INSPIRED BY: CHECKING ON VIRGINIA
Although relocated from Virginia, I still keep a pulse on what is happening in the community where I discovered stepping and where I first met Tango Ernest. The latest, greatest news I heard was that Ernest was back in Virginia, fresh out of Chicago. It is fascinating to reconnect with someone from Jon Green’s class a decade later and see how much they have grown in Stepping and what is happening with them now. It is always an interesting conversation. I was thrilled for this opportunity and had to catch up with Ernest on his move and what is next for him in stepping and the Virginia community.
Meet Tango Ernest
Ernest “Tango Ernest” Williams has been stepping since 2006. He and I share a common beginning with Jon Green as our first stepping instructor.
“I was in Virginia Beach at an event with a student who invited me to do a demonstration because I also do another dance. Jon Green was also invited to do a demonstration of stepping. And when I saw his demonstration, “I said all right, That’s me right there! I have found my second dance.”
Tango Ernest
Ernest and Jon started swapping lessons. About six months or less after starting stepping classes, Ernest decided to move to Chicago and then … moved to Chicago. He was in Chicago for two years and returned to Virginia for some time. Then, he went back to Chicago in 2015 and is back again in Virginia since the end of 2022.
What other dance styles do you know?
My primary dance has been Argentine Tango, which is why many people call me Tango Ernest. But I have done a lot of other dances – salsa, some Detroit ballroom, and other ballroom dances. As far as really focusing and working to grow my skill level and end up doing it professionally as a teacher, Argentine Tango was the first. I’ve been doing that since 2000.
Do you believe having other dance styles under your belt has helped you in stepping?
You know how the Detroit people are just killing it, right? The reason is that they do a whole lot of dances. Stepping is not the only dance that they do. Knowing other dances may color your dance a little bit when you’re starting. You might bring some of the flavors of the other dances that you know into it. Some people that only do stepping might look down upon that. At the same time, you’re bringing in a lot of understanding of leading, following, or both.
For me, as not just a dancer, knowing other dance forms, having gone to classes and learned, and seeing a lot of different teaching methodologies and philosophies that go with these dances, I have learned to lead and follow in all of them. Whatever I learn, I can teach. Learning to step is challenging, but Argentine tango is arguably the most challenging dance of them all because it’s all about leading. I mean really leading and following – not just taking your steps along with or in front of the other person.
Of course, I don’t take for granted people doing their movements. I will lead it, and that’s because, in Argentine tango, there is no basic step. You must lead and follow every aspect of the dance. It is the closest dance to pure leading and following. As a result, even as I was learning to dance, people would say I have a clear lead because I’m not leaving any part of it up to chance. I’m actively involved all the way through, and that’s just because, in tango, you must be. And I’ve built that into my dance.
Now that you are back in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area, what has inspired you to start or to restart stepping classes?
Well, if I am going to enjoy stepping locally and not totally miss being in Chicago, I need to upgrade some folks that are serious about stepping. I have two perspectives now. I have the perspective of the out-of-owner, and I have the perspective of the Chicagoan. In my stepping career, I’ve been in Chicago longer than I’ve been out of Chicago. However, I started at home, and my heart is still in Virginia. Being back, I feel responsible for the growth of the stepping community.
BEING A TEACHER
People know I am a teacher and have not been here for a few years. Looking at the community, nothing has changed for the better. If I put myself out there as a teacher, people will look at me, thinking, “Well, what are you good for?” Just being here and going to a few events and sets since I’ve been here, people approach and say, “I heard you are back in town, back on the East Coast, back in Virginia. Are you going to be teaching?” I’ll reply, “Yes, I am going to teach.” Then they reply, “Well, that’s good.” And then leave it at that. It’s duly noted.
SHARING NEW INFORMATION
I understand that you will be slower at developing if you don’t have access to what people do in Chicago. And how can you get the information if your development is limited by your ability to travel to Chicago or elsewhere? If somebody in your community comes back from Chicago after seven years recently, and a total of nine years, and they don’t help you or bring any of it to you, then they’re being selfish. I’m not selfish.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
This is what I do. I love to teach. I didn’t teach as much in Chicago because I was busy improving my game. While in Chicago, I tried to learn from the best, be around folks, and develop. I’m not really all that personable out there glad-handing with folks. Many people may not know my name, but they know my face. They might know me in many ways but may not have had a conversation with me, especially the guys. I haven’t gone out to really be part of that brotherhood. This is just my personality. I know many of the ladies because I dance with them, but I’m working to change that. Especially here in Virginia, connecting with the men in the community, not just the women, is important to me.
What are some of the challenges that you see in restarting your classes now?
