At appropriate times during the year, we take a look back at some Firehouse Tango highlights.  We sincerely thank all of you who have been with us from the start, the newcomers, and everyone in between.  Every one of you contributes to making us who we are.
 

03/20/2003     Argentine Tango instructors Carlos and Rosa announce they are leaving for Paris and ask if we would like to continue Pasional, their weekly milonga at Paramus firehouse # 4.
 

03/27/2003        Sal and Laura Zullo host first session of Tango Co-op while Sue, Joe and Eva are in Buenos Aires.

04/1/2003         Sue Dallon publishes first weekly newsletter.

04/17/2003      Fran Chesleigh teaches first lesson as guest instructor.

06/12/2003      Tango Co-op members vote to change name to Firehouse Tango.

07/20/2003      Fran has accident - recommends Jak Karako as replacement.

07/29/2003      CJ Puotinen publishes interview of Fran Chesleigh, first of a series of Firehouse Tango instructor interviews.

09/4/2003      Jak Karako teaches first lesson as guest instructor.

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02/3/2004         Goodbye party for Jak

02/10/2004      Fran is welcomed back as permanent instructor.

03/16/2004      First Firehouse Tango trip to Buenos Aires. Fran Chesleigh and    Pat Altman run milonga and buffet and write newsletter.  They call it the Cat's Away Milonga, and it becomes an annual tradition.

04/20/2004      Firehousetango.com web site is launched.

04/29/2004      Firehouse Tango outgrows firehouse and  moves to Maywood Knights of Columbus Hall.

05/6/2004      Firehouse Tango celebrates first anniversary in new home with live  music by Hector Del Curto trio.  The anniversary celebration will become an annual event.

06/17/2004      Fran's half-hour basic tango class is expanded to full hour.

07/2004        Fran adds one hour intermediate lesson and teaches from 7 to 9 pm   every week

08/30/2004      First Firehouse Tango on the Hudson picnic milonga.  These will  continue as an annual tradition.

06/15/2006   First Fran Chesleigh Tango Tip published in Firehouse Tango newsletter

09/2006        Firehouse Tango's first Milonga Month.  Fran Chesleigh teaches a     two hour milonga lesson for entire month.  This becomes yearly tradition. 

05/31/2008      Monica Paz from Buenos Aires visits Firehouse Tango and gives   first Saturday workshop.  She will continue to visit Firehouse on her yearly trips to the U.S.

02/31/2009   New Year's Eve is Thursday night, and Firehouse Tango has New Year's Eve Milonga

03/2011        Rich Ariza, Hector Scotti and Felix Pacheco join Firehouse as guest DJ's while Joe recuperates.  Sue then takes over and when Joe returns, they begin to alternate weeks.   

12/23/2011    Norma, Terri and Marion suggest a Christmas/Hanukkah party inviting everyone who wants to bring a dish.  It's a resounding success, and we decide to continue the tradition every year.  It's so much fun that we add a new year's party, as well.

1/5/2012    Firehouse Tango starts its tenth year with Fran Chesleigh's Argentine  Vals lessons.  This, too, becomes an annual tradition.

05/23/2013    Firehouse Tango celebrates its tenth anniversary with lots of original friends starting the anniversary dance and new friends joining in.

09/12/2013        A night to Remember.  Lightning, thunder, floods, and no electricity could not keep the Firehouse folks from dancing the night away by flashlight, proving once again that we are, indeed, a very special place.

 January 16 - Estelle and Rose next Thursday

Marie and Francis Gregoire - anniversary celebration Thursday, January 23

As always, we are thrilled to be able to host another Gregoire celebration.  This time it's Francis and Marie's anniversary.  We will do it on Thursday, January 23rd (just a little late because of Marie's eye surgery.) 

Marie and Francis have been loyal Firehouse followers for many years and have been to Buenos Aires with us as well.  Moreover, we are very happy to be able to call them our friends.  Francis and Marie will start the birthday dance together and then the guys and gals can cut in. 

