Benefield: Argentine tango group wants to spread the love for unique dance

As the sensuous tango music played from a stereo in the corner of the room, two women moving together on a relatively crowded dance floor struggled to nail a dance step.

Their feet bumped together.

They tried again.

Missed again.

Then they shrugged in laughter and gave each other a hug. And then they began dancing anew.

Welcome to Tango Tuesdays, where dancers take their steps — but not necessarily themselves — seriously.

Tango Tuesday organizer Carl Hendel has been dancing the Argentine tango for 18 years. Still, he considers himself a beginner.

“Like everything worth studying, it takes a lifetime,” he said.

Tango Tuesday is focused on the Argentine style of the dance, and is what participants describe in tango-speak as a “practica.”

Partners can talk, they can give and take instruction, and newcomers are encouraged to partner with more seasoned dancers.

There is an emphasis on fun, but also learning. No experience is necessary.

Hendel and others simply want to spread the gospel of Argentine tango to all comers.

This, Hendel makes clear, is not a tango class. He’s has felt burned by classes in the past. So these sessions are something decidedly different.

“There were times in that first year where I said ‘Why am I doing this? I can’t do this,’” he said. “But that was more about the class. This is about hanging out and dancing.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Hendel and his wife, Happy (“I renamed myself in 1964. I didn’t like the handle that I got.”) were part of a fairly large Sonoma County tango community.

The pandemic shut down their dance sessions like it did so much of our world.

But as COVID-19 vaccinations became widely available and the world opened up, fractures developed within the group over whether to require dancers to be inoculated.

“There was a fair amount of ill will generated. It was sad,” Hendel said.

For all practical purposes, the group disbanded, he said.

But he and Happy and so many others love to tango. So, they regrouped.

About a year ago, a small group started renting the dance floor in an upstairs room above Snoopy’s Home Ice at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena.

They ask that dancers be vaccinated, but beyond that, demands are few.

It’s not a class and it’s not terribly formal. It’s essentially two hours of music and dancing and learning. But the learning comes from other dancers, not a leader or pair of leaders in the center of the room.

By Hendel’s math, they need about 12 or so dancers chipping into the donation jar to break even.

But even that piece of it is decidedly low-key.

On a recent Tuesday, a couple of plates of treats — sliced watermelon, bread, candies — sat next to a plastic jar with a sign that read, in part, “Donations appreciated.”

“If you can’t afford to put a dollar in the jar, don’t, and if you can afford to put $10, do,” he said.

There were more women than men ready to tango on this night, but that hardly mattered. This is a group that eschews the notion that men must lead, women must follow.

“It’s leader and follower, not man or woman,” Hendel said. “In Argentina, it’s always men and women because it’s a traditional culture. But this is California.”

Partners typically dance together for three songs and then break and find a new partner.

No couples seem to do the exact same thing, although there are distinct patterns.

Some moves look (to a novice’s eye) like precision Twister: Feet stop quickly over a partner’s foot and then back again. A calf muscle glides down a shin.

Listening close, one can hear quiet conversations between some dancers. Small instruction is offered if asked. This is practice after all.

But in this room on this night, you can also hear the faint tinkling of… hockey.

Especially if you position yourself by the row of windows that overlook the ice, one can hear the sound of recreation players knocking the puck around far below.

At one point in the dancing, the distinct toll of the period-ending buzzer was heard.

The dance room is small. If 24 or more dancers show, it starts to feel crowded, Hendel said.

And it adds to the challenge of the dance — pairs literally have to move in a way that avoids any collisions.

But the close quarters seem to reinforce the intimacy of the dance.

And the lovely wood floor and mirrors lining the wall make it feel like a legit dance hall.

Carolyn Kelley came to tango five years ago, not long after she lost her husband to Alzheimer’s.

She’s always loved to dance and has a long list of dance styles she’s into, but Argentine tango has been an alluring challenge, she said.

The precision of it, the allowing oneself to be led — she’s constantly learning.

“It’s a very good, wonderful dance,” she said. “You are so in touch with the other person, if you are not worried about yourself or self conscious, just acquiesce. It’s just like close your eyes and think about dancing with another person.”

Kate Vazzoler, of Cloverdale, also has a long list of dancing styles that she loves.

And she, like Kelley, was intrigued by the mysteries of not only tango, but what this group specifically focuses on: Argentine tango.

“I’ve learned just in the past few months that American tango is bigger and bolder and space and you really travel and it’s dramatic, like what you see in the movies,” she said.

Vazzoler said she was looking for something more subtle. She got it on Tuesday night — her first session with this group.

The session’s format of three short dances with the same partner, then switching, allowed Vazzoler to learn from more experienced dancers all night.

Every dancer, every style had something worth sharing, something worth picking up, she said.

“It’s about really that intimacy,” she said. “What I love about it is it’s like a little secret between those two people. Nobody else is ever going to dance that same way ever again.

“Only you and that person know the subtleties and the intimacy of that moment and it’s different every time and every person has a different flavor when you dance with them.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.