Happy New Year, everybody, Fran here with your first Tango Tip of the Week for 2016! If you remember where we left off in our discussion of rhythmic movement in Tango, the last thing we addressed before the holiday break was what I called "Exercise 4" -- moving in place with a partner to the beat of the music. (For a detailed description of this important exercise, please reread the Tango Tip of December 17, 2015.)

Today, I want to backtrack a little in order to focus on a key -- but often overlooked -- element of moving to the rhythm. It is the idea of ending on the beat of the music.

What do I mean by that?

We could identify any movement we make in dance is an action. An action consists of a beginning, a middle, and an ending:

·      First, we initiate the action (the beginning).

·      Second, we travel through space -- or simply move from one foot to the other as in the case of a weight change in place -- (the middle).

·      Third, we commit our weight to the other foot, bringing ourselves into balance (the ending).

Most of us don't think about movement in the way I just outlined it above. Instead, we tend to think of any individual movement as an end result: "I stepped to the beat of the music." We don't even notice the fact that in order to finish a given movement on the musical beat, we had to first initiate the action (the beginning), and then we had to travel through space (the middle).

Over the years, I have occasionally had one or two students initiate their movement on the musical beat -- rather than ending it on the beat. Although this is not at all prevalent among dance students, there are enough people who respond to the beat of the music in this way that I believe it warrants further exploration.

Let's go back to an earlier exercise in accurately hearing and responding to the musical beat. In our Tango Tip of November 19, 2015, we talked about what I called Exercise 1-- finding your own way of responding to a piece of music. (You can reread that Tip, if you don't remember what it was all about.) In that preliminary exercise, one way in which we determined our ability to respond to a musical piece was to physically clap to the beat.

The action of clapping, of course, is not unlike the action of executing a dance movement:

1.     It has a beginning -- the hands start by being apart and begin to move toward one another.

2.     It has a middle -- the hands travel a short distance through space.

3.     It has an ending -- the hands actually connect with one another, thereby producing the sound of the clap.

When we engage in the clapping exercise, the sole criterion of success is to reach the end of the movement -- to make the clapping sound -- on the musical beat. In executing this exercise very few, if any, of us would think of initiating the clapping movement on the musical beat. Our "natural inclination" rather would be to clap on the beat -- i.e., to reach the ending of the clapping movement -- as the beat occurred.

In the same way, our goal in dance movement is to end the action of moving to coincide with the occurrence of the musical beat, rather than to initiate it. First, we learn to land on the beat by ourselves. Next, we further develop and refine this skill by being able to do it in the very special lead/follow mechanism in which we move in concert with a partner.

If you're one of those people who find this all very easy -- meaning that your have an “instinct” for rhythmic movement -- you might be scratching your head right now, saying "Why does Fran feel the need to spell all this out in such minute detail?" The reason is that in my experience as a teacher I've seen that not everybody possesses this "natural" ability, and my ultimate goal is to make it possible for all of us to be able to move in rhythm with confidence and comfort.

Okay, that's probably more than you ever hoped to hear about landing on the beat of the music. Next week, we're going to start moving through space. In the meantime, grab a partner and practice Exercise 4 as described in our Tango Tip of December 19, 2015, until you feel you've absolutely "got it." If there's any doubt, work with your teacher, who will be able to verify whether you're moving in rhythm or not.

Once again from Pat and me, Happy New Year, everyone! Let's make 2016 our breakthrough year for developing our Tango to its full potential.

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 at www.facebook.com/franchesleighllc

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
• Steve Maisch
• Bob Brillo 
• Lynn Gross
• Marta Bautis
• Hilda Genni