JUDGES

ATUSA OFFICIAL USA TANGO CHAMPIONSHIP & FESTIVAL, will be held on 

Easter Weekend, March 28 – 31, 2024.

Website is being updated. Registration will start on October 16, 2024.


All Judges in our OFFICIAL TANGO CHAMPIONSHIP, the US TANGO WORLD CUP BRANCH, are evaluated and approved by the Direction of the Office of Festivals and Central Events of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Most of our Judges are also Judges at the Tango Buenos Aires Dancee World Cup (Mundial de Tango de Buenos Aires).


Official Judges 2023

Jury Panel

JUDGING (important information for competitiors)

The Judges in this competition are all internationally renowned maestros and professional dancers with exceptional credits and extensive careers in the field.  They were evaluated and approved by the Direction of the Office of Festivals and Central Events of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires to judge at ATUSA.

The Direction of the Office of Festivals and Central Events of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires sends an Auditor (Supervisor) to verify that the competition rules and regulations are applied correctly. 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. 

GENERAL JUDGING RULES

  1. Competitors participating in the official categories may register to/purchase festival workshops and take private classes with the festival maestros who are not judging at the competition.
  2. Competitors in the official categories cannot take workshops or private lessons with the festival maestros who are judging at the competition.
  3. However, competitors who will be out of the competition after the elimination process, can purchase workshops at door and schedule private classes taught by any of the Festival maestros (even the ones who are judging at the competition), since they will no longer be competing.
  4. Competitors participating in the Salon Tango Senior, Milonga, Vals, “So you think you can tango?” or also (just for this year) in the Stage Tango categories, are allowed to schedule private lessons and purchase festival workshops with all Festival Maestros.
  5. Contestants in the official categories of Tango de Pista and Stage Tango will have to complete a form considered as a sworn statement to inform if they have had a work, professional or personal relationship with any of the members of the Jury Panel at the competition during the last 180 days prior to the championship. The Judge/s in questions then, will abstain from evaluating that couple. Judges will also have to declare if they have had a work, professional or personal relationship with any of the competitors in the last 6 months, so that if that would be the case, the judge/s will abstain from evaluating that couple. The couple´s final score will result from the average score emerged from the number of judges who have voted.
  6. The Judges will evaluate the competitors in the different categories according to the evaluation criteria and to all the rules established by the Committee.
  7. Jury of the Qualifying round, the Semifinals and the Finals will consist of at least four members.
  8. The Judges may eliminate participants who distract, disturb or do not follow the rules of the competition.
  9. All decisions made by the Judges are final.
  10. In case of a draw, or if determined by the Judges, the contestants will dance the songs the Judges consider necessary to reach a final determination. Participants may not refuse to do so.
  11. The couple´s final score will result from the average score emerged from the number of judges who have voted.
  12. The Judges will choose, in each category, a winning couple. In addition, the Judges will grant awards and honorable mentions for the second and third places.
  13. The Judges’ ruling cannot be subject to appeal. The participants, by registering, accept this condition.

*Clarification: Festival Maestros are all professional tango teachers who come from Argentina; therefore they are visiting masters in the USA who come to work for a short period of time on a working tour. This reduces to the minimum the possibility of developing any kind of professional or personal relationship with the competitors and this is the reason why, the Festival Maestros previously approved by the Office in Buenos Aires who have agreed will be judging at the Competition. Because of this and as a general rule since August 2017, local maestros residing in California do not qualify to be Judges at ATUSA official competition, – except in the case of the existence of an empty position due to an emergency of mayor importance or the lack of availability of visiting maestros in the USA, – as long as they are approved by the Office of Festivals in Buenos Aires and the Direction of the Tango Mundial (Tango Dance World Cup).