Promotion. I am not the best at promoting and having access to all the avenues to reach people seeking information on what’s going on. Different people have already established communication channels, and I haven’t yet. I am just attending events, meeting, dancing, and sharing by word of mouth. One area of my focus is not to mass market what I’m trying to do because I really want to focus on people who already have experience stepping. I want to target people who have already made up their minds that they want to up their game. Serious people. I’m not really focused on teaching brand-new folks or beginners. If somebody comes to me to learn how to step, I recommend them to someone else.
You talked about earlier connecting with the men. How are you planning to attract men to your class?
I need to talk to the men and develop relationships more than I’ve done because I’m not trying to go out and get brand-new folks. I’m just focusing on the people who are already in the community. It’s not in the sense of trying to take anybody’s students or anything like that. A generation of people in this stepping community feels like they have outgrown, or they’ve tried all the currently available classes and have decided not to go to those classes for whatever reason. They don’t have a means locally to improve their dance. Those folks are the ones that are trying to give an avenue to up their game. So, I am talking to people instead of doing the mass marketing thing.
What do you think are the things you need to work on for the men?
LEADING AND FOLLOWING
I want to make sure that men can lead and follow. I think being able to follow is very important to understand what you need to know to lead. It’s easier to communicate. Teaching men if they can both lead and follow is a lot easier for me. It is easier to show you what you feel like if you’re leading me and demonstrating this is what you feel like, and this is how you should feel. That’s a lot fewer words and a lot less time spent. People realize and say oh man, well, I’m never gonna do that again if I feel like that. To watch and stand next to me and do as I do approach doesn’t work either. It takes longer.
ENGAGEMENT
And when creating a very dance, oftentimes people do the same things in the same order and do the same thing consistently throughout their dance, and people get bored and can anticipate your next move. If the guys are leading like that, and the ladies get used to that, and somebody else comes around and does something different, they are confused because they’re used to certain moves in a certain combination.
CREATIVITY TO MAKE YOUR OWN MOVES
I am trying to impart to the men that there are a million ways to do any move you do. You can change any part of it, make it feel different to your partner, and keep them alert, awake, and interested in your actions. As I teach something, I teach variations of it, and I’m encouraging men to come up with their variations of it. It can vary in feeling, timing, direction, or the hand you’re using, whether up, down, or middle. All kinds of things. It could be the same move but just approached 1000 different ways.
STYLE FOR SOME “COLD” SKILLS
I tell people about Taboo and how, from what I understand, Taboo is the coldest, but he doesn’t have that many moves. He doesn’t try to do too many moves, but he’s cold with the moves he has. People are lining up, including all the top dancers – men and women to get some of what he does when he’s dancing. People flock around him to watch. What he does is always so cold, but he’ll tell you, “You don’t have to do a whole lot of moves.” He’ll teach you about 6-7 moves at his workshop, and you get the basics of what he does. You can’t recreate it because he’s too cold with it. That shows you how to make anything interesting and exciting in the dance to watch and experience. You can keep people interested if you develop your style and vary what you do.
How has living in Chicago impacted your stepping journey?
I have had a combination of living out of Chicago and in Chicago. When you’re out of Chicago, you always worry about what is authentic in Chicago. How is it really? But, when you’re in Chicago, you know how it is really because you’re experiencing that element of authenticity directly. The experience with the culture and many people you may not see out there traveling makes me feel more sure about what I know about stepping and what I could bring home to Virginia.
It’s like the Argentine tango. If you are Argentinian, you are considered more authentic than if you’re not Argentinian. If you’re from Buenos Aires, where tango was supposed to have come from, then you’re even more authentic than people that are from other parts of Argentina. It’s similar in Chicago. If you’re from Chicago, you’re more authentic than if you’re not. Having been here for nine out of my however many years of dancing, I feel like I can speak from a more authoritative perspective, even if it’s just my experience.
What will be different in your instruction now that you have lived in Chicago and spent some time there – after round two?
A lot of it will be focused on trying to get across my experience from Chicago. I will not say, “this is how they do it in Chicago.” I am not ever going to say that. If I do say that, I will qualify that by saying there’s no one way that people do it in Chicago. Everybody does their own thing. They pride themselves on having their style. You have got all kinds of crazy characters in Chicago that do things their way, and you can very well tell whose move or dance style it is.
or what have you? So to encourage that is. Is, is is one thing and because people always asking about what is it like and already got to go there and blah blah blah. Well, if you can’t make it there, you know I’ll. I’ll give you some of what I have as much as possible in part upon you. I will be willing to do that and look forward to it. Or coming back to Chicago and keeping, you know, keeping that connection and not being away too long. You know, so it’s just really about not this is how it is in Chicago. But at the same time, trying to bring some flavor of that to a community that many people may not really know.
What are your class goals as an instructor in the Hampton Roads area? Are your goals to have students compete? What’s the next level? What are those types of people thinking about doing well?
