Ever since Al Pacino ignited the screen in the tango scenes of the film “Scent of a Woman,” tango has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity. On Saturday February 3, tango comes to Princeton in a unique benefit for the Parkinson Alliance. Tango dancers from Princeton will be joined by tango dancers from New York City (including Angeles Chanaha and Michael Nadtochi, pictured at left), northern New Jersey, Haddonfield, Marlboro, and Philadelphia, Media, and Collegeville, Pennsylvania, to share in 11 hours of tango workshops and social dancing, called “a milonga.”
This “Tango Op” features six teachers from three states, who will lead three workshops, followed by three guided practices and finally a Milonga with DJ and food. Proceeds will benefit the Parkinson Alliance, earmarked for Parkinson’s disease research.
“Tango for Parkinson’s” is the brainchild of J. Michael Littwin, a tango dancer with eight years’ experience, and a graphic arts specialist. Littwin enlisted the support of Herb Tuchman, owner of PJ’s Pancake House. An accomplished tango fanatic himself, Tuchman joined the project because his sister-in-law has Parkinson’s disease.
One of the workshop teachers, Lesley Mitchell, has been teaching tango at Princeton University for more than eight years and runs the longest-running weekly tango in Philadelphia. A former Princeton resident, Mitchell and her partner, Kelly Ray, have spent the last 15 years exploring and teaching the “Culture, Language, Sociology, Psychology, Aesthetics, and Practices of Argentine Tango,” as well as building the tango community in Princeton and Philadelphia. Mitchell leads some of her students on an annual excursion to Argentina to fully immerse them in the tango lifestyle in the home of tango, Buenos Aires.
Tango for Parkinson’s, Saturday, February 3, 1 p.m., Susan Patterson Center, Monument Drive, Princeton. Benefit tango event featuring tango dancers from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, leading 11 hours of tango workshops and social dancing. Milonga with DJ and refreshments. $20 donation. www.parkinsonalliance.net or 800-579-8440.
