very long time after that! I damned near killed someone. Ladies those heels are LETHAL WEAPONS, and my only advice is even if you trust your lead implicitly, keep the heels on the ground, unless you have lots of space, and you are absolutely certain that you’re not going to kill someone, or wipe out a table, or both. I remember one rather interesting incident in Portland a few years back that literally wiped out 3 tables, and 6 ppl, with a single boleo. It was all rather scary for a few moments until we all realized who had done it, and how it was done, and true to form the lead who had lead the boleo at least had the decency to lead the falling tables in time to the music. It was all rather funny after that…
Getting Dances ?
With so many people on a social dance floor, how do you get dances ???? Good question, I’m so glad you asked! There’s a wonderfully long read for you, here. I’ll simply say this, while I don’t agree with all of it, there’s enough in there to get you started! And still another on the topic of Cabeceo.
Should you take Private Lessons ?
Yes. Next question!
Seriously this is probably the only time that you’re going to get to see X famous teacher…so take advantage of it. Really. You are doing yourself a favor. Your local teacher may be the most amazing teacher that you’ve ever seen, or heard of, and they know their sh*t cold, in their sleep and yours. However, having a well rounded tango education is a good idea. And that means seeking outside tango instruction. You’re not being disrespectful to your tango sensei, really you’re not. You’re getting a different perspective and language on the same material more than likely.
Ask for a private lesson AHEAD of TIME. Contact said amazing teacher via email (links are usually provided on the festival website) and ask if you can have a private lesson, and then show up on time, pay in cash, and be ready to work. Don’t just show up and hope that they’re going to magically fix you. Its just not going to happen. Instead, show up with a work plan of questions that you’d like answered and at the very least 1 or 2 issues that are really troubling you. While not all teachers work the same way, a good number of them will surprisingly take you right back to your foundation before doing anything else, so don’t be surprised by this if it happens. And try not to feel like they’re fleecing you, because in my experience, they are doing you a favor. They are telling you in no uncertain terms that in order to answer a greater number of your questions, they’re really telling you that your foundation needs work. Don’t be surprised or shocked by this. Really. The more that you work on your foundation the easier that other stuff becomes.
Courtesy!
As always, remember what you’re mother said to you about dealing with other people and strangers, treat them with the utmost kindness! Remember to say “PLEASE ?” and “THANK YOU”, and above all else, respect the meaning of the word “NO”!
Personal Notes
1.) Smile! A smile goes a long way.
2.) Cleanliness is next to your dancing partner. Wash your hands, religiously! I usually like to bring alcohol wash with me to a milonga. I don’t need to say this but I guess I do as it keeps happening: Shower, change, and keep the perfumed soaps to an absolute minimum. Put it this way, what happens if you get a dancer in your embrace for 9 minutes (the length of a tanda) and the way that they smell is a major turn off, or worse they’re all wet, they stink, and STANK, and you’re stuck there for 9 minutes or longer ? Be kind to other dancers…ixnay on the odiferousness.
3.) Dress to Impress, or dress for the part. Which is to say that while you can wear whatever you want, first impressions in a lot of people’s minds matter. Then again, what really matters is your dancing ability. One of my first co-teachers used to say that you are only as good as you are, and no amount of lessons in a single day is going to change that at all. He was right. At the same time, you can still dress it up. It may not change your dancing ability but you’ll at the very least feel the part by looking good. It sometimes, really it does, helps to validate your self-confidence if you put on a nice suit jacket or a pretty dress, and look like you’re going out to dance. Especially at a festival. This is probably one of the only times in your life where you will actually enjoy getting all gussied up. So here’s a helpful hint from a leader stand point.
a.) Leaders, get a suit jacket that you can move in. A sports jacket. Really. It hides lots of sins.
b.) Followers, a dress, or a skirt. Ok. However, make certain that the dress isn’t too frilly. You want the least amount of fabric that interferes with dancing. It does NOT have to be form fitting, or tight. But it should not impair bodily movement, his or yours.
c.) Leaders, aftershave…not.
d.) Followers, perfume…not.
e.) Leaders, Ties, are optional.
f.) Follower, Jewelry, very minimal. If it hangs, or protrudes…not.
4.) Above all else that I’ve said and written here, these festivals are about fun. So go and have fun.
Lastly
I’m not going to sugar coat this…that’s never been my style, there are going to be trying times at a festival, there are going to be glorious moments, there are going to be stumblings, grumblings, scandal, wonder, amazement, boredom, patience, wisdom, questions, answers, wants, needs, desires, and everything in between and beyond.
You will stumble, you will make a fool out of yourself, and you will look amazing (to someone), all at the same time. You will laugh, you will make friends, lose friends, make new friends, forge relationships that will last a long time, or a few short minutes; you will cry, you will weep, you will wonder why on earth you are there; you will sit, you will stand, you will lean; you will engage in small talk, you will chuckle, you will talk about nothing and everything; you will think that its high school all over again, you will swim with the other fishes, and you will be pushed to your absolute breaking point (especially if you are fanatical about this dance), and you will throw in the towel (several times).
Oh and lastly, you will dance, or not!
My advice to you is this, re-f*cking-lax. Its not the end of the world. Its just the beginning or end of your tango life as you know it. It gets easier as time goes by. This happens a lot with the deeply fanatical.
However, through it all you must remain calm, and understand that this is all a learning process, and eventually you will find your way. Not to worry, breathe, chill, take a breath, and smile, because there’s always one more tanda just around the corner…really.