Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Do you find yourself "judging" your partner's dancing? Does he/she judge yours? Do you judge your own? One of the things I notice quite frequently is that students always seem to be judging one another. Go to any milonga in New York, and you'll almost surely find that everyone there knows exactly who is an "advanced" dancer, who is more or less intermediate, and who is a lowly beginner.

"The women here are all too slow for me; I need someone who can keep up."

"I could never dance with him; he's much too advanced."

"I don't know why I even bother to come to this milonga; no one wants to dance with a beginner."

It is regrettable to me that this kind of negative behavior seems to be so commonplace among the Tango student population today. By its very definition, dancing should be a positive social interaction. Dancing should serve as a pleasant release from the tensions and troubles of day-to-day existence. In short, dancing should be fun.

And yet all too often what should be an enjoyable experience becomes an opportunity for people to be just plain mean to each other.

Is it possible that we could make an effort to stop this nonsense? I have a few specific suggestions on things we might all strive to do, starting now:

1.     Stop judging your own skill as a dancer, and stop judging everyone else in the room.

2.     Think of Tango as something to share with others -- no matter what their physical attributes, and no matter what their skill level.

3.     If you're a leader, pick out several beginners on any given occasion, and dance with them. Try to give them the best experience you can offer.

4.     If you're a beginner yourself, don't be afraid to invite a more experienced follower to dance with you from time to time.

5.     If you're a follower, don't ever refuse to dance with anybody (unless, of course, their behavior is in some way socially offensive).

6.     Oh, and by the way, don't, don't, don't ever teach. If someone starts teaching you, walk away from them, Or, if you can, run!

Learning and dancing Tango is difficult enough without all the unpleasantness some students impose on it. Let's all try really hard to get it out of our community. Starting right now, please.

Whew!