Rules & Evaluation Criteria

Last update: October 16, 2023

Relevant information for competition participants:



RULES FOR THE OFFICIAL CATEGORIES (Tango De Pista & Stage Tango)

  • “TANGO DE PISTA”: open to both amateur and professional dancers. Residence restrictions apply. This category is bound by the rules and regulations of Tango Buenos Aires Festival and Dance World Cup. This competition category will be developed in 3 stages: a) Qualifying Rounds, b) Semifinal, c) Final, – from Thursday March 28 to Sunday March 31, 2024.
  • “STAGE TANGO”: open to both amateur and professional dancers. Residence restrictions apply. This category is bound by the rules and regulations of Tango Buenos Aires Festival and Dance World Cup. This competition category will be developed in 3 stages: a) Qualifying Rounds, b) Semifinal, c) Final, -from Thursday March 28 to Sunday March 31, 2024.

RULES TANGO INTERNATIONAL PRELIMINARY


REGISTRATION

1. To be eligible to register, dance partners must be 18 years of age at the start date of the competition and must demonstrate – with legal documents * – a minimum of 1 (one) year of residence within the area of influence of the corresponding Preliminary (the USA). * You must bring a proof of citizenship or residency in the United States for the past year (for example US passport, green card, residential lease, student ID or work visa)

2. No one will be allowed to register two or more times in the same category, but a person can register in different ones, with the same or a different partner. If both members of the couple are natives or residents of different cities, they will have to choose the city of residence or birth of either one, as couples are allowed to represent only one city.

3. The following individuals will not be allowed to compete: staff of the BA FESTIVALS; organizers of Official Preliminaries and jury members of Tango Buenos Aires Festival and Dance World Cup and its preliminaries; sponsors and/or staff of companies that sponsor the PRELIMINARY, or another person with a permanent or temporary relationship with the Office of Festivals.

4. Participants that have seriously breached the competition rules and have been disqualified or eliminated of previous editions of any Preliminary Competition, Buenos Aires Tango Championship or Dance World Cup will will not be allowed to compete. The elimination must have been instrumented in an official document with the due endorsement of BA FESTIVALS.

5. A registration cannot be shared and is not transferable.

6. If a contestant withdraws from the competition after the registration fees have been paid, no refund of the registration fees will be granted.

7. A registration and subsequent check‐in implies knowledge and acceptance of these Rules and the Evaluation Criteria by each one of the participants. It also implies knowledge and acceptance of the ATUSA Covid Attendance Policy.

CHECK‐IN

1. In order to check in, all contestants previously registered must attend on the date and time specified by THE ORGANIZATION of the Preliminary, with their national ID card or passport (original copy). (e.g. green card or US passport to certify the place of birth or residence. In the in the case of participants with a different nationality and no green card, they should attend with a valid work visa which allows them to stay/reside in the USA and /or a valid rent/working contract issued more than a year before the date of the competition). At this opportunity, they will receive the order number and be informed of the approximate dates and times on which they will perform in the different stages of the corresponding category. Those who do not check in will not be able to participate in the championship. A delay will only be considered in duly proven cases of force majeure, except in the event of circumstances of public knowledge.

2. At the time of check‐in, contestants will have to complete a form with their personal information, and with any other additional information required by THE ORGANIZATION. On this form, they shall inform if they have had a work, professional or personal relationship with any member of the jury from the competition, in the last 6 months (180 days) prior to the championship, such as: having a personal and affectionate relationship with one or more members of the jury; having taken private classes with one or more members of the jury; presenting a choreography in Stage Tango that has been created, reviewed or prepared with one or more members of the jury; having one or both dancers of the couple hired one or more members of the jury – or been hired by one of them- to participate in the same event, performing exhibitions or giving classes within it. This statement made by the contestants will be evaluated by the supervisor and checked with the members of the jury in order to define if any of them will need to refrain from scoring any participant.

3. All the information provided at the time of check‐in will be considered a sworn statement. Any contradiction in the information, subsequent to the signature, may be penalized by THE ORGANIZATION with the subtraction of points, disqualification from the competition, or any other resolution that this body may establish.

