Durango Tango Amorio 2013: A Success!!!!

               Our event was a total success! I was surprised at how many people were necessary to host a tango workshop weekend featuring a world renowned master teacher from Buenos Aires and a milonga employing a live tango orchestra. The following post is a summary of the preparations that took place and my thoughts about this endeavor which I offer in the hope that others can use this information for their own tango affair.

               The first thing we needed to do was to decide to host the event. After nearly a year of practicas and twelve well-attended workshops I felt that we had all the ingredients necessary to reach for something more. I also had a strong desire to hear the Qtango orchestra play again and had a warm thought when I imagined them performing at a venue in my beloved city of Durango. So the decision was made based partly on logic and partly on desire.

               Now we needed to contact Qtango and a top-level instructor, as well as get both to agree on a date. Approaching the Argentine-born master teacher from Buenos Aires, Daniela Arcuri, was a no-brainer for me. I had taken several of her workshops in the past and, if you read my blogposts, you will know I look to her for direction whenever I feel I am ready to make improvements in my dance. Both artists readily accepted our invitation and agreed on a date.

               With commitments from the artists we began to hammer out what each would accept as compensation. Qtango required a retainer fee to be paid in advance as well as accommodations to be provided for the night of their performance. Daniela requested a plane ticket and lodging from Friday to Monday.

               This is the point where someone has to commit money, which I did. Unfortunately my girls needed some financial assistance the initial week of the commitment which caused me a lot of stress and I found it overwhelming. To be honest, I would have backed out if my significant other wasn’t there to offer encouragement as well as some of her own hard-earned dineros.

               I’m a nervous person. Recently my daughters were overseas, mostly in East Africa, and I found myself online for four months constantly looking for signs of life and their safety. They are back in the United States now but I found it difficult to withdraw from cyberspace completely. This venture gave me a reason to stay in the digital realm and now I must say it: I AM A CYBERHOLIC.

               There I said it and the workshop is over, now I can start walking down the road to recovery.

               Now that the subject of my digital-abuse is out of the way where were we? Oh yeah, we were wondering where we would dance and sing; good, let's continue.

               Our next task was to find a place to hold the workshop and then put together a flyer. My girlfriend’s friend owns a dance studio and she offered to let us use her space. I was reluctant until I saw the space and was sold as soon as I opened the door!

               Daniela, Qtango, my girlfriend and I worked on the flyer. This took almost two weeks. It is a very important process because it determines what others are told is being offered. I probably wasted the most money getting flyers printed but I also gained the most experience and I will definitely save a lot of money, time and effort the next time we produce an event. For those of you undertaking the task at this time, I suggest you forgo using Microsoft Paint to assemble your flyer as it greatly decreases pixel concentration which shows up only when a document is printed.

               As we began to distribute flyers, online and in the real world, we realized how much we needed the help of others. For a two week period we were constantly reminded how important it is to have a community from which to draw support and not just for marketing efforts but also for preparation and execution of the event. We needed chairs, registration sheets, flowers, food, rides to studio, a prize for the drawing, a sign, etc., etc., etc.

               The last two weeks I was extremely busy at work and my girlfriend caught the flu. Fortunately we had prepared well and the final weeks saw the progression of our efforts carried out independently by the dedicated members of the Durango Tango Amorio planning committee.

               Friday was very stressful as this was the night of our free lesson at Four Leaves Winery and Daniela was stuck at the airport. She spent the whole day, starting at 6 a.m., at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport waiting for space on a flight to Denver. It wasn’t until I received a text from her that she was on her way and would be touching down at Durango/La Plata Airport at 8:50 p.m., that I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

               At the winery I put my faith in tango music, gave a brief description of how tango should be danced and hit ‘play’ on my laptop's media player. I guess I was never really alone in my endeavors as long as I let tango guide me. I offered everyone their money back for the free lesson and trusted our individual members to assist newbies in moving to the tango music.

               They done me proud! I think most of our group advanced to another level that night. No longer were they beginner students of the dance, they became experienced guides to aspiring tango neophytes moving about a room filled with wine in fragile glasses. Like bulls in a china shop, glasses were broken and wine was spilled....yet it was a total success!

               The owner was so happy she gave us an extra hour to practice which was just enough time for Daniela, whose flight was delayed another forty minutes, to arrive and give a brief performance with the author of this post, the hillbilly tanguero from Pennsylvania, Kayak Hombre.

               The rest of the weekend was also a complete success. At no point in this process did I ever doubt that the artists selected would perform to the utmost satisfaction of everyone in attendance. It was a lot of work but well worth it. Many people sought me out to express their sincere gratitude for bringing Daniela Arcuri and Qtango to Durango.

               This made me feel very good. Even today, four days later, I experience elation when I recount their remarks. If I had to summarize how I feel after this weekend’s events I would have to say I feel complete. I feel like I am one of the early settlers of the West who sends back East for things that will make his life more bearable out here in the wilderness. Now I have all I need.

               I hope this post is of use to anyone attempting a similar endeavor. If a person is willing to listen to advice that I would give in retrospect I would offer this: don’t wait until you’re ready, begin when you have a community of people who are interested in the dance of tango and trust that tango will help you do the rest.

peace, love, tango

kayak hombre

p.s. I'd like to thank, once again, Judith Harrison for hosting Daniela for the length of her stay as well as for opening her home to other dancers who took their private lessons with Daniela in Judith's living room.

(For a more in-depth looking into the mind of the Kayak Hombre and his thoughts on tango, buy his book: River Tango, now available on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/River-Tango-perri-iezzoni/dp/1453865527 )