Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. I have a question for you. Why do you dance Tango? What was your first motivation for becoming involved in this very-difficult-to-master discipline?

I remember clearly how and why I started. I attended the show “Tango Argentino” on Broadway, and realized that I had never seen anything like this in my dance life before. To me, Tango was a monumental discovery. It was nothing short of a miracle. I immediately decided that I just had to learn how to execute those fancy steps they were doing on stage.

Most of the available teachers at that time were quite willing to spell out any complex figure I wanted in exchange for a steady and reliable flow of income. I dimly recall that one or two enlightened souls may have apologetically attempted to explain to me how I first had to build a foundation for the dance by learning how to walk.

Walk? I already know how to walk. I’m a professional dancer. Just show me the steps!

Other students of my acquaintance — people who were not necessarily “professional dancers” — generally had the same response to the learning process: Walk? Who needs to learn how to walk? Give us the steps!

Eventually — and please believe me, I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming to this revelation — I became aware that stage Tango and social Tango were two completely different entities. To make a long story short, I learned that stage Tango was choreographed, rehearsed, codified, and designed to impress an audience (one’s mother, one’s friends, onlookers at social occasions, paying customers — such audiences all come to mind). Social Tango was improvisational — executed from moment to moment — designed to enhance the ongoing, intimate communication between one leader and one follower.

Does this sound like something you might be interested in? As it turns out, most people prefer spectacle to intimacy. But there are always those special few, who are willing to search further.

Now, truth to tell, it isn’t that I don’t like complicated figures. Actually, I love them. I’ve spent many hours, taking hundreds of workshops with performers in order to learn and advance my skills as a wannabe stage dancer. When challenged to “show me what you got,” I’m proud to say that I can deliver the goods. Furthermore, when I happen upon a particularly impressive move on YouTube, I can almost always figure it out pretty quickly.

And yet … in my teaching of Tango I focus almost exclusively on the social dance. If you decide to study with me, I will try my best to cajole, entice, browbeat, coerce, and otherwise convince you that social Tango is the righteous path to salvation. If, on the other hand, you have an agenda, which consists of all your wish-list fantasy moves, I will say to you:

Okay, fine, but let’s learn to walk first.

Shall we?

In a recent interview appearing on YouTube, the renowned milonguero Flaco Dani said he strongly believed that passing down the music and dance tradition of one’s country from one generation to the next was a necessary mandate for those who had the power to do so. Pat and I agree, and to this end we’ve begun what we call the American Social Dance Project, an all-new initiative designed to preserve and nurture real American social dancing – the way it was meant to be.

We’ve kicked off our project with what we call “Class One” – a weekly exploration of three important American Social Dances: Foxtrot, Triple Swing, and Salsa. (Yes, we know Salsa is from the Caribbean – but here in America, we’ve adopted this and many other social dance forms as our own since the 1920s.)

We hope you like the idea of keeping American social dance alive, not competitive or performance dancing, but real social dance the way it was traditionally done. To that end, we invite you to join us every Monday evening at 8:00 p.m. for a fun-filled social dance fix. We guarantee that you’ll have a ball!

Here are the details:

Class One

Concentrating on authentic American Foxtrot, Triple Swing and Salsa

Mondays, 8:00 p.m.

Studios 353

353 West 48^th Street, Second floor (between 8^th and 9^th

Avenues)

New York City

This Monday: Special Holiday Treat – A Mambo performance in the authentic Cuban style by Fran and Pat!

The longest-running and friendliest practica in NYC! Come join our happy group of social tango dancers, whose sole purpose is to enjoy dancing and to practice what they’re learning. Everyone dances! Essential Tango Therapy! Pat and I will be on hand to answer any questions you may have, and help you with material you’re working on. Plus you get a new “must-have” move each week! No partner required, all levels. Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46^th Street, 11^th floor, (bet. 6^th & 7^th Aves) www.franchesleigh.com

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.

• Steve Turi
• Lynn Gross
• Tsipoyra Sartan
• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Steve Maisch