4. The national ID card or passport and the registration form must be shown at every stage of the competition.

5. All championship contestants commit themselves to participate in various ceremonies and events planned by THE ORGANIZATION of the Preliminary—such as press conferences, interviews for radio stations and over‐the‐air or cable television channels, etc.—if they are summoned for such purpose.

COMPETITION

1. The competition, in both categories, can be developed in 3 (three) stages, according to the schedule established by THE ORGANIZATION: a) Qualifying Round, b) Semifinal, c) Final.

a) Qualifying Round: All registered couples will participate. They will dance the first Qualifying round on Thursday March 28 and the second Qualifying round on Friday March 29, 2024.

b) Semifinal: Couples that have been selected in the Qualifying round will participate on Saturday March 30, 2024.

c) Final: Couples that have been selected in the Semifinal round will participate on Sunday March 31, 2024. In the Tango de Pista category, couples will compete in groups, dancing to three recorded songs, selected by THE ORGANIZATION. In the Stage Tango category, each couple will compete individually, dancing to one song of their choice. The music piece shall not exceed four (4) minutes and must be handed in to THE ORGANIZATION in digital format (mp3 file, storaged on a Flash Memory Drive) during the check-in instance. In that same instance, participants must state the name and surname of the author or authors of the choreography they will present (as it will be requested in the form to be completed). Couples may present different choreographies in the different stages of the contest.

2. At the time of the competition, at least ten couples must attend the qualifying rounds for the competition to be considered official (regardless of the number of couples previously registered). Otherwise, the championship will cease to be official and the winning couple will not be classified to compete in the semifinal instances of TANGO BUENOS AIRES FESTIVAL AND DANCE WORLD CUP 2024.

NOTE: If there are less than 10 competing couples registered for Tango de Pista or for the Stage Tango category, the category loses its official character (stated by the Tango BA Dance World Cup/ Buenos Aires Mundial) and therefore the Organization of the PRELIMINARY will be exempted from the obligation to grant the winning couple the prize consisting of full coverage of costs of travel and stay in Buenos Aires, and the Organization may choose to offer alternative prizes).

3. THE ORGANIZATION will be entitled to eliminate from the competition those participants that:
a) Do not comply with the rules;
b) Carry out, in the context of or on the occasion of the Competition, inside and outside its facilities, any action of physical and/or verbal aggression against any person, whether participant, member of the jury or the staff, or general public.
In the presence of any of these assumptions, THE ORGANIZATION and BA FESTIVALS will implement the disqualification or elimination of competition, for either or both competitors, through documentation proving the reasons for the measure.

4. In order to ensure the impartiality and professional integrity of the jury members, contestants will not be able to participate in seminars, workshops and/or classes taught by any member of the jury, as long as they are in the competition. (This means that in the case a competing couple is eliminated, they are allowed to register onsite to classes and schedule privates lessons with the festival maestros who are also judges as they will no longer be competing).

JURY

1. In both categories, the jury will be composed of a minimum of 4 (four) members, who— understanding and accepting the rules of the competition, and committing to their compliance—will determine the score of the participating couples. The juries will be appointed in accordance with BA FESTIVALS and THE ORGANIZATION of the Preliminary.

2. All the decisions of the jury will not be subject to appeal. By enrolling, participants accept this condition. In case of distrust or disagreement, participants may submit a written statement (in Spanish or English) to THE ORGANIZATION and NOT directly to the panel of evaluating judges. Any jury member who may have had a work relationship or been the teacher of any of the participants of the Preliminary for a period of at least 6 months close to the beginning of the competition, may refrain from scoring such participant. For this purpose, both the voluntary statements of the Jury and the information provided by participants when enrolling will be taken into account. In these cases, to get the couple’s final score, the judges’ scores will be added, and this amount will be divided by the number of jury members who actually voted. The final score for each performance will result from the accumulation of points, given by each member of the jury on a scale of 1 to 10 (with decimals), in accordance with the criteria described in the EVALUATION CRITERIA per category (mandatory document, please read below).

3. The Jury will choose a winning couple in each category. Also, the jury (with the agreement of THE ORGANIZATION) may grant awards and special mentions to the second and third place, and will be entitled to award other mentions if deemed appropriate.

