Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. In teaching social Tango, I strongly believe that the following two inter-related concepts virtually define the essence of the dance:

1.      As a leader, it is crucial for you to take control of each step you initiate, deciding in the moment whether you’ll continue into the next movement, or come to a complete stop.

2.      As a follower, you have no choice but to wait.

If you read my Tango Tip last week, you know that I do not subscribe to unconscious, continuous movement in Tango. The fact that so many leaders automatically fall into this way of dancing suggests to me that either they haven’t been taught properly, or they haven’t been paying attention to what their teachers have been telling them. In any event, let’s talk about what it means to incorporate these two ideas into your dancing.

Tango is an improvisational dance. This means that (in theory, at least) a leader makes choices about what to do next after every step he takes. First and foremost, he decides whether to come to a complete stop, or to continue moving. If he elects to continue moving, he chooses forward, backward, sideward, or in-place movement. At the same time, he invites his follower to move through space, to change weight in place, or to pivot. These decisions require absolute balance at the moment each of his prior steps have been completed. If the leader is unconsciously falling through space himself, there is simply no way he can maintain any kind of reasonable control over these choices. In fact, as we so often see, the dance actually ends up controlling the leader.

As a follower, each movement you make is entirely dependent on starting from a foundation of solid balance. If your leader suddenly requires you to stop, to reverse direction, to execute ocho, molinete, or some kind of complex pattern — and you’re not in control of your balance — it will be virtually impossible for you to comply with his invitation.

Social Tango involves two people in an interdependent embrace, trying to function as a single entity. By the very nature of such a relationship, even the simplest movement can be extremely challenging. If either the leader or follower (or both) compromise the interchange even further by neglecting balance at the completion of each step, the entire enterprise can easily become disastrous.

What can you do to increase the chances of success in your dancing? If you’re a follower, the answer is quite straightforward. Insist on finding balance at the end of each step you’re asked to take. This doesn’t necessarily mean coming to an absolute stop. What you do next is largely up to your leader. But it very definitely does mean noticing whether you’re being thrown totally off-balance, and being forced to literally fall into the next movement. At the same time, make every effort to maintain full consciousness in ending your steps; don’t pull your leader off balance by failing to control your own equilibrium.

If you’re a leader, begin to recognize that your follower’s balance — and the basis for every step she takes — is your responsibility. Yes, she does indeed have to find her own stasis as she completes each movement; but it’s up to you to avoid hindering that process — or actually preventing it — by constantly sending her precariously past the point of no return in an attempt to execute a complex pattern or to maintain a rigid adherence to the insistent cadence of the music.

Dancing Tango at any level is difficult. Whether you’re a leader or a follower, please start making your dance feel more comfortable for both yourself and your partner, by putting balance at the top of your list of skills to master.

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: Our final Holiday Treat Performance – Foxtrot in the classic social 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
• Jesse Barton
  
• ​​​​​​​Hilda and Rafael
• and thanks to all the other folks who helped.  It really makes our job much easier, and we certainly appreciate it.