Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. I have a confession I want to make. It's a secret I want to share with you about me. Well, the fact is that anyone who knows me at all is already well aware of what I'm about to reveal to you, but here goes anyway: I love, I mean, I absolutely LOVE, the learning process!

There, I've said it.

I know, I know. This isn't big news, right? My students all know my secret. I love teaching. That's all there is to it. When I'm given the chance to show somebody something, I jump at the opportunity. I just can't get enough of teaching.

On the other side of the coin, I love learning, too. Being in the presence of an individual who's able to transmit a body of information to an audience in a way that works is for me miraculous to watch, and to participate in -- even when I already know the material they're teaching.

Wow!

There are lots of people who would like to KNOW things, but have a lot of trouble, when it comes to actually LEARNING them. Does this sound familiar? Many people are, in fact, scared to death of the learning process. They feel terribly uncomfortable, when they can't pick something up -- even a major skill like, let's say, Argentine Tango -- in five minutes or less. A little voice keeps telling them, "See, you'll never learn this: you don't have what it takes; look at everyone else; they're all getting it right away; you're the only one here who just ..." Well, you know the rest.

There was a time, when this would have described me to a tee. The thought that kept running around in my head was something like "Either you know things or you don't -- there's no way to go from ignorance to knowledge." I was completely paralyzed. And, frankly, all my attempts to learn even the simplest things failed. Either you know, or you don't.

Somehow, somewhere, I eventually found out about what I'm going to call process. To make a long story short, process is like a train you get on in order to get from point "A" (ignorance) to point "B" (knowledge). Along the way, you encounter all kinds of people, places, and things. You meet teachers, you discover learning methods, you become all-too-easily tempted by short cuts (YouTube comes immediately to mind), you immerse yourself in classes, practice, and lots of dancing (we're talking about learning Argentine Tango here, folks), and you discover the 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

Next week, we’ll talk about these four elements in detail. For now, I invite you to ask yourself how you feel about learning Tango. Are you in love with the process? Are you excited? Are you ready to do whatever it takes to become a Tango dancer?

Let us know what you think.

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

• George Ngo - Vegetable Chips
• Flo Salierno - Dessert- and what a dessert it was - a red, white, and blue tiramisu.  Flo brought a huge tray, and it was eaten, down to the last crumb.  Yummy.

• Barbara Lombardi
  
• Bill Kennick
  
• Walter Milani
  
• Camille
  
• George Ngo
  
• Richard Abrahamsen
  
• Mike Casale
  
• Bob Brillo
  
• June Stahl
  
• Francis & Marie