Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. "How do I learn to dance Tango?" For the past two weeks, we've been exploring multiple answers to this question. On June 12, we suggested one possible answer -- to imitate our
favorite dancers. Last week, June 19, we examined the importance of becoming a good student. (If you'd like to read the full text of these Tips, you'll find them in our Tango Tip of the Week archives on the Firehouse Tango Web site.)
Today, we're going to talk
about how getting the right information can play a crucial role in the process of learning to dance. We'll begin with the observation that social dance of any kind is often portrayed -- particularly by dance schools in this country -- as a sort of rudimentary pastime that is quite easy to pick up within a short time. Just put a few bucks in our pockets, say the schools, and we'll have you dancing within just a few easy lessons.
Sounds great. But does this process work? Well, let's see. Have you ever taken a Ballroom/Latin/Swing dance class? What's the first thing that happened? You were taught a dance step by rote. Ladies on one side of the room; gentlemen on the other side.
Here is the ladies' part; here is the men's part. Everybody got it? Okay, now let's try it together.
Hmm.
The result of this widespread teaching approach is that most men who decide they want to learn how to dance believe, or are told, that it's little more than a question of memorizing a bunch of predigested movement sequences (steps), and pushing their partner through them. At the same time, most women who want to learn how to dance believe, or are told, that if they have a good leader, it's either a question
of executing memorized steps, or hanging on, and being carried passively -- sometimes brutally -- around the dance floor.
Even with the teaching of Argentine Tango, after a class or two in basic movement -- which, let's face it, most impatient, overachieving beginners find
really boring -- the thrust of subsequent classroom activity shifts inevitably to memorizing figures as leader and follower, and then attempting to do them together. This may make students feel as if they're getting somewhere fast -- and it may keep the money flowing into the school's coffers -- but, in fact, the students are really going nowhere at all in terms of actually learning how to dance.
Okay, then, what's the antidote to this misguided process? What is the right information that will put me, the student, onto the right path in learning how to dance?
In my experience, there are two fundamental directions one can take. You can decide you want to be a performer, or you can decide you want to be a social dancer. Yeah, yeah, I know. The first thing you say back to me is "why can't I be both?" Okay, okay, let's discuss.
To be a Tango performer, it's best to start while you're still young -- maybe 12 or 14 years old, let's say. Does this apply to you? You have to be really skinny (how much weight would you have to lose to become really skinny?) You have to study some form of concentrated dance movement -- maybe ballet, jazz or modern, something like that -- for about twenty years or so. You have to spend time
in the gym (okay, let's be optimistic and say three hours a day, six days a week) to keep the right muscles in (superhuman) shape, so that you'll be ready to handle any physical challenge that comes along. You have to work with the right teacher (here's a subject we'll be talking more about next week), who will infuse you with the appropriate technique for moving like a Tango dancer. (Poof! There goes another three to ten years.) You have to find exactly the right partner, and try your best not
to become romantically involved -- which, of course, you'll do anyway. (This means your relationship is doomed to disaster right from the get-go.) And, oh yes, I almost forgot: It's a good idea to be born in Argentina -- okay, maybe Uruguay. Promoters just aren't keen on hiring Tango performers from Brooklyn these days.
If you're comfortable with all of the above, and you want to be a performer, go for it. On the other hand, let's say you don't quite fit that job description. Your best alternative -- and the one which I think is actually a greater challenge -- is to choose social Tango instead.
To be a social dancer, you can start at any age as long as your mental acuity is still kicking on all cylinders. You don't have to be really skinny. In fact, a great many fine social dancers haven't missed lunch in years. It's not necessary that you've studied dance of any kind before (although it does help to some extent). Spending all your free time in the gym is optional, but not
crucial. You still have to find the right teacher, of course. You need to dance with knowledgeable partners, but it's not mandatory to form potentially disastrous personal liaisons with them.
And being born in Argentina is entirely optional.
So, what information do you absolutely need in order to carve out a successful career as a social Tango dancer? You certainly do not need a bunch of memorized dance figures -- although it's fun to incorporate the ones you like into your repertoire down the road. What you definitely do need is
to learn how to lead and how to follow. Lead/follow can take years to learn. And because it looks quite simple, most students, schools, and teachers routinely assume that these crucial, complex skills will somehow just take care of themselves, that there's hardly any need at all to even discuss them. Let's concentrate on steps and adornments!
Nope. Sorry, it just won't work. You'll end up traveling a very hard, very frustrating road that will ultimately take you right back to where you started. But if you bite the bullet, and learn lead/follow right from the beginning -- maintaining and developing this essential skill set persistently as your dance career advances -- everything that you learn subsequently will be -- and I guarantee this --
EASY!!!
Do I have you champing at the bit? Do you want to find out precisely where you can get your hands (well, I guess I should say your feet) on this information? Here is the answer you've been waiting for: Find yourself a good
teacher.
And that's exactly what we'll be talking about next week.
