Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. During our last Tango Tip, I introduced a series of four checklists, which are designed to help students direct their mental and physical energies, when dancing Tango. I started with checklist #1, which I call "Me at rest." This checklist is intended to create a primary focus for everything you do in social Tango. Just as a reminder, the elements of the first checklist are the following:

1.     Deep breath

2.     Clear mind

3.     Posture

4.     Heels together

5.     Neutral position

For a more detailed description of these elements, you can reread last week's Tango Tip. Be sure to integrate the elements of checklist #1 into everything you do from now on.

Today, we're going to talk about our second checklist, which I call "Me in motion." As with our first checklist, you can also work your way through this one at home. All you need is room enough to take a single step without bumping into the furniture. "Me in motion" means exactly that. Rather than moving in a more or less unconscious, unfocused way, you're now going to start paying very careful attention to the fundamentals of social Tango movement as they apply to you by yourself.

Before I list the elements of checklist #2, I'm going to itemize once again the lexicon of fundamental movements, which comprise our basic Tango vocabulary. These are the 5 basic elements of linear movement in the social dance:

1.     Weight changes in place

2.     Pauses

3.     Steps to the side

4.     Forward steps

5.     Backward steps

As I hope you remember, we've discussed in detail how to execute each of these movements many times during previous Tango Tips. For this reason, it is not my intent to provide a complete description of them here. Today, we're going to concentrate on making these movements very conscious and very deliberate -- rather than simply blundering into them and hoping for the best without thinking.

Here are the components of checklist #2 ("Me in motion"):

Define the elements of movement clearly in your mind

Every individual step you take can be thought of as comprising three elements.

We'll be talking about each one of them as we move through this checklist:

·      Beginning (Initiating/responding to the lead/follow mechanism)

·      Middle (Effecting motion)

·      End (Balance -- creating the neutral position)

Begin each step with intention

Leaders -- As you embark on any given step in Tango, it's crucial for you to remember that the beginning of your movement is the part of the step in which you invite your partner to respond by initiating a movement of her own. (We'll be talking much more about this, when we discuss our fourth checklist in two weeks.) For this reason, your beginning can't be tentative. It has to be direct and confident -- what Argentine teachers often refer to as intention.

Followers – For you, the beginning of each step is your response to his lead. As such, when you're practicing an individual movement by yourself, it's important to initiate each step with the same kind of intention.

Travel with conviction

Part 2 of any given step in Tango (the middle) is where you actually move through space -- or at least change weight from one axis to the other (as in the weight change in place). As you practice moving by yourself in any of the three traveling movements (forward, backward, to the side), resist the temptation to simply lunge from the beginning of your movement to the end, trying to get to the conclusion of the step as quickly as possible. Instead, keep very conscious of the entire span of movement as you travel through space. Slow down as much as you can, and feel the progression of the movement as it unfolds. Furthermore, as an exercise, try to make each step approximately the same length as the width of your shoulders. This will not apply to all Tango steps all the time, of course, but it's a good way to begin traveling with conviction as you practice moving by yourself.

Find "neutral"

Part 3 of every traveling step in Tango (The end) is where both partners finish their movement in balance. I like to place very special emphasis on this part of the step with my students, because mutually independent balance is unquestionably the foundation for any subsequent movement in the dance. If either the leader or follower is out of balance, there's no way the couple can effectively proceed to the next element within a pre-planned or improvised sequence in a comfortable way. The state in which a couple is able to create balance is what I call "neutral." It opens the door for any possible continuation.

A lack of balance creates exactly the opposite effect. The place to practice this balance, of course, is movement by oneself. Whether you're a leader or follower, try your best to bring every traveling movement you attempt into quiet, upright balance. If you find that you tend to fall to the other side as you complete a given movement, keep working on it until you can consistently end with your weight on the traveling leg. This development of consciousness about the end of each step will become the basis for the challenges of movement within a partnership. Please make absolutely certain to practice this part of your Tango steps everyday.

Are you ready to work with a partner? Next week, we'll look at checklist #3, "Us at rest," which brings leader and follower together, focusing on forming the Tango embrace, and preparing to dance. See you then.

Please join us for our Saturday Practica at Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46^th Street (between 6^th and 7^th Avenues), 11^th floor; 2-4pm, $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Pat and I will both be on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. Plus you get a new “must-have” tango move each week! If you’d like a private lesson, you can visit our website at www.franchesleigh.com, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com Join us on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/franchesleighllc