The Economy of Tango and the Future of Dance
Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires · The Economy of Tango and the Future of Dance
In Tango’s Golden Era (1935–1955), learning the dance never involved money. Tango was part of everyday life, woven into family, friendships, and the neighborhood. Nobody thought of “buying” lessons, as we do today.
My friend and teacher Blas Catrenau told me he first learned from his mother as a child.
At family gatherings, he would dance with a cousin. As a teenager, it was natural to join the prácticas at his neighborhood social club, where all his friends went. There, older dancers guided the newcomers step by step: first the walk, then the cross, pivots, ochos, molinetes, boleos. Learning was a long process, grounded in patience, observation, and community.
Christine Denniston, in "The Meaning of Tango", describes this moment vividly:
“One day one of the older men would tell the young man to put on his best suit, because he was going with them to a milonga.”
The same is recalled by Ricardo Ponce (El Chino Perico), who grew up learning in neighborhood prácticas before being initiated into the world of the milonga (watch here).
Women, too, often started at home. In an interview, Nélida Fernando remembers learning with relatives and friends before ever going to a dance hall (watch here). She also describes the care people put into their appearance: women would sew a different dress each week; men ironed their shirts and pants, trimmed their hair, shaved carefully, and wore suits to the milonga. This ritual of presentation was a form of respect. The same spirit is echoed in the 1945 tango "Bailarín de contraseña" by Ángel D’Agostino with Ángel Vargas, where elegance and refinement are inseparable from the dance.
That use of time —making dresses, ironing clothes, polishing one’s appearance— feels distant today, when even home-cooked meals have become rare. Modern societies are structured around efficiency. That slower way of life, with its abundance of time, will not, and cannot, return.
As dancers, we must accept this reality and adapt efficiency to serve dance today.
Tango as a service
Now, Tango knowledge is organized as part of the service economy: classes, workshops, and festivals are scheduled, priced, and marketed. This professionalization brought real advantages: it allowed Tango to spread worldwide, gave students access to expert instruction, and created diverse ways of learning.
But something was lost. In the past, one grew up within Tango, nurtured by community. Today, learning often happens through scheduled, paid sessions that can feel disconnected from a larger cultural fabric.
The technological opportunity
At the same time, we now have tools that dancers of the past could never imagine:
Online calendars to organize events.
Booking systems and digital payments.
Social media for promotion and connection.
Algorithms to match dancers by level.
Location services to find nearby milongas.
And Artificial Intelligence promises even more:
Personalized learning paths.
Smart scheduling and recommendations.
Automatic translation for global events.
Video analysis with technical feedback.
A platform for dance
Yet what’s missing is a comprehensive, purpose-built platform for the dance community.
An app that centralizes events, bookings, payments, learning resources, and even cultural archives.
And this would not only benefit Tango. Salsa, Swing, Ballroom, Bachata—all dance communities face the same challenges of visibility, access, and growth. A unified platform would strengthen the global dance ecosystem.
Conclusion
In the Golden Era, Tango was sustained by generosity, community, and rituals of elegance that reflected a slower rhythm of life. Today, it exists within a global service economy, efficient but often fragmented. To ensure Tango’s future—and the future of dance—we must combine the passion and community of the past with the technological power of the present.
The tools are already here. What we need now is the vision. With it, we can make sure Tango—and all dance—thrives for generations to come.
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