We sent The Matthew Online correspondent Elizabeth Fleming on a dangerous assignment this past week: learn to tango with a roomful of complete strangers at The Auditorium here in Rome. One evening, two feet, one qualified success.
As I walked down the vacant corridor of the Auditorium Parco Della Musica, the soft sounds of Carlos Di Sarli filled the air. As I approached the Foyer Sinopoli, men and women of all ages watched as two people in the middle of the room danced the tango.
When the music stopped, the room filled with applause and the anxious men and women eager to learn the tango listened as instructor Carlos Alberto Jose spilled his secrets.
Alberto Jose, 69, is from Buenos Aires. He's traveled to Italy the past two years to instruct tango classes during the 12-day festival known as Buenos Aires Tango, which ended this week.
The first part of the 90-minute class is dedicated to the different types of walking, stops and turns. The men and women then split up into two groups and are taught their respective roles in a traditional beginner version of the Argentinean dance.
As the instructor began to discuss the technique and grace needed to perfect the walks, I could not help but think about my lack of dance skills, or technique. The music began, and Alberto Jose began to count “uno..due..tre..quattro.” In about ten minutes my walk was flawless, or so I thought.
The second half of the class
is focused on dancing with a partner and applying your walk to that
of your male counterpart. Once paired up, the music was cued, and we
began to tango, or better yet, my version of the tango. Alberto Jose and his
partner made the dance look easy. But applying the walk to music seemed
to be a daunting task that I would never quite achieve.
But nonetheless, I continued trotting around the room, attempting to nail the moves. After being stopped multiple times by Alberto Jose to inform me that I was looking at my feet instead of my partner, or that on the six-count my legs were supposed to cross, I finally started to get the hang of it.
When the class concluded, I was happy to see that my partner still had all of his toes and had not abandoned me throughout the class because of lack of tango skill. Jose and his partner thanked everyone and opened up the floor to questions. He encouraged all participants to return for the following class, and to continue to learn the tango at various dance studios around Rome.
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