Slowly dragging their feet across the activity room floor, Iowa City residents from all walks of life came together to dance the tango.
“Get used to touching each other,” tango class instructor Pete Abolins said as he demonstrated how to dance with a partner.
The Iowa City Senior Center has been reintroducing social dance programs since they came to a halt during the pandemic. Every week, the center hosts classes from Brazillian Zouk to West Coast Swing, all of which are led by professionals.
A regular group used to tango weekly, and new folks have gotten hooked as the center holds more dance classes.
The tango class was led by Irina Latkova from the Madison Tango Society and Abolins.
Abolins started teaching classes about 15 years ago and recently visited Buenos Aires, Argentina, to get instruction from real professionals. He said he loves teaching classes because they involve much more than just dance.
“It’s a real positive social activity, he said. “Mingling with different people makes it very interesting.”
Long-time Iowa City tango dancer Dwight Van Horn has been dancing for 25 years. He said he first got into salsa and eventually fell in love with tango. Van Horn was excited about the younger dancers who showed up for the class. He wants to promote the style and the classes to the younger generations.
“We need something like this to get people interested,” he said.
Van Horn also said he enjoys the smaller class sizes for tango because there are more opportunities to change partners and meet more people.
“No matter how good or bad you are, there’s always a partner that can learn something, and there’s always a partner from who you can,” he said. “Switching partners, everyone gets a chance to dance.”
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Fourth-year Kirkwood Community College student and dance major Austin Gordley said he started attending dance classes at the Senior Center at the beginning of the school year. He said he likes to attend these classes because there are more opportunities to connect with others.
“The first time we had a class here, they offered free salsa night at the Vue, so a lot of people went up there until, like, two in the morning,” he said. “If I was to take a normal class [for school], that’s not the case.”
UI assistant dance professor Zena Bibler attended the tango class for the first time. Bibler described tango as the “chess” of social dance because of its complicated steps and patterns, but once people get the hang of it, they’re obsessed.
She said she wishes her students would take more social dance classes to diversify their styles.
“It teaches you a lot of amazing skills,” Bibler said.
Fifth-year UI student and UI Social Dance Club President Fay Lin organized the class. She said she took a social dance class at the university and fell in love with tango and other dance styles. She said she’s traveled the country, as well as Canada and Mexico, to take classes and learn new dance styles and is happy to provide those experiences for people in Iowa City.
“There’s a communication in dance,” Lin said. “You can make friends without having to talk. You can just make friends by dancing.”