Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. In last week's Tip I talked about how becoming a skilled Tango dancer depends to a large extent on developing a positive relationship with the learning process. At the end of the discussion I listed what I consider to be four crucial elements that make learning possible:

1.     Continuous, progressive work, focused in the right direction

2.     Infinite patience

3.     Humility

4.     A healthy sense of humor

Today, I'd like to talk briefly about these elements in detail:

Work

If you want to be a Tango dancer, wishing will definitely NOT make it so. You have to decide that you're going to put in a significant amount of time and effort to get the job done. This involves classes (at minimum) and, if you can afford it, ongoing private lessons with a competent teacher. It involves practicing on a regular basis in conjunction with your lessons, preferably with several different partners. And, of course, it involves dancing whenever you can. All these things are components of an integrated process, which committed dancers find not only useful, but very satisfying as they gradually progress from one skill level to the next. If you experience the learning process as painful, boring, or a necessary evil, you might want to start considering other pursuits.

Patience

There are lots of people who would like to KNOW how to dance Tango, but who really don't want to spend the time it takes to actually LEARN Tango. The learning process is not linear. You don't learn a specific skill, and move directly on to the next skill (although, to be sure, all of us wish that this were the case.)  Learning Tango is more like setting off on a journey, which takes you on a circuitous, winding road that keeps turning back on itself as you travel along. Each time you find yourself in the same place again, you realize that you've gained a little more skill, a little more insight, and a little more awareness of the enormity of what you're trying to accomplish. Continuing on such a journey demands infinite patience. People who want it all right now don't do well in this environment.

Humility

After your first year or so of studying Tango, you may find that you've actually picked up one or two rudimentary dance skills. At this point, you may start believing that you've somehow become a member of an exclusive club, that you're better than other dancers, that it's time for you to begin sharing your deep knowledge and insight with others -- by teaching everyone you meet on the dance floor what it's really all about. These thoughts and feelings are very common among beginners (people who were not born and raised in Argentina, and have been dancing Tango for less than, let's say, thirty five or forty years).

There’s only one way to handle such unproductive mental fantasies. Just don’t do it! No matter how much you’ve learned up to now, the journey even to minimal competence in Tango never ends. Stay curious; stay focused; stay humble. And please don’t teach.

Humor

I take Tango very, very seriously. I've been dancing -- and teaching -- Tango at a professional level for thirty years. Once in a while, I actually think I more or less know what I'm doing. A well executed ocho here, an impressive molinete there .... Then, I trip over my partner's feet (sorry, Pat!), or totally lose my balance during a simple walking step. Oops! I used to get embarrassed by things like this. I'm supposed to be an example to my students; I can't be seen making a mistake -- you know, all that kind of self-referential nonsense. Nowadays, when things go wrong, I just laugh. One more little thought I now make sure to pass on to my students as often as possible, and tell myself as well whenever I'm awake:

Remember, it's only dancing, folks.

Try saying that to yourself twice a day. Maybe even three times. When Tango makes you feel all dark and serious, take a deep breath, smell the coffee, and force yourself, if necessary, to engage in an extended giggle. It will do you a world of good. And somewhere along the way, all of this may help you -- as it has helped me -- to fall hopelessly in love with the learning process.

Next week, I'm going to talk about what I think of as the fundamentals of skill development in learning Tango. In the meantime, ask yourself how effectively and enthusiastically you put work, patience, humility, and humor into your own learning process. And whenever you get the opportunity, go out and dance.

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

• Ingrid Jacob - Cherry Cake
  

• Barbara Lombardi
  
• Mary Pagano
  
• George Ngo
  
• Mike Casale
  
• Bob Brillo