Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Did you read last week’s Tango Tip? If so, you may remember that I listed what I think are the important components of learning how to dance social Tango well. In fact, I added one today as I was writing this Tip. Over the coming weeks, I’d like to discuss each one of these elements in terms of what I believe is their relative importance to one’s overall learning process. These are the following:

•    Practicas

•    Milongas

•    The social club/my friend’s sister

•    Natural ability

•    Classes

•    Focused workshops

•    Private lessons

•    Consciousness

Today, I’m going to talk about practicas and milongas. These represent the two major opportunities people have for actually dancing socially.

One could argue that beginning students really need preliminary exposure to dancing in partnership before gaining enough practical experience to benefit from structured lessons of any kind. Such exposure is usually gained these days by attending practicas and/or milongas for some period of time in order to “try out” the social dance process to see whether one enjoys it. Of course, for experienced dancers, practicas and milongas are the venues in which they “do their stuff.” For beginners, on the other hand, these events are more like suddenly being thrown into the deep water, and told to swim your way to shore.

Fun, right?

In fact, this is the way many people have traditionally learned to dance. One of the boasts I’ve often heard from people (I’m really talking about men here) who survive this process and continue to dance is: “I’ve never taken a lesson in my life.” The people who say this invariably do so with great pride — as if to strongly imply that the great skill they have ultimately achieved over the years is a result of their own individual efforts rather than having been shaped or influenced by so-called “teachers” — the implied equivalent of snake oil salesmen.

Although I prefer not to think of myself as a purveyor of snake oil, I do actually believe that there is merit in this shock-and-awe approach to learning, especially if you don’t mind spending 30 years or so, slowly and meticulously assimilating and honing your skills through trial and (lots of) error. But I digress ….

Here are a few facts to muse about. The overwhelming majority of women I’ve met in my life either like or more often — absolutely love — the idea of social dancing. “To be held in a romantic embrace, to be swept along the dance floor, to be mesmerized by the music …” Well, you get the idea. At the same time, men — at least the ones I’ve generally encountered — tend to think of dancing (if they think about it at all) as somewhere between a fate worse than death and a triple root canal. Sure, it may be a way to meet ladies (big plus there), but couldn’t women learn to watch sports on TV twenty-nine hours a day? Man, now we’re talking major plus!

Oh well, getting back to the real world … the practica and/or the milonga gives everybody the chance to dip their toes in the water, to check out the scene, to start the ball rolling. For most women, the practica and milonga are instant highways to heaven. For most men they’re ways to find out that learning to dance won’t be a total disaster.

Once men have been exposed to these opportunities for social dancing at a rudimentary level, some decide that they kind of like it — especially the part where their significant others are clearly over the moon. And to tell you the truth, a few men may even become vaguely motivated by the challenge. They might even decide not to just be happy with the little they can do right now on the dance floor, but to actually try to get a little better at it.

Next week, we’re going to talk about what happens, when both sides of the partnership are on board with making serious progress in learning to dance Tango. Yes, I’m talking about dancing more, I’m talking about practicing more, and I’m talking about lessons!

This is definitely where the rubber meets the road.

If 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 -- 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!

This week, we’re going to help you transform the fizzle into sizzle in your Salsa. Find out on Monday, 1/29

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

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 Firehou se Tango.

• The Knights Hall's wonderful neighbor, Angelito, will now be doing most of  the heavy lifting (liiterally and figuratively) both before and after our milonga.  Three cheers for Angelito!