4. In exceptional cases (power interruption, incidents on stage, etc.), the jury and the supervisor may determine that contestants should dance to additional songs to arrive at a fair verdict. Participants may not refuse to perform.

5. In case of a tie, the couples with the same final score will have to break the draw, either by dancing two additional songs in the Tango de Pista category, or by performing a new choreography in the stage tango category, until a winning couple emerges from the votes of the jury.

SUPERVISOR

Appointed by BA FESTIVALS, the Supervisor will bear the responsibility of ensuring the compliance of the present Rules and properly solve any inconvenience not considered in these Rules and establish or inform about the clarifying or interpretative rules that he considers necessary.

FILMING AND PHOTOGRAPHING

THE ORGANIZATION of the Preliminary reserves the right to record all the stages of THE COMPETITION, by any means known or to be known—including but not limited to filming, recording, photographing, digitalization, etc.—by itself or third parties, in order to promote and advertise the event. The recorded material obtained will be exclusive property of THE ORGANIZATION of the Preliminary, who will have to turn a copy of it, as established by the Collaboration Agreement, to BA FESTIVALS. By entering the Championship, participants explicitly and irrevocably authorize the use of the recorded material, without this suggesting—or implying—any compensation for any reason whatsoever by THE ORGANIZATION of the Preliminary and/or BA FESTIVALS, in favor of any person or organization that claims entitlement to any right that may be invoked. This clause also includes, without limitations, all photographic material published and/or made available for promotion, advertisement, etc.

A couple’s registration and subsequent check‐in implies knowledge and acceptance of these Rules by each one of the participants.


*Clarification about dance level: Participation in both “Tango de Pista” and Stage Tango Categories competitions are open to everyone. Professional dancers and amateur dances of intermediate level and above compete in the same category according to the rules established by Tango Buenos Aires Dance World Cup. Adherence to these rules qualifies our competition to be recognized as valid by the main Buenos Aires event. The distinction between a “professional” and “amateur” dance has less to do with the level of skill and more with a professional status of the dancers. “Professional” means that dancers make a living from teaching and dancing/performing tango, and “amateur” means that they do not, but it does not always imply that the level of the professional couple dance is superior to the level of the amateur couple. There are dancers for whom tango is their main source of income. They are likely to be good instructors, but their level of dance and performance can vary: the professional couple can be excellent at dance or not so great. On the other hand, there are good amateur couples who do not teach tango and get no income from performances, but have achieved an exceptional level of dance. There is also the case of stage dancers who only dance choreographed pieces, but are helpless when it comes to social dancing: they cannot dance in milongas. Finally, there are very skilled social dancers (people who only dance in milongas), but who neither teach nor perform tango. They might be excellent salon dancers. To accommodate different ways in which dancers excel at tango, the two divisions for the competition were established: “Tango de Pista” (salon tango; social category for both amateurs and professional) and Stage Tango (performance category for amateur advanced level and professional level dancers).


GENERAL RULES for all other categories: Salon Tango Senior, Milonga, Vals and “So you think you can tango?”

  • “MILONGA” –open to both amateur and professional dancers. No residence restrictions. This category will take place on Sat March 30 and Sun March 31, 2024.
  • “VALS” – open to both amateur and professional dancers. No residence restrictions. This category will take place on Sat March 30 and Sun March 31, 2024.
  • “SALON TANGO SENIOR” – open to social dancers (amateurs). No professionals allowed. Age restrictions apply. No residence restrictions. This category will take place on Thursday March 28 and (if there enough couples to make two rounds) on Friday March 29, 2024.
  • “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN TANGO?” – open to social dancers (amateurs). No professionals allowed. No residence restrictions. This category will take place on Friday March 29, 2024.*

