November 1, 2018

Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. If you’ve been following this latest series of Tips, I’m sure you’re aware that this is the final week (Week Eight) of our look at the qualities I think you need in order to become a good Tango dancer. Here’s one more listing of these qualities:

1.      Commitment

2.      Patience

3.      Perseverance

4.      Humility

5.      A good sense of humor

6.      A good teacher

7.      Money

8.      Natural ability

Today, we’re going to talk about natural ability. You’ll notice right away that I’ve placed this quality at the bottom of my list. My reason for this is that although I think natural ability is a great asset to have, I’ve come to believe that it is far less important than any of the other qualities we’ve been discussing as prerequisites to becoming a good Tango dancer. That said, let’s take a look at what I consider to be natural ability as it relates to dancing Tango.

When I observe student behavior in one of my classes or private lessons, one of the first things I notice is whether or not they possess “natural ability.” Here’s what I mean:

Movement and balance

If I ask students with this quality to take a few forward steps, for example, they generally tend to move with what I would call “effortless grace,” and always end in comfortable balance. Students without this quality usually move quite tentatively, and often have significant difficulty with balance (at least, initially) at the end of steps.

Musicality

If I play a piece of Tango music and ask students with natural ability to walk “in time,” they almost always respond by keeping virtually perfect time as they walk. Students without this quality tend to move sporadically, not keeping consistent time with the music, and, in fact, possibly not responding to the music in any rhythmically appropriate manner at all.

Interactive relationships

If I ask a couple with natural ability to move together — to take a few steps forward, backward, or to the side, for example — they will generally find a way to interact more or less comfortably with one another, even without training. On the other hand, the couple without this quality will tend to push and pull, and eventually give up trying to interact at all.

These are a few of my own criteria for observing “natural ability.” By the same token I can almost always recognize whether any given student has some sort of prior training in dance, martial arts, or athletic endeavors. In such cases, training may have enhanced natural ability, or possibly overcome an initial absence of this quality.

Usually, it is very difficult for me to tell the difference between someone who is naturally gifted and someone who has achieved a certain level of skill through a progressive learning process. This is really the important point I want to make here. Such skill sets as appropriate individual movement and balance, precise musicality, and well-developed lead/follow connections can be taught, can be learned, and can be practiced by virtually any student and/or couple — to the extent that the advantages of natural ability have become all but irrelevant. Far more essential are the first seven qualities we’ve been discussing throughout this extended series of Tango Tips.

The bottom line is that if you want to become a good Tango dancer, take a serious look at these qualities —most especially the first — commitment to the process. How much do you really want to achieve mastery of this unique social dance? How far are you willing to go to get there?

In the long run, it’s entirely up to you.

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QUESTIONS? Send Fran an email https://www.franchesleigh.com/contact/

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
• Jesse Barton
• ​​​​​​​Rafael and Hilda
• Bob Brillo
  
• Judy Koski
  
• ​​​​​​​Mike Porro
  
• Steve Maisch