To start, my focus is not to try to develop many competitors. If there is a couple that stands out, that should do it, and who really wants to do it, I would gladly work with them. I will not push people or try to scout out people to compete because so many cold dancers never compete. They’re not interested in competing, which is a whole other experience. I’ve done it once as a beginner in the Beginner’s category, way back when the first time I was in Chicago. It requires a whole other mindset when dancing; for some people, that’s toxic.
TEACHING GOOD DANCERS
Dancing and being comfortable with not being on the stage, having all eyes on you, whatever, that’s the first thing I think of. I think the most important thing is to be able to show up somewhere, be social with people who want to dance with you and people, and seek you out wherever you go. That’s the first thing. You’re going to be doing that regularly. You might compete once a year or a couple of times, or what have you, and that’s a great high if you do well with that. That’s not what I think will sustain people over a long period. I want to focus on being a good dancer to represent the community and do it well. Those are my goals for my classes.
TRYING SOMETHING NEW
I have two classes. One is all men, and everybody is leading and following. The other is all women, and everybody is leading and following. I’m doing it this way to address any issues I have seen in classes I’ve had. The male-female ratio and balance tend to take away from the experience of the class because the expectations do not match the reality people walk into. Women may think about where all the men are, but they bought five of their girlfriends and left all their men at home. They want a big group of men to hang out and attend a dance class, which doesn’t happen. Men – if they do come – they come with one woman, or they come by themselves. They don’t typically bring five of their friends to a dance class. That’s just not what men do.
FOCUSING ON THE MEN AS MUCH AS THE WOMEN
Oftentimes men feel a little bit inadequate when the followers or women are learning their roles faster than the men are learning their roles. Men tend to fall by the wayside as a result. Many men want to show up at a set already knowing how to dance versus being seen going through the ugly duckling stages in front of women. In these classes, I’ve done this for a couple of weeks so far, and we’ve had great discussions in the women’s classes. People feel freer to talk. Especially because women are learning how to lead and understand how difficult that is. In my discussions with the men, they’re free to talk without worrying about women hearing what they have to say. Then I get messages from both sides. Make sure you tell them this, and make sure you tell them that. It is just so funny.
That whole dynamic changes when you have only members of the same sex in the class, and we can talk to them from a different perspective. They encourage and emphasize different aspects of the dance. It’s an experiment. I’ve never done it before, but so far, I think it’s yielded great conversation and results in AHA moments early on that I couldn’t get elsewhere the normal way.
Do you have or have you created an opportunity where both classes eventually meet and intersect with each other?
I am probably two weeks in and still trying to get everybody to know about it. I give those who come an opportunity to drop in class right now. Soon there will be an 8-week series that’s locked once I feel everybody’s had an opportunity to decide if they want to join. I’m not going to be retreading a lot of the same material. I will build the people I have, and as long as they keep coming, we will keep going forward. There will be no starting over for new folks, so I’m allowing people to join in now.
At some point, even right now, they can dance with each other, but there will be an official meet-up at some point. I haven’t found a purposeful way to bring them together or practice what they’re doing. But right now, we’re at the beginning. For the leaders, beginning following for the leaders beginning leading. For the followers. So I want to give them time to get somewhere and develop some of this stuff and then figure out how to bring them together in a way that pays homage to how they’ve been learning up to this point, OK.
If someone is interested in your class, how do they reach you?
At the Facebook page for Steppers Flow which is mine. I started it, and Sandra Madison took it over when I left and went to Chicago. She has since moved to California and left it to her main student, Wesley Wiggins. He has now branched off and done his own thing. I’m working closely with him, but it’s now returned to me. Also, you can contact me at 773-644-1502. Just let me know who you are, and we can talk. I’m also on Facebook as Tango Ernest, Ernest Williams.
Tango Ernest on Venturing Beyond the Local Stepping Community
I really appreciate what you’re doing. It was always funny to see you in Chicago and so much more. You were out more than I was. I was living down the street. At the same time, I was proud to see you out there doing your thing representing Virginia. I know you’re not originally from Virginia, but we share the same roots. So, I really appreciated that, and I’m proud of you and what you’re doing. I’m following what you’re doing.
And I know that for many, oftentimes, steppers have to leave or not leave, but travel a lot from their small towns to get their dance to the next level. And if you can, that’s great. For those that cannot, maybe find some areas nearby. At least dance outside of your community in local communities nearby to get more opportunities to experience new people. It can be boring to dance with the same 15-20 people in your community all the time. We went to North Carolina, the DMV, Philly, and Atlanta for ten years. if you can drive there easily in a day and you can drive back that night, then so be it.
I really want folks to look and pay attention to the Hampton Roads area because we want to do big things. We encourage folks to come and visit and help us grow. I’m dedicated to making it a positive change and staking my reputation on it right here and now. Check us out in a year or so and gauge our progress.
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Samantha Jones
Greetings! I am trying hard to find a steppers community in the DMV area. I am interested in learning but don’t know where to start! Any suggestions?