Banning people

Alpha stock images - Nick Youngson

It was pointed out to me that the page for this milonga says it welcomes all “who enjoy this social/salon style of tango” but it is probably worth noting I have since heard that the number of different people actually and allegedly banned from this milonga for being too sensuous or just generally not toeing those many lines seem to be so numerous I believe some of them joked they might almost form a Facebook group. Then I discovered someone else found the same thing though I don't know whether the people he knows about that are banned are the same that I heard about separately.

I have also discovered since posting about Pant that neither was I alone in feeling nervous there. Not that he’d mind, I guess, being one of those banned (there is a sad interaction which seems to confirm it) but it wasn’t Bob who told me. It seems before that Bob also felt conflicted - receiving, like me a warm welcome and from the dancers as well as the host, yet there is certainly an undercurrent of unease going on in his posts about this group.

There’s more:

A: As one who has yourself experienced Sharons' signature public not-naming but still shaming technique, you'll spot the irony of her accusing Bob of using it. Here's Bob's report of being on the receiving end in her class.

B: Gosh. How interesting and what a useful warning for others. And what a carefully honed and subversive tactic and how difficult to pin down unless one had seen it happen before or to others. How helpful it is when people share. 

And more:

C: [The group] seemed cultesque from what I could gather and not open to alternative or liberal tango views.

In retrospect I can’t shake the feeling that I had some kind of narrow escape.

Banning people, control, rules, milongas with an atmosphere of uncertainty and unease - it's all connected, I think.