It Takes Two to Tango

“It takes two to tango, two to tango
Two to really get the feeling of romance
Let's do the tango, do the tango
Do the dance of love.”

I should have been suspicious when reading the course description of the tango class sponsored by the local senior center. "Argentine Tango: This dance will touch your romantic soul. In this introductory class, you will learn what it takes to lead and follow. We’ll start in open embrace and progress to close embrace. No experience is needed and no need for a dance partner.”

My husband, Tom and I have had a brief history of couples dancing. In a ballroom dancing class about 25 years ago, the teacher, a burly German woman, grabbed me while her partner, a petite German man, snatched Tom to demonstrate a dance step. We quickly waltzed out of that class during the break, never to return to ballroom dancing.

Line dancing classes were a bit easier to manage because the difference in our heights wasn’t a factor (Tom is 6’4” and I am 5’1” and shrinking). But then we got older and memorizing the sequences of the line dancing steps became a struggle.

I had heard about the benefits of tango for Parkinson’s patients, and I wanted to give couples dancing another try. I coaxed and cajoled Tom to take a tango class with me, and he reluctantly agreed.

When we arrived at the class, tango music was blaring from the boom box. Three young couples and a single woman were nervously waiting for the class to begin. Then, the instructor, a tall blond woman from Boulder not Argentina, instructed us to “face your partner and stand closer together than you would in most other ballroom dances – close enough that your torsos are touching.” Our torsos were touching, which meant that my head was facing Tom’s lower rib cage. 

We were further instructed that the leader of the couple (Tom) was to place his right hand on the middle of my lower back and for Tom to extend his left hand out to his side with his arm bent while grasping my right hand in a loose grip. As the follower, I was to place my left hand on Tom’s right shoulder while placing my right hand in Tom’s palm with my elbow bent. By then, I was on my tiptoes trying to reach Tom’s shoulder and hand. Now that we were “comfortable,” we were instructed on how to do the tango walk – Tom walking forward and I walking backwards. Every several minutes the tango teacher ordered us to switch partners and to change positions from leader to follower. Reflecting back on that night is mostly a blur except for the pain of walking backwards for an hour.

After the lesson, Tom and I agreed that the tango is much too intimate of a dance to stand torso to torso with a stranger while in open embrace and progressing to a close embrace.

We decided to stick to dances of the past where we can dance independently without a partner – dances like the twist, pony, mashed potato and swim – recognizing that it takes two to tango.

Comments

[Bob Dawson]

Kate,
You know me - I fanatically promote intensive constant dancing, and I re-printed a study about PD and Tango. But I do not dance the Tango. I am way too clumsy for that, and always was. It was brave of you to try it. I agree with you conclusion: choose the dance style that is good for you. Myself, I mostly sway around to the Blues. Nobody can say I am not dancing the right moves - it is completely free form so there are no right or wrong moves! Keep on dancing, I am convinced that it helps.
Bob Dawson