It is a thread originally from Coleman Koo's facebook. See the feedback of his facebook with title:

"Coleman is wishing either Tangotang or someone to get an arg.tango couple to stay and teach in HK for 4 months or more. Not everyone can go to BsAs.. "

I would love to see this person/couple to emerge. A couple who everybodies willing to like and watch.

For the training programme, it is the way. But I think we should be open on anything, especially what TT's new directors doing. They have their plan & of course they are will to hear ( appreciated ;) ). But I am pretty sure they don't have a thoudsand of hands & milllions of eyes to handle all the idea.

Everybody want the tree to growth higher, but just let it grow. :)

I have been reluctant to start writing here, but my friend Gordon has been pushing me to do so and here I am. I originally put my wish on my facebook status as "i wish TT and someone can bring in an argentinean tango couple (must be good teachers of course)to stay and teach in Hong Kong for 4 months or longer..." and did not expect this attracted a few people to come to my facebook and started a fruitful discussion. Now I know Facebook is real "popular".

To cut the story short..well as one of the so-called "tango instructors" myself, and having seen how the HK tango community in the past and in other parts of the world evolved, I would love to see Argentine tango having a better future in Hong Kong. I want to have fun and want to have more good partners to dance with, and be proud of the standard of the HK tango crowd. I would love to see more good dancers than just the few who are already labelled "teachers" including myself. I would love to see younger and better tango couples surfacing to the top, and i would love to see the next generation can dance better than myself and my peers and really taking the standard of Hong Kong tango to the next and higher level and not just forcing them to become just students of ours.

You are all welcomed to go to my facebook and read all those long discussion from the top again. But after a week's discussion with Gordon, I have refined my latest wish model as below:

All local instructors should focus more on teaching beginners and recruiting new people into tango, and to share their knowledge with intermediate or advanced dancers as buddies at practica (to quote facts, in the most important part of my early tango exploration, Billy Chow shared freely with me his steps and knowledge generously at practica, and in return Fiona and I carried this tradition forward, we shared and exchanged everything we know with people like Ali and Ah Shan, did not even dare to think to charge a cent, beacause we learn something too from this kind of sharing exercise). Tangotang should take the lead to creat an environment for opening the door and let the good argentinean instructors to stay in Hong Kong for 3 months, 4 months or longer as long as financially possible to train both the non-beginners and the local instructors ourselves who mostly have a main job outside tango and can't spend fulltime learning the dance in BsAs like the fortunate minority, despite having the same passion.

This way local teacher's effort is best geared towards expanding the tango crowd, and argentinean's specialty is best used to keep the tango crowd and to improve them.

And there would be more financially-sustainable or even profitable practica and milonga run by local people at the end and everyone become winners and not competitors but real colleaques in growing the HK tango. Argentinean can teach us spanish language and other cultural aspect from the tango mecca too, not just the steps and technique.

I would also be very sad to see if Tangotang, the first and still the leading and representative tango club in Hong Kong, is going to a reverse gear mode, shutting the window and door of Hong Kong's tango and suffocate our learning from the real and professional argentinean teachers directly by making visiting teacher's workshop shorter and shorter year by year to protect the income of us, the local teachers(but i want to say thank to this thoughtful consideration) where eventually the tango standard and popularity dies and everyone become losers, instead of taking the lead to creat a model where eventually everyone dance better, everyone enjoy dancing more, and everyone introduce more friends to tango, and the local teachers are working together as colleaques to recruit new generation, and dance better themselves because they dont' need to leave their job in Hong Kong for a few months to get the training they need, and eventually you have new and rising couples with even better standard than the existing pairs (including myself) to reach deeper and wider into Hong Kong's population. Luckily, I don't see, at least for now, Tangotang is heading towards the above dangerous direction. Just hope that with a new team of directors on board who are full of vision and energy, something different and more ambitious than what we have seen repeating in the last 8 years (am I right with this number?) is what I, and many of my friends would want to see.

Thanks Coleman to take my advice. :)

Somehow we all are winners, because everybody is watching this tango channel and start paying attention to the tango developement in HK.

I do think TT is not going to the dangerous deirection you mentioned too, but nothing will be absolutely right or wrong. Let say people hate mosquitos, but no one is going to kill them all which it is of course impossible. I think it exists for some reasons and we can't estimate the effect after they all die.

It is also true for 'tango ecology' in HK too, so a moderate solution would be great.

To expand on what I have raised above.

One of the potential danger if Tangotang's policy is to run projects with protecting local instructor's income level on high priorty would result in higher price for visiting master's workshop and private class which makes them less affordable to the majority of us who want to take class only with the argentinean while they are here. TT's existence is to promote tango in Hong Kong, and is a non-profit making organisation since Day 1, and should stand on its own feet taking iniative to make all classes as cheap and hence afforadable as possible, including both group and PRIVATE CLASSES. I have not run projects in the last 1 or 2 years so i don't know if there has been changes ever since. But just quoting from 2.5 years ago with the Matias and Kara project, we were able to offer private class at something like HK600/hour per couple and that was very attractive I must say, and perhaps because of this 66 hours of private classes were sold, and I can still remember at this day that most of those who went through that workshop with matias and kara are still dancing today.

My view is, classes price is always "the cheaper the better" for the mass majority. And I hope TT can keep this spirit up.

I have mentioned on the profitability issue on facebook, I have said close to break-even and a bit above is a great target to set.

Let's think dynamically this time and see what can be deduced.

Considerating the risk management issue, I think the financial situation of the last 2 workshops are good reference.

It is known the the last 2 workshops are profitable, so why don't set the profit target of the next workshop lower? Or even don't try to make profit at all?

On the other hand, if the last 2 workshops are not able to breakeven, it would be better if the profit target is higher in the next one.