Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. This week I'm going to continue with our discussion of what I call "Level 2" Tango. As we've already established over the last three Tango Tips, this involves the use of three very specific skills, which enable a couple to collaborate with maximum effectiveness on the dance floor.

Last week, we put these three interacting skills into practical terms --

·      We begin the process with the lead/follow collaboration.

·      Our ultimate goal is to produce a single step.

·      We end the process with balance.

Most of us are inclined to visualize partner dancing as an ongoing series of steps or figures -- which results in a continuous flow of movement. In fact, this might serve as a reasonable description of what we call "ballroom" dancing; i.e., Foxtrot, Waltz, Salsa, Swing, etc. However, this portrayal is not true of Tango. Quite to the contrary, Tango consists of a series of individual steps or movements, executed one at a time as complete, self-contained units. For each step we take, we have a beginning (lead/follow), a middle (single-step movement), and an end (balance). During the past two weeks, we've talked, first, about balance, and then about the lead/follow mechanism. This week, we'll focus on our ultimate goal: the execution of a single step.

First, let's talk about what we mean, when we say the word "step." If you travel to one side -- or if you go forward or backward, shifting your weight from one foot to the other -- any of these would be considered a step. Even if you simply shift your weight in place -- i.e., you don't actually travel through space -- we would still call this a step.

In Tango, our goal (in part, at least) is to be able to execute individual steps in partnership with someone else. We do this through the lead/follow mechanism -- rather than by pushing/pulling on the one hand, or by choreographic agreement (memorization) on the other. A unique characteristic of Tango is that at the end of every step we take, the leader and follower each find conscious balance -- independent of one another. The beginning of every step -- the lead/follow mechanism -- is interdependent; i.e., the leader invites, the follower responds. On the contrary, the balance at the end of each step, along with the actual movement itself are both independent. This simply means that the leader doesn't carry his partner through the duration of a movement nor does either partner assist the other in achieving balance.

Once balance has been achieved by both partners, the cycle of movement begins again: the lead/follow, the actual single step, and finally the balance. Of course, the follower has no idea what her partner has in mind after she has taken a single step. For this reason, she automatically brings herself into balance, and waits for the next lead. At no time does she anticipate what the leader may want in the next moment. She knows that it's her job to find the end of each self-contained cycle, and simply wait. Because the leader knows this, too, he also recognizes that it's his job to consciously invite/lead every single step he wants his partner to take -- rather than starting the ball rolling with step number one, and then letting momentum take over -- as we do (more or less) in ballroom dancing.

In my opinion, it is the conscious awareness of each element in this three-part process of movement that actually defines what social Tango is all about. Whenever you dance Tango, therefore, I encourage you to fully understand and concentrate on the appropriate execution not of some abstract pattern you may have memorized, but rather each element within the complete cycle of single-step movement as we've just been discussing during the last several Tango Tips. This is what will make you a better Tango dancer.

Try it, and you'll see for yourself that it works.

Please join us for our Saturday Practica at Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46^th Street (between 6^th and 7^th Avenues), 11^th floor; 2-4pm, $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Pat and I will both be on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. Plus you get a new “must-have” tango move each week! 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.

• Tsypoyra Sartan
• ​​​​​​​Jesse Barton
• ​​​​​​​Mike Porro
• Steve Maisch - so glad he's back
  
• Danielle and Georgina
  
• Herb Kahn