In just about every industry, to apply for a job you must first present a resumé, CV, or portfolio to be seriously considered for the position.
In tango, however, teachers and DJs come and go from cities with little but the implicit (or sometimes explicit) endorsement of the main organizer. At best, dancers can YouTube teachers to see how they dance, but performances offer little insight for teaching capacity. For DJs, there is nothing a dancer could find online to proxy their skill. And especially organizers, arguably the most pivotal and most overlooked professional in the tango world, there is nothing would be consumers could find to judge their skill.
What about having published resumés or portfolios for teachers, DJs, and organizers? When a teacher or DJ is being considered for a gig, they can simply include a link to past events, YouTubes, and any endorsements if they have them. When an organizer puts together an event, they can include previous events they have organized and any testimonials from that event. (As a quick aside, I would much prefer to hear testimonials from the professionals working with the organizer than that of content dancers because I think the professional relationship is much more telling).
With the KnowTango Profiles, we have taken a somewhat accidental step in that direction. Teachers, DJs, and Organizers (or anyone for that matter) can enter events (both past and future) and our profiles automatically generate a map and a calendar for each tango professional. If there is enough interest, we can easily convert the map and calendar to embeddable widgets so tango professionals can drop their “visual resumé“ on their own websites or blogs.
What do you think? Is it time for tango resumés?
