Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Last week, I talked about one of the concepts, which I consider to be at the heart of a leader's ability to dance social Tango appropriately. I characterized this concept with the phrase Your dance is her dance. For a closer look at what this means, I hope you'll reread last week's Tip. In my opinion, the application of this principle has the potential to improve your Tango almost immediately. 

There is another principle, which I find quite compelling, and which I'd like to discuss with you today. It is the idea that Tango is in the stops, not the movements.

One of the things I hear from students all the time is that Tango is the hardest dance they've ever tried to learn. I know that I felt the same way myself for many years; i.e., until I came upon the two major principles which inform my dance today:

1.     My dance is her dance.

2.     Tango is in the stops, not the movements.

When we think about the idea of dancing in this country, we tend to believe that any given social dance consists of continuous motion. This is our ingrained tradition. Once we start moving, we don't stop until the dance is over. If anyone reading this has ever tried any of our own social dances, this is exactly what happens. The music begins, we go; the music stops, we stop. Sometimes, we hear from our (ballroom) teachers a vague notion that we should be brushing the feet as we move from step to step, but the idea of actually stopping between movements is nothing short of alien to our concept of social dancing.

Tango -- completely unlike our own tradition of social dance -- is built on the principle that any movement we make can end in a stop. Both leaders and followers in Argentina learn this right from the beginning -- not as a stated principle, but as a practical skill, which everybody practices automatically. Asi se baila el tango. This is how we dance Tango.

The problem for us here in this country is that people in Argentina take this way of dancing for granted, and don't think to tell us that this is the way it's done. I don't think the notion ever occurs to them. I certainly never heard this idea from any of my Argentine-born teachers, when I was first learning. And the result of not knowing this is that we as leaders tend follow our own tradition of wanting to just keep going all the time.

To be fair, what we do hear is that it's the follower's job at the end of any given step to wait -- because she doesn't know what the leader is going to ask for next. Okay, great. This is half the equation. But the other half -- the idea that leaders are also supposed to at least consider stopping at the end of some of their steps -- seems to somehow get lost in translation.

When I teach Tango, I try my best to let both leaders and followers in on the secret that coming to rest at the end of their movements is an important part of the dance. This certainly doesn't mean that they have to stop after every step. But because the follower definitely does not know what's going to happen next, she must absolutely bring herself to a stop, and allow the leader to invite a next movement, or not. Beginning dancers have trouble with this idea, because it feels as if the flow is being interrupted. They just want go, go, go.

I try to get them to stop, stop, stop.

I have an exercise, which I try to get couples to incorporate into their dancing right from the beginning. I call it "single-step movement." Once a couple has an idea of how to lead and follow -- and once they recognize what I consider to be the five fundamental movements in the social dance; i.e., forward, backward, side, in-place, and pause -- I ask them to lead/follow each of these movements in an improvisational way, stopping between each of the steps, making sure they find their balance individually without leaning on or otherwise interfering with one another, and only then continuing on to the next movement of the leader's choice.

I tell my students that in my opinion, this is the most important exercise they will ever do in learning how to dance Tango. Cynically, I would say that most of these students yawn and put up with me until they can move on to what they really want -- elaborate stage-oriented sequences and flashy adornments -- but a few bite the bullet and at least give this principle a try.

I'm convinced that these are the people who ultimately learn how to dance Tango in the Argentine tradition.

Getting back to the principle: Tango is in the stops, not the movements. Here is what I think you will derive as a direct benefit, if you give this idea a try. When the follower does her job, stopping and bringing herself into balance at the end of every step she takes -- without having to be forced to stop by her leader -- it becomes possible for the leader to invite any possible movement from what I sometimes call her "neutral position." In fact, because she's at rest and in balance, she's ready for anything. On the other hand, if she's off balance, if she's leaning one way or another -- if she's actually taking an additional step all by herself, for example -- her leader can't invite her to do much of anything. All he can do is decide to chase her (allowing her to "back-lead"), or attempt to force her uncomfortably into whatever step or action he wants her to take.

Not fun.

On the other side of the coin, it is the leader's job to clearly recognize that his follower is, in fact, doing her job by attempting to come to a stop between steps, and to continually enable her to do this -- instead of relentlessly pushing her brutishly from one movement to another in the service of completing a pre-ordained sequence, which he may have in his head.

Practicing this skill together as a partnership takes quite a bit of doing. It calls for a highly sophisticated collaboration, which can require months -- or years -- to perfect. But the end result -- at least in my opinion -- is an ascent into Tango nirvana. Once you get there, you'll never want to go back.

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.

• Elena Titova
• Steve Maisch
• Jesse Barton
• Tsipoyra Sartan