Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Today, I'd like to share with you what for me was a truly "eureka" moment -- one which enabled me to begin dancing Tango more like people do in Argentina -- and which I hope might be useful to you in your own dancing, whether you're a leader or a follower.

In order to fully explain what I'm talking about here, we'll need to begin with a little history. (Now, come on, don't start yawning; I promise to keep it short.)

In the late nineteenth century in Argentina, Tango was a newly evolving social dance. There is evidence that it originated from various influences in its distant past. However, what is important to us right now is that this unique dance form was being further refined primarily by working-class men in the social clubs where they met regularly after their day's work. In this environment, men who were skilled at the intricacies of Tango often introduced neophytes to the dance by actually having these newcomers serve as followers. Once a man had built a solid foundation by learning how to follow, he was eventually  "promoted" to the role of leader, and then had to prove his skill as such before being deemed ready for the dancehall.

For the most part, women -- at least "respectable" women -- were largely not involved in this process. Instead, they were leading sheltered lives, surrounded by protective relatives who inevitably felt a moral obligation to keep them quite separated from these rough-and-tumble males -- no doubt in order to preserve their innocence and virtue.

One of the few venues in which a man stood even the slimmest chance of being able to meet and interact with one of these highly protected women was la milonga -- the social dance. Here, a man had to go through an arduous ritual of being introduced to a woman by first being approved by her parents, her duenna, her brothers and sisters, her cousins once removed ... you name it. And when the highly scrutinized couple finally found themselves together on the dance floor at long last, it became instantly obvious that she had absolutely no idea how to dance Tango.

The man's job, therefore, was to bring the skill he had developed in the social clubs to bear in order to show her what to do, right then and there on the dance floor! Not by telling her, "This is what you're supposed to do," but by gently and expertly guiding her through every single movement of the dance, and allowing her to finish one thing before inviting another. At the same time, the woman was well aware that, because she had no idea what was going to happen from one step to the next, her role was to follow each step that was led, and then wait for the next lead -- rather than attempting to outguess what her partner might want from moment to moment.

Thus, we have here the birth of a very specific social dancing skill set: he leads, she follows -- one step at a time. This tradition was quite different from the prevailing European convention of the time -- in which steps were demonstrated by a "dance master," and then memorized by a couple for more or less instant application on the dance floor. (Our own American ballroom dance tradition has largely maintained this manner of learning how to dance. Men on one side of the room, women on the other; here are the steps; take a partner, you're ready to dance -- that'll be 100 bucks, please.)

Sound familiar?

This was the tradition I grew up in -- the powerful belief system that, in fact, formed the basis for my entire professional dance experience: Learning to dance equals memorizing figures and applying technique -- period! Then, suddenly in 1986, I was slowly dragged kicking and screaming toward the possibility of another way. For me, it began when I started to realize the import of what my Argentine-born teachers had been saying, "There are no steps in Tango." What they meant by this somewhat cryptic declaration, of course, was that there are no memorized steps in social Tango, that the Argentine tradition is rooted in moment-to-moment improvisation.

What? You make it up as you go along? Someone please wake me up. My Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire teachers are apoplectic. My students think I've been lying to them all these years. Life as I know it is over! Get me an aspirin!

Anyway, this was my "eureka" moment: he leads, she follows -- one step at a time.

If you take Tango lessons with me right now, you know that we spend a lot of time trying to learn the dance through this unique, lead/follow perspective. I don't go so far as to tell you that there are no memorized steps in this very complex dance. You and I both know that there are lots of them -- particularly if you want to pursue a stage career. But my ongoing focus is to convince you that as a social dancer, memorized figures should be addressed some time in the distant future. The important thing right now is for you to learn how to dance -- how to lead and how to follow -- just like those folks in the social clubs and milongas of Buenos Aires.

If you're a leader, I'd be very pleased to see you try to approach each dance as an opportunity to gently and slowly guide your follower through every individual step, waiting for her to balance at the end of each movement before proceeding to the next. If you're a follower, I believe that it would change your dance completely, if you could start thinking of each step you're led to take as an opportunity to bring yourself comfortably into balance at its completion -- without attempting or being forced to take one or more additional steps on your own.

As the song says, asi se baila el tango. This is how Tango is danced. Once you get this more authentic way of approaching Tango into your system, I'm confident -- well, at least hopeful -- that, like me, you just won't want to dance any other way.

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.

Ring in 2015 with Argentine Tango

TANGO LOCO VI

New Years Milonga

To Simply Enjoy Dance & Friendship

at

Grand Ballroom

Authentic Argentine Tango Music provided by

DJ Al Ko

8:00 PM – 1:00 AM

December 31, 2014

Light Nibbles

BYOW

Champagne at Midnight

$30 before 12/15

$35 12/16 – 12/30

$40 at the door (if space is available)

Mail checks payable to “Tango Loco” to:

Michael Porro

180 Old Tappan Rd. Bldg 5, Old Tappan, NJ 07675

Grand Ballroom Dance Studio

Midland Park Shopping Center (around the back)

85 Godwin Ave, Midland Park, NJ 07432

For additional information call 201-768-0218 or email: porro@erols.com

TANGO LOCO MILONGA is a spontaneous event that arises when the spirit moves us and

we have the opportunity to host extraordinary teachers of dance for our tango community.

On this night, our extraordinary teachers are you!

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

• Tsipoyra Sartan
• Georgina
• Ferdinand (Ferdie)
• Hilda
• Rafael
• Steve M
• Elena T
• Tsipoyra
• Elena S
• Jessie
• Mike P
  
• Barbara