As they always do, Marie and Francis will bring lots of goodies for us. 

Estelle Stanger

Our first celebration of 2014 will be for one of the greatest ladies of Firehouse Tango --  Estelle Stanger.  We are always thrilled to see Estelle walk through the Firehouse door.  We're certain that Bert looks down at the scene with joy and approval.  Estelle won't dance, but we will sing to her with great enthusiasm.

Rose Whitehill

Rose is a great dancer and lovely lady who has been a Firehouse fan since our Firehouse # 4 days.  She has also been to Buenos Aires with us seven times.  We are thrilled to be able to celebrate her birthday.  As for the birthday dance, I'm sure that the Firehouse Tangueros will keep cutting in as long as we would let them. 

 In recognition of the death last week of Phil Everly, this week's cortinas were all songs from the Everly Brothers.

 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 and listen to the recording by simply joining Monica Paz PractiMilonguero Facebook page. Below is the post for January 7 and a link to the Facebook page, where you can hear the music:

MILONGUERO VIEJO Carlos Di Sarli (1940)

Calendario Milonguero

7 DE ENERO DE 1903

 January 7th, 1903. Birth of CARLOS DI SARLI, pianist, band leader and composer. He was the big boss of beautiful dancing. He already hinted his talent in conducting a sextet (1927-1931: 46 themes). When he took over an orchestra (1939-1960: with about 340 songs) he built a sort of gold casket, full of dancing jewels. Here a tango of his own, dedicated to Osvaldo Fresedo, his best teacher.

Nace CARLOS DI SARLI. Pianista, director y compositor. Gran jefe de la belleza bailable. Insinuó su talento al dirigir un sexteto (1927-1931; 46 temas). Cuando se puso al frente de una orquesta (1939-1960; unos 340 temas) construyó un cofre repleto de oro para bailar. Ahora un tango de su autoría dedicado a Osvaldo Fresedo, su mejor maestro.

Estás escuchando 

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

Have arrived well in Buenos Aires.  A clear blue sky - sunny and it is 8:00 p.m. = unpacking right now.  Did not sleep on the plane the entire night.  A brand new Boeing 777 with 9 seats across.  We left on time from Kennedy at 8:00 p.m.  -  Spent one hour and 30 minutes in Santiago, a very beautiful airport.  The driver was waiting for me here at Ezeiza where it was raining cats and dogs.  But now, the rain is over, everything back to normal.

I am unpacking since LAN gives us two free suitcases.  Enjoy Firehouse which I am sure you will.  Regards to Joe.  Buenos Aires says "hello" to both of you.    Eva

Thanks, Sue. I went and got my hair, nails and feet done to go dance. After a weeks sick in bed I felt sub-human...  By the time 5.30 rolled around I started getting congested again and wondered how many people would actually "volunteer" to dance with me. So, I figured that the "polite thing" to do was to stay home :-'

Miss my tango!

Love your news letter Sue.  Happy holidays to you

Thanks Sue. Makes a lot of sense to cancel. 

Happy New Year to Joe and you and family. 

Good health is my wish to all of us. 

Warm regards

Oh No!!!!!  I was so looking forward to seeing all of you, was afraid this would happen.  But of course we all want to stay safe too so we'll have many more happy events in the future.  Thank you for all you are doing for the dance community, you are my extended family!

I wish you and Joe a very happy, healthy and super fantastic 2014 with lots of happy events!

Love,

Kathrin

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Do you like to learn new Tango figures? Most leaders that I know do. Just as most followers that I know just love to look for more elaborate adornments to spice up their dance. And where do we go for our inspiration? YouTube, that's where! These days, you can find pretty much anything you want in the way of Tango material on YouTube. Just pick a dancer -- or a particular style -- kick back, and watch your favorite Tango luminary deliver step after step, adornment after adornment all day and all night.

A question that comes up here, of course, is: "Can anybody actually learn anything this way?"

