On congresses - Intimacy

Small congress lovers will claim that a prime quality of the events they attend is their more intimate nature. For me though, the intimacy of a congress is determined by the number of people you know, how small it feels to you. Take the Berlin Congress in 2010. The congress was huge, but I knew so many people there that to me, it felt small. I spent the whole weekend dancing with friends from prior congresses, catching up with people, having a much needed dance with someone I hadn’t seen in three months. I eventually met and befriended a small handful of people, but there were very few surprises. 

Compare this with my experience of the Tumbao Festival in Lille. The congress was less than a quarter of the size and almost felt like a country barn dance - it was also primarily a Cuban congress, which didn't help with this impression. On arrival I figured that I knew perhaps 20 dancers, but as a percentage, I knew or recognised far less people than I had in Berlin. So it's not the physical size of the congress that matters towards determining the degree of intimacy that an event might hold, but the number of friendly faces that you'll be surrounded by.

Consider also the percentage of dancers you desperately want to dance with. As a closeted on2 snob, in a congress where most people were only interested in the Cuban room, I suddenly realised just how restricted my preferred audience was. Being the closeted snob that I am, I kept up the denial and spent much time in the Cuban room, but was constantly griping internally about the missing on2/LA dancers. Don't get me wrong, I essentially want to dance with anyone and everyone. Put on the music, show me the dance floor, give me a partner and I'm perfectly happy. But give me a choice as to the music, the dance floor and the partner and you've got a whole different ball game. 

Thus, given my preference for choice, I would rather lose myself amidst a sea of (mambo) dancers. To those who say you lose the intimacy in this environment, I would reply that you simply need to restrict the boundaries or the dance floor in your mind. People may say it's snobby to only dance in one area of the dance floor, to hang out where all the good dancers are, or just under the DJ booth, but ultimately, if you restrict your field of vision and focus on those people in your immediate vicinity as opposed to those two rooms away, the event will no longer feel so large or so daunting. You can pick any area, it can be the doorway if that makes you happy and keeps you cool; the spot next to the shoes so that you can nab a few dances with the Italians who sell them; the bar, to ensure those having liquid breaks will watch and appreciate your artistry. Pick your area and make it feel like home by dancing with all the willing dancers within it. And if you ever want to move around and start again in a new ocean of amazing mambo strangers, at least you’ll be completely free to do so!