Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Let’s say that I’m teaching someone how to ride a bicycle. I hand them the bike, and tell them, “Ride this bike down to the stoplight, turn left, go three blocks, and turn right.” The student asks, “But how do I ride the bike?”

I repeat the instructions:

“Ride this bike down to the stoplight, turn left, go three blocks, and turn right.”

The student repeats the question:

“But how do I ride the bike?”

I wonder why the process doesn’t seem to be working. I think to myself, “Gee, what do I do next?”

Well, of course, the answer is, I should be teaching the student how to actually ride the bike rather than prematurely mapping out a route for him/her to take. In the beginner dance class, the same thing is true. Asking students to memorize multi-step figures, and reproduce them mechanically over and over may enable them to become somewhat adept at memorization, but it simply does not teach them how to dance.

During this latest series of Tango Tips, we’ve been discussing the various ways in which people in this country learn to dance social Tango. Our list of possibilities includes:

Practicas

Milongas

Classes

Focused workshops

Private lessons

The social club/my friend’s sister

Natural ability

Consciousness

Last week, we focused on the traditional way in which beginner classes are conducted in the U.S.A. To restate what I said, dance teachers — particularly those in dance schools — almost invariably base their pedagogy on the progressive memorization of figures. The point I hope I’ve made above is that this methodology is at best severely flawed.

An alternative approach to the beginner class is to have students focus almost exclusively on gaining command over the lead/follow mechanism. This is the all-important skill set, which enables two people to interact properly in executing each individual movement within the social dance. In my opinion, learning to lead and follow is literally synonymous with learning how to dance. Under the careful guidance of the teacher, each student is gradually instructed in how to properly lead/follow the fundamental elements of the linear and circular dance (forward, backward, sideward movement — as well as the weight change in place, the pause, and the pivot).

At the end of such highly specific training, the student is (theoretically, at least) ready to move on to progressive skills (such as specific body techniques, musicality, improvisational creativity, suggested sequences, etc.).

One of the problems with concentrating on lead/follow in the beginner class, however, is that this approach does not produce the instant gratification that most of today’s students want. In fact, the pressure to “just show me the steps” is so great in most situations that the majority of teachers — especially traveling professionals — eventually abandon their efforts to give students what they really need, and resort to giving them what they want —  “just show me the steps!” — in order to keep classes and workshops full, and thereby earn a reasonable living.

Furthermore, even if teachers were to concentrate exclusively on the lead/follow mechanism, this is a difficult skill set to grasp under the best of conditions, and, frankly, very hard to achieve with any effectiveness between one unskilled student and another in the context of the beginner class.

What, then, can be done? I’m not suggesting here that teachers should all stop offering beginner classes. For casual students, such classes really offer the only viable option available. However, for more serious students, there are other possibilities well worth exploring.

We’ll begin examining these next week.

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 this us every Monday evening at 8:00 p.m. for a fun-filled social dance fix.

Class One

Concentrating on authentic American Foxtrot, Triple Swing and Salsa

Mondays, 8:00 p.m.

Studios 353

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!