Social dance events may be somewhat unstructured, without music played in tandas with cortinas, and tolerance of teaching on the social dance floor.There is usually an egalitarian social structure below the level of the instructors, with most dancers dancing with many other community members at social dance events.
Considerable effort is expended towards recruitment of new dancers. There is usually a high level of enthusiasm for tango among community members. Additional common characteristics of tango communities during the Foundation Stage are small community size, low dance skill level, and classes undifferentiated by skill level.During the Foundation Stage, there is almost always only one tango instructor (or instructor couple) who organizes classes and social dance events.This is labeled here as the Foundation Stage. As defined here, a tango community is only established when regularly scheduled tango social dance events are organized.The disadvantage of this method is that it is usually more difficult to recruit dancers to build a tango community.
It is usually easier to initiate tango social dance events within this environment that has less administrative control.
Some tango communities originate independently of an existing social dance community, for example, by an instructor initiating tango classes in a supportive environment that can provide free or low cost space and some degree of free advertising, such as a community center or university.The infrastructure (facilities and management) needed for development of a group of tango dancers is provided by the larger community, but opportunities for development of an independent tango instructional and social dance program are limited. The advantage of this Internal Origin of a tango community is that a population of experienced social dancers exists from which tango dancers can be recruited.If interest exists, music for dancing Argentine Tango is added to social dances, but social dances for which tango music forms the majority of the music program are rarely originated within this environment. Instruction in Argentine Tango is initiated within an existing social dance curriculum.Many tango communities originate from within other social dance communities, most often salsa or ballroom dance communities.There are two primary means by which tango communities have originated in North America.
Nevertheless, in North America it is rare for a tango community to exist without resident tango instructors, who play a critical role in the recruitment of new members and the development of the community.