Thank you so much for the messages and phone calls and for your unwavering support. 

December 26  New Year's

We will repeat the entire wonderful holiday milonga process on December 26th for New Year's.

The New Year's milonga will feature:

•  Fabulous door prizes
• An extra half hour for dancing
  
• Special food
• Festive atmosphere with decorated hall
• Dress up for the holidays
• Holiday cortinas

As always, our $15 milonga admission charge will include beginner (7 - 8) and intermediate (8 - 9) lessons taught by Fran Chesleigh; a buffet dinner; and dancing and socializing with some of the nicest folks around.

Bring a dish to our New Year's Milonga

 This is what we have so far:

• Sue Dallon        Roast pork in gravy  and sweet potato souffle
• Terri Lopez        Arroz con Pollo
  
• Mike and Debbie - salad
• Judy Assisi       Dried fruit compote with Grand Marnier
• Rose Whitehill    Variety of bagel crisps with dips
• Eva Roth            Main dish
  
• Judy and John Wynne   Banana nut chocolate bread
  

If you would like to contribute something for the  New Year's milonga, please let me know.  You can send an e mail to firehousetango@gmail.com  or tell Tibor at the front desk.  It can be an appetizer, main dish, or dessert.  It doesn't even have to be home made.

December 19 - Cris Grapa birthday

Cris Grapa is a great tanguera, a great dancer, and a great friend. During the milonga, you'll find her at Fran's table or on the dance floor.  Cris is still digging out from her damage from Hurricane Sandy, but she comes to Firehouse as often as she can.  Carl will start the celebratory tango, and then you guys can all cut in.

Last Thursday - Elena Titova  and Veronica Diaz Birthday bash

        Veronica -

Veronica has been eagerly anticipating her Firehouse birthday celebration for months.  She was not disappointed.  Her friends, old and new, came in droves.  The ladies toasted and the tangueros danced.  It was fabulous,

Veronica brought lots of wine and lots of friends for an amazing birthday toast. 

        Elena

As the tangueros danced from one birthday celebrant to the other, Elena's smile lit up the room.  In little more than a year, she has become a lovely dancer and a great Firehouse friend. 

Elena's birthday cake, made by Tsipoyra's sister Dina, was a treat for both eyes and palate.

 Last week, two cars were ticketed for parking too close to the stop sign (one fiercely debated) and another car blocked a neighbor's driveway.  Please, please, be careful where you park. 

The Jewish mother in me was devastated to hear that a little of my sweet potato souffle remained uneaten after last week's feast.  

How could they leave even a tiny bit of this delicious dish? 

What did I do wrong? 

The answer --  In addition to the huge tray I had prepared for Christmas,  I brought ten pounds of potatoes intended for New Year's.  That was too much even for our hungry crowd.

I'm planning to make more for our New Year's milonga.  Please finish them.  They are really good (The recipe is below.) 

If you made the vanilla cake in cupcake liners with peanut butter and chocolate on the side last week, please let me know. One of our friends is still licking her lips and would love to have the recipe.

Below are some recipes that you requested. 

SUE'S SWEET POTATO SOUFFLE

Serving Size: 6

I boil the sweet potatoes in a big pot until they are very soft.  After they cool, the skin comes off very easily.  After removing the skin, I mash the potatoes, add the other ingredients and beat well.  It would probably be much easier and probably just as good to use canned sweet potatoes, but I've always made them fresh.  Let me know if anyone tries it that way.

½ Cup White Sugar

1 Egg

¼ Cup Melted Butter (I use sweet unsalted butter)

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1/3 Cup Evaporated Milk

1 ½ Cups Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Beat all ingredients together.  Mix and pour into greased casserole dish.

TOPPING

½ Cup Brown Sugar

¼ Cup White Flour

¼ Cup Pecans

2 ½ Tablespoons Melted Butter

Mix and crumble on top of the sweet potato mix

Bake soufflé 35 - 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

SUE'S BRISKET

I don't have a recipe.  The secret to good brisket, I think, is to cook it for a long, long time in tomato sauce based liquid.  Here's how I do it. 

Brown lots of onions and garlic in olive oil; add salt and seasonings; then brown the brisket.  Add a few cans of Del Monte tomato sauce and tomato paste (Any other brand would probably work as well, but that's the one my mother used), water and canned beef bouillon. Make sure that meat is covered with liquid. Bring it to a boil and simmer it covered for about four hours.  Then remove the meat and cook carrots, string beans and potatoes in water until just done.  Add carrots and quartered potatoes to gravy and cook for another hour.  If the gravy is too thin, cook it uncovered for a while to thicken. Let it cool a bit and remove excess oil with a baster or spoon.  I then cut the cooled meat it into thin slices (I cannot tell a lie; Joe does that) and arrange the meat, potatoes and carrots in a baking dish with lots of gravy, cover with aluminum foil,  and bake for another hour or so at about 350.  It is wonderful the first day and even better the next.

JUDY AND MARION'S DRIED FRUIT COMPOTE

1 1/3 cups mixed dried fruit
2/3 cups dried cherries
2/3 cups golden raisins
10 apricots
10 prunes
Hot freshly brewed fragrant tea to cover
1-2 TBS sugar
1/4 sliced lemon
Grand Marnier to taste

Put all the dried fruits in a bowl and pour the hot tea over it.
Place a heavy plate on top of the mixture
When the fruit is cool, refrigerate it.
Add the Grand Marnier before serving.

 Every day, our dear friend and teacher in Buenos Aires posts a historical tango fact of the day. These interesting and informative tidbits always include English and Spanish information and a relevant recording.  You can see all of them by simply joining Monica Paz PractiMilonguero Facebook page. Below is the post for December 11 and a link to the Facebook page.

