This article wants to explore the concept of role balance, and why it has become an essential feature in events like marathons and encuentros. It is by far not complete yet, and will be improved over time.
Traditionally, the two dancing roles in tango are called “leaders” and “followers”. Most dancers dance only one role well enough, but there are dancers who can be categorized as “double role dancers” (they dance “both” roles well enough).
Closed event formats like marathons and encuentros are usually not only closed, but also role balanced. Perfect role-balance would mean that there are an equal number of leaders and followers at the event. You can calculate the role balance in many ways, such as the ratio between followers and leaders:
rb = # of followers / # of leaders.
The numbers about the tango scene in general indicate that there are 2-3 women for each man in the scene, which also translates into an overall role imbalance, with a role balance of 2-3 depending on where you are.
What is the effect of that role imbalance?
There are many effects that can be observed in all tango-related settings, and they can’t be covered all here on TMD. Let’s focus on events that are in the scope of dancers who visit TMD:
- Open events, like festivalitos, festivals, and milonga weekends. They can have a role balance rb of > 2.
- Closed events, like marathons and encuentros, where the guest lists are curated by the organizers in some way, and where a rb < 1.2 is usually achieved.
Especially the closed events have a high focus on dancing (a lot, and with many different partners), and their imbalanced rb has an effect.
Look at this table:
Here an average event with 180 dancers is visualized with scenarios of different rb values.
Imagine the following scene:
It is Saturday late afternoon. Everyone is there. The music is amazing, and everyone wants to dance.
Depending on your rb at the event you will see different pictures, for example:
- rb = 1.0 – everyone who fits on the dance floor is dancing. The ronda is clean, but some dancers are a bit overwhelmed because it is full! Almost no one is talking or sitting around the dance floor.
- rb = 1.2 – all the leaders are dancing. The dance floor is full with a clean ronda. Around the dance floor, you see 16 followers sitting, not having anyone to dance. Some are chatting, others are watching the dancers, or playing with their phones. Please note: 16 followers in this event is almost 20% of all followers!
Can you imagine in each scene how it would feel? For you as a leader? For you as a follower? For you as a follower who is left outside, watching while everyone has fun?