Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. If you've ever taken a class in Ballroom, Swing, or Latin dancing, you know that each dance invariably begins with what's called a basic step. In my "Ten Commandments" of American ballroom dance (which I offered in my Tango Tip of October 6, 2016) I referred to this concept as the "Forth Commandment": The learning of each dance form begins by memorizing, practicing, and perfecting what is called a basic step.

In the American/European manner of teaching ballroom dance, the basic step is allegedly designed to provide the student with an easy way to start the ball rolling. It might be a simple, repeating figure, traditionally considered a primary element of that particular dance. Or it might be an invented structure that teachers have determined over time will make the initial stages of the learning process somewhat easier for the student. All this, of course, is predicated on the principle that learning a given dance discipline consists of accumulating a progressive series of memorized figures, beginning with the basic step, and moving on from there.

In American ballroom dance this may be true. But in Tango it most definitely is not.

One of the very first admonitions I received as a beginning student in Tango from my Argentina-born teachers was the following: Not only is there no basic step in Tango; there are no steps at all. Quite to the contrary, according to my teachers, Tango is completely improvisational, depending for its content exclusively on the imagination and creativity of the individual practitioner.

To an American, this idea is absolutely alien to everything we know. It turns our process completely on its head. We base our dance on formal structures. The Argentines base their dance on individual inspiration. How could we be further apart?

Let's look a bit deeper into this difference in the two ways of learning. If I am offered a specific figure right from the beginning of my learning process, it gives me something to do right away; it provides me with an anchor, a way to act as if I can actually dance now. American dance students love this approach. It makes them feel as if they're getting to the heart of things right away. How often have I heard students say, "Just show me the steps; I'll learn the technique some other time."

Conversely, this approach virtually eliminates any possibility of creativity, which, in the Argentine sensibility is the crucial component of dancing Tango. By locking the student into a pre-determined series of rigidly prescribed movements, they say, creative choices are utterly precluded as the student attempts to navigate from one movement to the next.

Which way is "better?" The structural approach certainly yields results much more quickly. But are these results the ones we actually want in the process of learning Tango? The answer, it seems, depends upon whether we want to dance Tango “authentically”; i.e., improvisationally, or mechanically (memorized) in the manner of our contemporary ballroom tradition. Ask your teacher what he/she thinks about this. Don't have a teacher? (Exasperated sigh!!!)

Get one now.

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

• ​​​Henry Kim - Cookies
  
• Lilian & Al - Birthday Cassava Cake for Debbie
  
• Fred Ritz - Deviled Eggs
  

• Barbara Lombardi
  
• Mary Pagano
  
• Mike Casale
  
• Walter Milani
  
• Richard Abrahamsen
  
• Carl Schaefer
  
• Bob Brillo
  
• Camille
  
• Francis & Marie
  
• Eduardo Campos