Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. I had a heart-to-heart talk yesterday with my students at the Argentine Consulate. Some of them have been feeling frustrated that they're not learning Tango quickly enough, and they asked me whether there's a "fast track" that will enable them to make serious progress during the new year.

Here's what I told them.

Learning Tango is a process. You start by being attracted to it from the outside; you open the door and step in; and then you spend as much time, effort, and commitment as you can in making it a more significant part of who you are.

What do I mean by that? Let me tell you how it worked (is still working) for me. I was lucky enough to begin social dancing in 1951 at age 11. My first shot out of the box was what we called "Lindy." Step, step, rock-step. My friend, Billy Hadney, taught it to me in his basement after learning it the week before from his older sister. Man, was that fun! At the time, we had no idea that this thing we were doing was just the basic step, and that there would be tons more to learn down the line. We were perfectly content to work on getting step-step-rock-step right -- by repeating it over and over, at first together, and then with (heaven help us!) girls.

Thinking back, I realize that this is the very same process, which men in Argentina used to go through in learning how to dance Tango. First, they danced with each other to get their basics feeling good; then, they perfected these fundamental skills by trying them out on women.

When I was growing up, this was how almost all of us learned how to dance. We had heard that there were dance schools you could go to, but we preferred to learn from each other. Besides, there was a huge dance culture available to us. Everybody danced; all you had to do was go to any social gathering, and people were dancing. We watched, and we learned. Nothing could be easier.

Cut to 2015. Where is the robust dance culture? Gone. Sure, if you're Latino, you can maybe still pick up a few things from your relatives. But even that dance culture is disappearing these days. Dancing is just not in the picture.

So, what options do you have, if you've got dancing on the brain? I hate to tell you this, but I'm afraid you have to bite the bullet and find yourself a teacher.

Actually, most of us in this country in 2015 realize that a teacher is the only conduit available to us, if we want to learn how to dance. In Argentina, there's still a very strong dance community that people who want to dance can tap into. You don't absolutely have to get yourself a teacher. But here? Forget about it. You just can't learn how to dance Tango by watching your friends (in my opinion, anyway). You have to have expert guidance, especially in the beginning. Or you'll find yourself completely stuck at square one until you eventually give up in frustration, or convince yourself that you know what you're doing -- because of all the time you've put in -- when, in fact, you don't.

Okay, let's say you recognize that a teacher -- the right teacher, naturally -- is crucial to your process. What's the fast track to becoming a Tango dancer as quickly as you can? Let's compare Tango to eating a delicious meal. Do you just shove it into your system all at once? Of course not. You enjoy the process of slowly ingesting every morsel of food as you take it in. You savor every bite. If you happen on a piece of grizzle, you put it aside on your plate, and quickly get back to the enjoyable part.

The process of learning Tango is -- or can be -- exactly the same. As you've found out by this time, the basics of this incredible dance are difficult to master. I work on the basics all the time, because I now know (I didn't always) that this is what makes me a good dancer, and opens the door to consistently getting better. Have you heard any of this before? Is this a great epiphany? I'm sure it's not. But what I'd like you to do this year -- right now, in fact -- is to start actually believing it.

Got the idea? Here, then, is your fast track to learning Tango:

1.     Find the right teacher.

2.     Do not under any circumstances get sucked into learning memorized figures.

3.     Work constantly on your basics.

4.     Repeat as necessary (which probably means forever).

Will you learn? I guarantee it. How soon? Give me a break.

Please join Fran and Pat for our Saturday Practica at Pearl Studios, 500 8^th Avenue (between 35^th and 36^th Streets; 2-4pm, $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Fran and Pat will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. If you’d like a private lesson, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com. For the practice, all you have to do is arrive with $10 and your dance shoes in hand.

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

I forgot two important helpers last week.  Please forgive me, Steve Turi (with a capital S and a capital T) and Joseph Leung.

• Debbie Glaser
  
• Sydney St. James
  
• Elena Titova
  
• Elena Syrett
  
• steve turi
  
• Steve M