I spend a fair amount of time myself on YouTube, searching for various kinds of Tango figures, movements, and adornments to learn, to teach, or just to become familiar with -- because this is not only my passion, it's also the way I earn a living.

With this in mind, I want to give you a window into my own learning process with such material.

Let's say I find a figure which impresses me, and which I decide to learn. The first thing I do is just watch it unfold at least ten times to see how the sequence flows from one element to another. Next, I carefully watch the follower's movements. I want to determine here whether she's doing anything during the sequence that I feel simply cannot be led. (Since most of what we see on YouTube consists of professional performers, dancing choreographically, many of the sequences created for performance may work fine on stage, but just can't be done in an improvisational context.)

Once I've made a judgment that the follower's part of the sequence can, in fact, be led, I focus on the individual leader's techniques involved in executing the figure. Are these elements already in my own repertoire, or will I have to spend time attempting to bring myself up to speed on one or more individual skills -- before I can approach the figure as a whole.

To give you an example: When I first started trying to learn figures which involved a complex technique called enrosque, I found that I first had to spend several weeks, learning how to actually perform this very difficult movement itself -- before I could even begin to use it in the context of the figures I wanted to learn.

Once I've more or less mastered the individual skill(s) I need, I work my way through the elements of the figure I'm trying to learn. I memorize it, of course, so that I can visualize the individual movements it contains. Then, I perform my part many times, to make certain I can physically handle it. As I do this, I try to recall exactly what it is that my follower will be doing with me.

Now, comes the difficult part. As mentioned above, by this time I have a kind of outline of what my follower will be doing. At this point I have to focus on how to lead each of her individual elements so that she'll be able to perform the sequence comfortably as an improvisation -- rather than as a choreographed figure. You may remember from taking classes with me that I offer a very specific way of leading any given element of the dance (including forward, side, back, in-place, pause and pivot). I will now use these basic techniques myself in developing the components of the lead which I'll be using. 

Note: A problem I might encounter here, if I were teaching my sequence in a dance class situation, is that most of the followers in the room would almost certainly be able to memorize their part very quickly. This would result in my leaders not really having to actually lead at all -- because my followers wouldn't really be following. (This is always a problem with dance classes in general.)

One of the great advantages of being a dance teacher -- here comes one of the secrets of why we get good at leading -- is that I can now practice leading the sequence with my students! What a concept! They have no idea what I'm going to do next, so I have to lead everything. This is "earn as you learn" at it's most effective (from my perspective, that is.) Everybody wins!

Once I've been able to comfortably lead several followers in the one-on-one practice situation, the next step is to try the sequence on the dance floor -- either in a practica, or, with somewhat greater risk, during a milonga. Eventually, I'll pretty much own the sequence. It will become part of my repertoire. I know what individual elements it contains, and, more importantly, I know how to lead them effectively.

Now, my question to you is: "What process do you go through in learning an individual sequence from YouTube, or maybe some other source?" In particular, "How much time and effort do you devote to learning how to lead the sequence?" In my opinion, this is the part that really makes the difference between an accomplished dancer and one whose improvisational skills just aren't up to par. If you decide to make a commitment this year to really getting good -- and I hope you will -- your first step will be to find yourself a teacher who has the ability and the perseverance to help you get there. Your next step will be to get in there and work.

Happy New Year, and Happy Tango for 2014!

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
• Bartender Mike Porro
  
• Steve Maisch
• steve turi
• Bob Brillo
• Debbie Glaser
  
• Eva Roth (I left her out two weeks ago).  We will miss her while she's gone, and we look forward to her return.
  

• Barbara Lombardi - Candy
• Mary Pagano - Cookies
• Heidi Fedor - Dip & Chips
• Bonny - Chips & Hummus

• Carl Schaefer
• Bill Krukovsky
• Enrique Zuniga
• Edna Negron
• Bob Brillo
• Jack Messing
• Horatio Piccioni
• Jesse Barton
• Eduardo Campos
• Terri Lopez