How competing changed my tango forever | Season 3, Episode 15

[@ChristosKouroupetroglou]

Hi Yelisaveta. I think what makes the difference (and a key concept that you may be downplayed) is the mindset behind participating in a competition. I mean... If you approach competitions like you do, which, as I understand, is mostly as an opportunity to learn and grow then you can only benefit from them. But your only goal is the win and first place and so on then instead of growing your dance and transfer that to the social dancefloor you risk creating more problems for you like anxiety, stress and whatever else comes with it. So what I would like to know is if you follow some kind of special practice regime before the competition or you just do what you normally do? Also interesting... I had a discussion on my group the other day about how people react when they understand that they are being watched when they dance socially. There is a big variety of views there!

[@imsotango]

Hi! Well, first of all, who am I to judge another person's mindset and their motives for competing. My motives are not any better than someone who really wants to win first place. Maybe that's the learning they need, maybe they are meant to be doing it because it's their life purpose and it actually brings them a lot of fulfillment. I really don't think there is any "right" mindset and ultimately what's most important is that they are dancing. So if their dance takes on the form of competing whereas mine stays more social, as long as we are both happy with where we are, I don't think there is anything to fix. As for my regime, I don't really have anything specific I am doing for the actual competition like drilling or something like that. But knowing that I will be competing it does influence my focus. I have been studying new movements and working to incorporate them into my dance musically, making more videos of myself, watching performances on youtube, visualizing and imagining dancing to certain songs... that kind of thing.

[@ohyeah971]

The Tango world would be a better place, at least in the United States, if social dancers started to train and pay more attention to technique like the competition dancers, and the competition dancers stop treating social events like competitions.

[@imsotango]

wow so well said haha thank you!

[@georgesoong4149]

Personally, I think performance adds a dimension of expression which requires more capable body and expanded dynamics of expression to match very dynamic music. If the connection is right, there would be no need to practice, it just comes out naturally. Recently I had considered participating in a local jack & jill competition just to see whom I would meet outside the normal Milonga participants. Then I discovered most attending were people whom show up at milongas, so I started to hesitate. Then in the competitors chat group, I asked what kind of music criteria do they use to choose music, for example, variation of speed, variation of dynamics, irregular beats and rhythms, parts where dancers can take turns in communication, etc. The response I got from the organizer was “the competition is held to encourage participants to practice, not to challenge the capability of dancers.” So I decided to back out since it would not differ from going to a milonga. I am not sure how other competitions are held, but my perspective of competition is that music should be chosen to distinguish the capability of dancers, and scored specifically to the intention of music chosen. I wonder how other competitions are organized.

[@imsotango]

that's a really great question, I was wondering the same thing actually, about how the judges choose the music. When I was dancing in the competition last time, it seemed that they were testing how we adapt to the 3 different styles of tango music (Guardia Vieja, Milonguero, Salon) to see how we adapt our style and manage to connect to a new partner. That was my impression but I am curious to find out more about that. Thanks for sharing!

[@georgesoong4149]

@ While that is a good start in music categories, having attended various musicality classes, I feel the music choice and scoring categories need to go into more detail, also putting more challenge on the judges as well. I just listed some aspects that inspired me in some classes, but it could also expand to emotional presentation and artistic presentation. Some masters have criticized that quite often judges are not as ideal for the task, it seems to make sense to consider different scoring methods be implemented in an organized manner.

[@florianbauch3581]

Nice Video. I competed in RocknRoll dancing back in the 80s and enjoyed it. some junges were competent, others less. Many were primarily checking whether one complied with the rulebook. Also the predominantly male judges had their favorites, which may play less of a role for Jack and Jill.At some kind it got boring and the travelling involved was Not worth it.The exitement,Adrenalin was a positive factor though.Have fun and looking forward hearing more from you.

[@imsotango]

ah, yes, the judges, a very tricky part of the competition haha I do hear criticism around the fact that judges play favorites a lot and sometimes tend to judge the leaders more than the followers. I don't think I have ever heard of RocknRoll dance competitions. Are they still going on?