It Takes Two

From the clubs and brothels of Buenos Aires to ballrooms the world over, to dance the Argentine tango means to move in mysterious ways. At Tango Fireworks Week 2002, some of the art form’s foremost maestros and musicians gathered in Redondo Beach to trip the light fantastic with more than 300 obsessed international tangoistas in a grande milonga, L.A.-style. The great tanguero Miguel Angel Zotto has said, “Tango is like writing a letter--it has a beginning, periods, commas, stops and an end.” We spoke with some passionate correspondents.

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Anne Midon

Fashion Designer, Santa Fe

Jorge Midon

Producer, Santa Fe

When did you fall in love with tango?

Jorge: I grew up with it. In Argentina, that’s how we learn to walk.

Do you remember your first tango?

Anne: No, but there are five or six I’ll never forget.

What’s your sexiest move?

Jorge: In close embrace, I do a sliding, sweeping move in a soft way.

Anne: That gancho [hooking leg movement] you do in slow motion always gets me.

When you dance, what animal are you?

Anne: A gazelle. I feel long and graceful.

What kind of letter do you write when you tango?

Anne: Very intimate, whether joyful or romantic.

Jorge: A love letter...with many ellipses...

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Corina De La Rosa

Professional Tango Dancer,

Buenos Aires

Julio Balmaceda

Professional Tango Dancer,

Buenos Aires

Do you remember your first tango?

Julio: I remember the first time with her. We danced for six hours, and then I offered to escort her home...

Corina: That’s enough!

When you dance, what animal are you?

Julio: My father taught me to dance. He always said, “Walk like a cat.” So I move like a wild cat.

Corina: I’m a panther! A wild panther.

What’s your sexiest move?

Corina: When I lift my leg up and pass it very close to him.

Julio: When I embrace her. My embrace is really particular.

Corina: He catches the panther!

What kind of letter do you write when you tango?

Corina: My letter is from a person really in love but has no punctuation and nothing but run-on sentences.

Julio: A letter with a history, a story.

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Darlene Rand

Therapist, Ojai

Sam Rand

Real Estate Syndicator, Ojai

When did you fall in love with tango?

Sam: I saw “Forever Tango” and had to do it.

What do you feel when you dance?

Sam: A sense of passion, and I feel elegant, which I’m not.

Darlene: That I’m 20 again, beautiful and wrinkleless and tall, though I’m only 4’ 11”.

What’s your sexiest move?

Sam: I extend my leg, and she wraps hers around mine. We embrace, and I gently caress her tush.

Darlene: Then I slap him. Gently.

When you dance, what animal are you?

Darlene: A deer and a serpent combined. I float like a leaping deer and feel serpentine and sensuous.

What kind of letter do you write when you tango?

Darlene: A passionate love letter to my husband of 51 years.

Sam: We’re full of superlatives for each other.

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Lauren Coleman

Ballroom Dance Teacher,

Bozeman, Montana

Leroy Hearon

Firefighter, Chicago

When did you fall in love with tango?

Lauren: In 1992, I saw a demonstration and it was love at first sight. The male dancer was a fisherman, and later I was walking on the beach looking for clams and saw him on the dock. I walked up to him and said, “You must teach me this dance.” He gave me a lesson that day.

What do you feel when you dance?

Leroy: Like a Lear jet. I call it a tangasm.

What’s your sexiest move?

Lauren: I can’t say it. You’ve got to be there.

Leroy: I call mine “The Rump Shaker.”

When you dance, what animal are you?

Leroy: An elephant when I began. Now, a puma.

What kind of letter do you write when you tango?

Lauren: It’s a love letter. It’s intimate.

Leroy: Doodles from my heart, like an Etch-a-Sketch.