 December 11th: TANGO DAY. Birthday of Carlos Gardel (12/11/1890) and Julio De Caro (1899). Gardel created the rhythmic phrasing to sing tango. De Caro installed the instrumental polyphony in the orchestra. In honor of the third "gender" of tango, the danced milonga, we now listen to a "tangazo" composed on another December 11.

 DÍA DEL TANGO . Aniversario del nacimiento de Carlos Gardel (11/12/1890) y Julio De Caro (11/12/1899). Gardel creó el fraseo rítmico para cantar el tango. De Caro instaló la polifonía instrumental en la orquesta típica. En homenaje al tercer género del tango, el baile o la milonga, suena un tangazo grabado otro 11 de diciembre.

Here is a link to her Facebook account

  https://www.facebook.com/MPTango

And the following one for her latest interview (She regularly posts interviews that she does with surviving old milongueros) : http://youtu.be/EUjsOreThMc

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Last week, we talked about inertia as an important consideration in dancing Tango. The general idea behind inertia is that a body at rest tends to remain at rest, while a body in motion tends to remain in motion.

Tango is a dance in which movement and stillness are equally important (in contrast to dances of continuous movement -- such as American Foxtrot and Waltz). In American progressive dancing (Foxtrot, Waltz, Quickstep, Peabody, Viennese Waltz, "American" Tango), we use inertia routinely in order to begin and continue our dance. The leader sets both himself and his follower into motion; thereafter, the dance progresses more or less without stopping until the music comes to an end. During any individual dance, the leader will often invite changes of direction as well as of rhythm (what teachers refer to as "slows" and "quicks").

With Tango, on the other hand, we're always aware of the potential need to overcome the effect of inertia in completing every step we take. In fact, stopping at the end of every step is a crucial skill which followers must learn in order to make it possible for their partners to lead effectively. (For a more detailed exploration of the concept of inertia, go to the Firehouse Tango archive and read what I wrote in the Tango Tip for December 5, 2013.)

Today, I'd like to discuss a concept which is related to inertia. It's called impetus. As it applies to dance, let's define the creation of impetus as the act of setting a body (in this case, the follower) into vigorous motion with the intention that she will then continue moving by herself for a limited duration.

The role of impetus in progressive social dance in America is virtually non-existent (although in competitive dancing the technique is used to a limited extent. There is actually a movement called an impetus turn, which is utilized in some of the progressive dances.). For the most part, however, once the two partners are in motion in social progressive dance, they almost always remain in motion, precisely mirroring each other's movement. Where impetus does play a significant role in American social dance is in what we call "spot" dancing. With "latin" and rhythm dances impetus is used as a matter of course in order to produce aggressively motivated but unaccompanied movement by the follower -- figures such as double turns, special releases to or from closed or open position, jumps, slides, and so forth.

The basic linear movement of traditional social Tango -- which comprises elements such as forward, backward, to the side, in place and pause -- does not use impetus at all. This includes simple forward and backward ochos as well as molinete. As discussed in last week's Tango Tip, these elements rely exclusively on inertial movement -- in particular, the overcoming of inertia in motion (the whole idea of movement and stillness) in order to give them their special "Tango-like" character.

However, impetus is used in social Tango in a very selective way. First, there are certain choices the leader may make in accompanying his follower's molinetes in which he is unable to use the movement of his torso to effectively direct her rotation. In cases where the leader is either stepping around her axis during a turn, or creating a sacada, for example, he simply cannot lead her with the front of his chest -- because the nature of the accompaniment dictates that the follower actually precede his center line momentarily. In such instances, the leader uses impetus to send his follower past his front for one or two steps. As he rotates himself (in accompanying her movement), the leader eventually catches up to her, and the equilibrium of the couple's normal front-to-front relationship resumes.

A second instance in which impetus is almost always used is in the creation of boleo . This very common Tango technique involves the follower having a rotation in one direction changed abruptly by the leader to a counter-rotation in the opposite direction. Such a change in direction can, of course be led slowly. However, more often than not, a leader will create a sense of drama by "snapping" his follower from one direction to the other. (This action will often suggest an adornment of some kind from the follower.) In boleo, the leader can create impetus in the follower by aggressively rotating his own torso, first to produce the primary rotation, then suddenly in the opposite direction. The follower's response is to rotate quickly in one direction, and then be literally pulled into a counter rotation.

There are other examples in which impetus can be used in traditional social Tango. However, those addressed above should give you a sense of what I'm talking about. In working with your instructor (you do have one of those, don't you?), you can greatly improve your Tango by skillfully employing the use of inertia as described last week, and impetus as we've been discussing today. These are essential techniques which literally define the mechanics of Tango as a dance.

Any questions?

The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.

• Tony Mele
• Terri Lopez
• Tsipoyra Sartan
• Steve Maisch
• steve turi
• Lynn Gross
• Bob Brillo
• Joseph and Nonna
  
• Debbie Glaser
• Mike Porro

Many folks pitched in last week when Joe and I couldn't come.  Once again, we thank all of you.  There were a few who need to be singled out.  

• Terri and Steve, of course, deserve all of the thanks I can give
• Mary Pagano, without being asked, went right into the kitchen to wash all the dishes that were piling up.  She continued helping through the night.
  
• Debbie Glaser was a great help
  
• Barbara Lombardi helped all night long.
  

• George Ngo
• Jean Shedlock
• Enrique Zuniga
• Bill Krukovsky
• Bob Brillo
• June Stahl
• Eduardo Campos
• Terri Lopez