1. Registration and Check-in/Accreditation

  1. Contestants must be at least 18 years old by the date of the competition.
  2. Contestants may participate in different categories with the same or a different partner. However, no contestant may participate more than once in the same category, regardless of whether they do so with a different partner.
  3. Contestants must always behave correctly and respect the judges, championship directors/coordinators, choreographers and other participants.
  4. The Organization will be entitled to eliminate from the competition those participants that:
    a) Do not comply with the rules
    b) Commit any moral offense or improper act that tarnishes the image of the Championship or may cause displeasure in the public.
  5. All competition rounds will be open to spectators.
  6. Competitors’ registration and subsequent check‐in implies knowledge and acceptance of the General Rules, the Specific Championship Rules and the Evaluation criteria per category
  7. All participants must confirm their registration at the time of accreditation. In order to check in, all contestants must attend on the date and time specified by the Organization with their national ID card or passport (original copy). Accreditation can be done by one of the members of the couple bringing both documents. At this time, they will receive the order number and will be informed of the approximate performance times for each category.
  8. Those who do not check in will not be able to participate in the championship. A delay will only be considered in duly proven cases of force majeure, except in the event of circumstances of public knowledge.
  9. All championship contestants commit themselves to participate in various ceremonies and events planned by the Organization of the USA Official championship branch—such as press conferences, interviews for radio stations and over‐the‐air or cable television channels, demos, etc.—if they are summoned for such purpose.
  10. A registration cannot be shared and is not transferable.
  11. If a contestant withdraws from the competition after the registration fees have been paid, no refund of the registration fees will be granted.
  12. Competition VS Workshops / Private classes: competitors participating in the Salon Senior, Milonga, Vals, or the “So you think you can Tango?” categories -which are not official, -may register to all (or any) of the festival workshops and take private classes with all festival maestros,- including the maestros who are judges.

(Clarification: Competitors participating in the official categories of Tango de Pista and Stage Tango will not be able to participate in seminars, workshops and/or classes taught by the maestros who are also members of the jury, as long as they remain in the competition. Therefore, in the case a competing couple is eliminated, the couple will be allowed to register onsite to classes and schedule privates lessons during the event with the maestros who are judges, as they will not be competing any longer).

2. Filming & Photographing

The Organization of the Preliminary reserves the right to record all the stages of the Championship, by any means known or to be known—including but not limited to filming, recording, photographing, digitalization, etc.—by itself or third parties, in order to promote and advertise the event. The recorded material obtained will be exclusive property of the Organization of the Preliminary, who will have to turn a copy of it, to the Office of Festivals. By entering the Championship, participants explicitly and irrevocably authorize the use of the recorded material, without this suggesting—or implying—any compensation for any reason whatsoever by the Organization of the Preliminary in favor of any person or organization that claims entitlement to any right that may be invoked. This clause also includes, without limitations, all photographic material published and/or made available for promotion, advertisement, etc.

3. Jury

The Jury will be composed of a minimum of 4 (four) members for all categories, who—understanding and accepting the rules of the competition, and committing to their compliance—will determine the score of the participating couples. The juries will be appointed in accordance with the Office of Festivals and Central Events and the Organization of ATUSA.

All the decisions of the Jury will not be subject to appeal. By enrolling, participants accept this condition. In case of distrust or disagreement, participants may submit a written statement (in Spanish or English) to the Organization and NOT directly to the panel of evaluating judges.

The final score for each performance will result from the accumulation of points, given by each member of the jury on a scale of 1 to 10 (with decimals), in accordance with the criteria described in the following section.

The Jury will choose a champion couple in each category. Also, the Jury (with the agreement of the Organizer) may grant awards and special mentions to the second and third places, and will be entitled to award other mentions if deemed appropriate.
In exceptional cases (power interruption, incidents on stage, etc.), the jury may determine that contestants should dance to additional songs to arrive at a fair verdict. Participants may not refuse to perform.

In case of a tie, the couples with the same final score will have to break the draw by dancing two additional songs.

4. SUPERVISOR/AUDITOR

Appointed by the Office of Festivals and Central Events, the Supervisor will bear the responsibility of ensuring the compliance of the Championship rules; properly solve any inconvenience not considered in these Rules; establish or inform about the clarifying or interpretative rules that he/she considers necessary and calculate the scores using the Tango BA World Cup formula.


SPECIFIC RULES & EVALUATION CRITERIA per category (all categories described


COMPETITION REFUND POLICY

  • If a contestant withdraws from the competition after the registration fees have been paid, no refund of the registration fees will be granted.
  • A registration cannot be shared and is not transferable. NO EXCEPTIONS.