Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Since November 5 of last year (2015), I've been concentrating exclusively on what is often called "musicality;" i.e., responding to a piece of Tango music as a leader in a way which acknowledges the rhythm/melody in an appropriate and personal way.

In total, I've offered 16 Tango Tips devoted to this single subject. During this discussion, we've learned (I hope) that --

·      Music consists of various kinds of beats

·      These beats can be recognized, when heard by a knowledgeable dancer

·      These beats can be defined in musical terms

·      This ability may help to some degree in the process of actually dancing to a piece of music

Nonetheless, if you're new to the idea of musicality in Tango -- even if you've been following this discussion diligently -- you still may experience difficulty, when it comes to actually being able to move musically to a piece of Tango music with confidence and skill.

One possible factor in this dilemma might be your prior orientation in learning how to dance. If you've studied any of the American/European/Latin dances, for example, one of the first things you were almost certainly taught was a "basic step" -- a series of fixed, sequential movements, which consisted of a rigidly prescribed internal rhythm of some kind. Such information probably enabled you to begin moving to the music of a particular social dance form more or less immediately.

When learning Tango, on the other hand, you quickly found out that there is NO basic step to rely on, and that there is NO fixed rhythm whatever. Everything is improvised by the leader. Therefore, for those of us who come from the American/European/Latin tradition, Tango is totally alien to anything we've ever been exposed to in our experience. It is little wonder that Tango is perceived by many of us to be -- at least initially -- an almost insurmountable challenge.

Furthermore, the fact is that everything we've talked about in this somewhat lengthy and (sorry about that) technical discussion of musicality in Tango really just gets us to square one. Without a "basic step" for us to rely on, most of us start out by feeling paralyzed to move at all, at least in the beginning. Over time, however, and with the appropriate training and motivation, we can gradually adapt to the notion that our job as leaders is to make up our own individual way of interacting to the music -- that in Tango, we improvise not only the individual movements and sequences, but the rhythmic response as well.

Before I leave this topic, I want to address one other question that often comes up in discussions about musicality. Do we respond to the underlying rhythm (as I've been suggesting throughout this series of Tango Tips) or to some other aspect of the music? Some people advance the idea that at least at the highest levels, we can choose to dance to the melody, or that we can pick some specific aspect of the music -- the bandoneon, the violin, the piano, the vocal -- and move to that. From observing a great many social Tango dancers native to Argentina, I have come to the conclusion that dancing to the music of Tango is primarily a rhythmic undertaking rather than one, which is melodic. I don't mean that nobody dances to the melody; only that the majority of people I have observed over the years seem to move -- either instinctively or by choice -- to the rhythm of the music as a matter of course.

Next week, I'm going to begin another topic, but I'd welcome any questions or thoughts you might have about the subject of musicality.

See you next week.

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
• Mike Porro
• ​​​​​​​​Steve Turi