/ARTS WEEKLY/DANCE-ARGENTINA: The Great Tango Party

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 4 2003 (IPS) - The Argentine capital is shimmering as the host of the Fifth Buenos Aires Tango Festival and the first Tango Dance World Championship, a competition that has drawn 260 couples from more than 20 countries.

Buenos Aires municipal authorities are estimating that the Festival and dance competition have drawn 300,000 visitors from within the country and abroad who represent revenues of around nine million dollars for local shops, restaurants and hotels – and the city’s dance halls.

The government of the Argentine capital hopes that tango-related activities will turn the city into an attractive travel destination, as Carnival and samba have done in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

Some 30 stages for 75 concerts and dances have been set up in indoor and outdoor spaces around Buenos Aires. And a hundred dance instructors will be available to the public, providing free classes to novices, or low-cost classes for the more experienced.

The festival will end with a massive nighttime open-air dance on the famed Corrientes Avenue, near the Obelisco, the emblematic monument of downtown Buenos Aires.

The winners of the dance competition will receive a trophy and a prize of around 1,000 dollars.

The Tango Festival has been held on four previous occasions, with workshops, seminars and exhibitions. But the massive attendance at the dance classes – 100,000 people signed up at the last festival, in 2001 – prompted the organisers to inaugurate the Tango Dance World Championship this year.

The tournament involves two dance categories: stage and salon. In the first, choreography is important, as well as style, dexterity and costumes. It is a more theatrical version of the dance, created with an auditorium audience in mind.

The salon version emerged in the so-called "milongas", locales where tango fans have gathered since the genre first emerged. There are much fewer acrobatics and pirouettes, and there is more room for improvisation, instead of the rehearsed choreography of the stage tango.

Some 260 couples have registered to compete in the two categories, most from Argentina, but not only from Buenos Aires, as many have come from the country’s other regions. The competition has also drawn competitors from Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Paraguay, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United States and others.

To encourage the participation of foreigners, the tournament organisers launched a publicity campaign through the Argentine embassies in countries in which there is a strong interest in tango, through dance studios around the world that teach tango, and also via the Internet.

Festival officials explained to IPS that the objective of the event is "to reaffirm Buenos Aires as the world tango headquarters," but at the same time, "to generate a high quality cultural tool to boost tourism from the rest of the country and from abroad."

A study conducted by the Buenos Aires government in 2002 verified that tango is the major tourist attraction of the capital. The Chamber of Commerce Institute also found that this cultural phenomenon is the symbol identifying Buenos Aires around the world.

The official report states that 70 percent of the foreigners visiting Buenos Aires engage in some tango-related activity – visits to historic sites, dance halls, shows, theme bars or restaurants, dance classes – or make some tango-related purchase – old photos, compact disks, crafts or souvenirs.

The city government’s Secretariat of Economic Development carried out its own research, finding that 38 percent of foreign visitors arrive with the intention of visiting a milonga and 24 percent want to attend a stage version of a tango show.

Nearly 20 percent aim to take a tango dance lesson, and many more say they are out to buy CDs and books, and even clothing and shoes appropriate to tango.

"Every year, the number of tourists arriving in Buenos Aires grows," says Eduardo Hecker, secretary of economic development for the capital.

"We estimate that for 2003 we will reach a record 2.5 million visitors," adds Hecker, who believes the festivals taking place this month not only consolidate the image of Buenos Aires as world tango capital, but also bring in great numbers of tourists, creating jobs for some 5,000 people.