This project brings together two of my passions: tango, and filmmaking! It’s a micro documentary (16 minutes long) in which a dozen dancers share their love of tango, and the ways in which it has enriched their lives.

The film was a long time in the planning – it was something I first had in mind prior to the pandemic – and has a hidden agenda …

I’ve written more than once about what I see as the single biggest problem in tango: the role imbalance. This is an obvious problem for followers, as they’ve previously explained:

The first issue can arise even before you get to the milonga: feeling like the decision of whether or not to go is a gamble, of both time and money – especially in the current rather difficult economy.

If you do go, the next obvious problem is, of course, sitting around when you’d rather be dancing.

Too much sitting can have both physical and emotional impacts on the tandas you do get to dance. Feeling frustrated or fed up means you might not be in the best state of mind to really enjoy the dance, and you may also feel physically stiff.

Feeling unwanted or rejected can also dent a dancer’s confidence, leading to a downward spiral of feeling less able/willing to actively mirada leaders.

But also one for leaders:

First, because as much as it’s wonderful to be able to dance non-stop if you want, it’s less wonderful to feel under pressure to do so because you’d feel guilty letting followers (and especially follower friends) sit around waiting. My ideal is to dance when the music moves me, and socialise when it doesn’t – but I’m not going to sit out lots of tandas if I can see there are many followers wanting to dance.

Second, because tango is supposed to be a joyous activity, but it obviously isn’t if a significant number of followers aren’t having a great time (and you can definitely sense that).

Part of the solution, of course, is more women leaders. I’m pleased to see that this does seem to be a rapidly-growing trend, and it’s now the norm to see multiple women leading at just about every milonga – and even more so at festivals.

But a second element is encouraging more men into tango. So a significant part of my motivation for the documentary is play my part in that. Although the film itself is entirely gender neutral, and I want to encourage both men and women into tango, a key goal is to get additional exposure to predominantly male audiences.

If you’d like to share it, this is the direct link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R5tNlNP9Bw

Speaking of sharing, just a few hours after it went live, a friend in Hawaii was about to share it in her local tango group, and discovered that the DJ from the last milonga there had already done so! I think we can call that viral reach …

I hope you enjoy it, and who knows, maybe your non-tango friends may get some small glimpse into why you dance!