Went to drop off my nephew Saturday evening after synagogue on my way to Tango.

His house was dark. Felt bad leaving him alone, so I took Josh to the Contra dance instead.

Took us about eight minutes to get to the Contra dance and we passed the Tango place on the way.

Is Gainesville great or what?

Made me think of Teo and Marsha Bartek. All the years they put in laying the foundation of our Tango community. Sometimes they would have a class and I would be the only one there, but they still peristed.

We owe our wealth of dancing to many people, many of whom we do not know and none who get enough credit.

Josh is 14. At the Contra dance he marches right up to the cutest college chicks and asks them to dance. I worry about him.

He might not develop a healthy fear of girls his own age. I am afraid he will not develop properly. You have to crawl before you walk. If you go straight to walking, your brain misses out on important skills.

What are the consequences of having confidence with girls before you earned it? It would by like getting a blackbelt without going through the years of training. You have the power without the discipline. Plus he is in band. If you saw American Pie, you know what that means.

For my first three years of Tango, I could not take a single step forward. For the last two years, I have been able to step forward, but I know it was bad, and so I could not get better.

I have a theory (surprise), that social dancing has to be easy enough for a normal person to learn. No normal person is going to spend five years learning to take a step. Either Tango is not social dancing and is only for an esoteric community, or there is an easy way to step, but no one has explained it in a way I could understand.

Last month I had a break through. I think I figured out how to step. I have had faux breakthroughs before, one step forward and two steps back, so time will tell, but I have had some positive evidence.

At the Contra dance I tried my break through on Julie during the waltz. She moved so early, it surprised me.

Normally at my Tango class, the feedback I get from Andrea is, "No, no, better." When I tried my new technique she said, "Yes, that's it!"

It takes about 1 minute to learn (five years down the drain). Let me know if you want me to show it to you.