THIS ISN'T LIKE WORK OR SCHOOL

In my science class back in Eighth Grade, I once mishandled a vial of ether. As a result, I nearly lost consciousness, much to the amusement of my lab partner. Barely five minutes earlier, the teacher had repeatedly warned us not to hold the opening of the large ether vial right up to our faces. Fortunately, he didn't catch me going wobbly, otherwise I would have gotten into big trouble. It's not that I was intentionally trying to do anything supid - I just got a little careless and made a mistake. From that day on, I think I knew better than anyone else in that class about how - or how not - to handle ether.

Making mistakes while learning tango does not generally yield consequences that are as serious (or funny) as accidentally inhaling too much ether. However, errors are inevitable regardless of how hard you pay attention in class.

Unfortunately, our schools and workplaces teach us that mistakes are always BAD. They are sources of punishment and shame. Of course, this is acceptable for some professionals (surgeons, airline pilots, members of the bomb squad, etc). But even for the majority of us who deal with non life-and-death situations in our jobs, the association between mistakes and negative outcomes has been beaten into our heads for as long as we can remember. Make too many mistakes in school and they'll send a note home, flunk us, or hold us back a grade. Make too many mistakes at the office and they'll reprimand or fire us.

Tango classes aren't like the degree courses you're taking at the university. If you make mistakes, I'm not going to make a note of it in my grade book that doesn't exist. There are no No 2 pencils, bubble sheets, or blue book exams. And for you working professionals, I won't report mishaps on the dance floor to your manager or HR department.

Mistakes in dance class are almost a necessity. Of course, we know you're not making them on purpose and we try to avoid them. But without mistakes, and without learning from them, you won't progress. During prácticas, mistakes are often opportunities to discover new steps you hadn't learned before. So little by little, ditch the school/work indoctrination and embrace errors as they happen. Going out of your way to avoid mistakes is the same as refusing to learn.