Supporting the Growth of Argentine Tango
We believe that building tango community provides us
with the opportunity to enrich ourselves and the greater
society. We recognize that how we accomplish our aim is
important. We believe that the conservation of our planet's
resources and the fair distribution of the fruits of our
labor and play create a positive example for the world.
We will act upon our mission by...
- Creating a platform that will allow gifted tango instructors (who contrary to some perceptions,
often struggle financially) to easily create, share, and profit from their instructional material
- Supporting the artists and instructors with whom we work
with fair distribution of income, based always on gross sales
- Electing to use downloadable digital media so as to eliminate
the environmental impact of DVDs, packaging, shipping, etc.
- Setting aside 5% of net profits to support projects that directly
support the growth of Argentine Tango, and in particular to support innovative tango pedagogy.
- Donating an additional 5% of net profits to support the environment (we need this planet to dance on)
- Honoring those Milongueros who have passed away through a special Milonguero Historic Preservation Project
that will be funded from 20% of the gross sales of all V300 series videos sold through iTangoCafe.
Who are Daniel & Shalom?
Shalom has been dancing Argentine Tango avidily since 2001. When he is not dancing he
has been building and managing a successful ecommerce business and enjoying spending
time with his four year old daughter.
Daniel first encountered tango in Buenos Aires in 1986, where he was one of the first
young people involved in tango's modern revival. He invented the tango dance tour,
Bridge to the Tango, in 1993, founded The Tango Catalogue in 1996, and has led tango
workshops in over 120 cities in 13 countries. Daniel's video production company, BttTV,
has produced more than 100 volumes of instructional videos with more than 40 artists
and teachers. It is much of this material that is being remastered for itangocafe.
iTangoCafe is getting started by bringing you newly remastered digital versions of
videos from Daniel's archival Bridge to the Tango collection, including such famous
instructors as Tete, Omar Vega, Puppy Castello, Rudolfo Cieri & Juan Bruno. In addition
iTangoCafe will be creating and hosting new material, both previously unpublished
archival footage, and new programming with many of today's most popular instructors.
Do our Prices Seem Fair?
Our goal is to offer fair prices for valuable, and often unique, content.
Today it is not uncommon to pay $80-$100 for a one hour private lesson, with a
good teacher. Even so, we know many talented instructors who make less than a
living wage as dedicated, full-time, teachers of Argentine Tango. Back in the 90s,
when Daniel created BttTV videos for sale in analog form (VHS tape), private lessons
were running $40-50/ hour, and a one hour video lesson was about $40/ volume. We have
decided the comparison of private lessons to instructional videos is a fair benchmark
to use in setting the value of instructional content.
This platform is intended to support the next generation of tango teachers, though
in our roll out you are first seeing the BttTV archive. By supporting our instructors
(or in the case of archival material their heirs, and our
Milonguero Historic Preservation Project.),
you are directly supporting the growth of Argentine Tango. If we are successful, and our platform
provides a real source of income for today's talented tango instructors, they will in turn be
able to create and provide better and better instructional material for you, the student of Argentine Tango.
We welcome your feedback about our pricing policy, our mission, and any concerns or comments
you have about anything that we are doing here at iTangoCafe. We are committed to being a
responsible and ethical part of our tango community and our greater community at large and
welcome you in joining us in our mission.
Welcome to iTangoCafe.
We would love to hear from you.
shalom@itangocafe.com
daniel@itangocafe.com
iTangoCafe is a venture