Apathy
The last few months MIT brought Robin & Kyla and Adam & Ciko to teach in Boston. MIT also subsidized the workshops making them much cheaper then what it would have cost someplace else. Both sets of teachers are highly respected, they regularly teach at high profile festivals, they are interesting and fun.
Yet none of that seems able to wake up Boston from it's tango apathy. The attendance to the workshops was truly embarrassing in the last couple of months, making anyone think twice about bringing anyone else to teach in Boston. Providence had a significantly better attendance and the town and it's community is much smaller.
The same goes for practicas. Aside from the Sunday practica which still brings in a decent amount of people, the FREE Monday and Thursday MIT practicas are sparsely attended, to an extent that I'm starting to think about throwing in the towel on the Monday practica (which I co-host with Deb and Harish).
So, anyone who has ideas on how to wake up the Boston tango community, feel free to speak up. I'm running out of ideas...
8 comments:
Have you spoken with community members (those who attend other workshops/practicas and those who do not) to get a sense of why they aren't attending?
Our community has a free practica on a university campus, and after asking around I found out that a lot of people avoid all on-campus events because parking is annoying/sparse and the campus is confusing (hard to navigate).
I think identifying individuals' reasons for skipping out is the first step to figuring out how to get them active.
In Boston, tango doesn't feel as multi-dimensional as it should be. For example, where's the flirting at milongas?! There's even less at practicas. At tango, women/men don't want to dance with their husbands/wives, but with their lovers (more or less secret ones). Don't forget that tango is very much related to sin! It's not the organizers' fault... it's the fact that the community is young... with experience, this will change.
Well, personally I don't attend workshops or group classes. So no suggestions there but as far as practicas go, I think if you come up with a "hook" to draw in the dancers, they will show up. It could be anything from inviting someone to be a DJ for one tanda, to a raffle (every milonga in BsAs has a raffle, even if for very small things), to being a "real" host. May not seem like a big deal but it is. It really is. As a guest, it would mean a lot to me to be warmly greeted at the door as if I was missed and that my return was a joy and a pleasure to the host rather than showing up, paying the person at the door whose sole interest is in my money and then wandering into a big room alone, feeling shy, wondering where to sit. When a host treats you like you're somebody special, you feel special and you keep coming back to get that special treatment. Everybody wants to be acknowledged as if they really matter. Unfortunately, it's not a common practice in North American practicas/milongas where hosts really don't seem to take charge at all except for taking money at the door. A "real" host would walk around the room, and pay especially close attention to those who are sitting a lot and make an effort to introduce people to each other (like a host at a party). A host holds great importance in a milonga, when one gets personal undivided attention from the host, it increases their status in others' eyes.
I don't like going to practicas where I walk in unnoticed, and where the host can't be bothered to take charge of floorcraft, or to great people personally and ask them questions that indicate sincere interest. A successful practica and/or milonga requires a truly skilled and genuinely warm host.
Do not throw the towel, keep hosting your milonga. Throwing the towel can only contribute to the decline of the community.
Communities aren't built with outside teachers. Knowing how to host and to entice newcomers is a required quality too. Maybe it's not all Boston's fault but more of a attitude mismatch between players...
Communities aren't built by gods and minions. They're built by an open-hearted attitude towards everyone.
All great points.
MT, I'll try to talk with individuals to see what they have to say. I'll report back if I find out anything interesting.
Anon_1, not sure what I can do to add "dimensions" to the Boston community. I'd say there is plenty of flirting though ... ;)
Caroline, it's all true what you say, but nothing changed in the way practica & milongas are "hosted" and people used to come out more often. I think. As far as increasing the quality of the hosts, I think one of the problems is that most milongas in Boston are not seen as a business, so the hosts are organizing them to have more events to dance at. Which means they want to dance, not host ;)
Anon_2, we'll see.
Anon_3, not sure what I can do about that, even though I kind of agree with your point.
Thank you all for taking the time to reply.
I totally know how you feel about the challenge of being a host. We pretty much do the same thing: host events so that there is a place to dance. And thus we face the same challenge. Everyone wants to be greeted at the door and have a tanda-length conversation about their personal life. Everyone feels entitled to dance with the host in the event they happen to be sitting. There ends up being very little time for the host to dance.
It helps to have multiple people playing the host role, but that still doesn't solve all the problems.
That said... being a good host first does breed loyalty to an event. It makes people feel connected to an event. And when people feel like they are going to miss their friends or disappoint them by not showing up, it means they are more likely to go... even on a night when they don't feel like dancing much.
Honestly, I don't think there's such a thing as Boston tango community. Outside of you two, who attend everything, there is very little overlap. The folks who you see every week at MIT are rarely seen at Sunday practica. Those who go to Bow street milongas are rarely seen at either MIT or Sunday practica. Harvard Tango, which has the nicest people, is pretty much a thing into itself, only a handful of folks from there venture to other places. I'm not sure what to do to increase the attendance - I guess some folks are just fine with dancing once a week close to home.
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