Last night I practiced Tango with my practice buddy for about half an hour. It was fun but tragic. If you dance you’ll understand what I mean I love practicing with a partner but my frame was off and because I was out of position he kept stepping on me. It made him feel bad but was entirely my fault. Bless his heart!

So today I invested some time in my Tango  For two solid hours I practiced half a step. Yep you read correctly, not a full step but half of one. I took the Tango basic from our syllabus and practiced the follower part and began getting into frame and pointing my right foot back. I videoed myself and watched and looked at what I was doing that I did not like and I did that over and over again and again. Each time I made adjustments and the looked to see if the adjustments made a difference and then I tried again.

Then I took a break and watched some videos. Some were instructional. Some were pro competitions. Then I went back to practicing, watching and adjusting over and over. I even started to actually take the first step but something was still off so I went back to frame and point. When my instructor finished with his coaching session with another student he came over to ask me how it was going. He had noticed I was working and had a minute and wanted to know what questions I had. He observed what I was doing, suggested I focus on retraction instead of lowering to get into frame and I started all over again. Practice, watch, adjust.

Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong! It takes no time at all to say those words, but HOURS and HOURS to make them mean something. It takes time to Tango.