by holly darling

Shane Crosby is an educator, writer, and longtime social dancer who stumbled onto Tango less than a year ago. More than anything, his recent love affair with traditional Tango music surprised him, as he finds himself bobbing his head to Biagi and the bandoneon, rather than the R&B, hip hop, and salsa he grew up with as a dancer. Besides illuminating the surprisingly rocking beats from the 1930s, Tango has taught him to overcome feelings of self-doubt and have faith in his own learning process. You can find him practically living at Oxygen Tango, where he volunteers, cleans floors, and dances almost every night of the week.

What drew you to Tango initially?

I’ve been dancing for a while, social dancing since tenth grade. I’d seen Tango mostly on television, but never live.

It was something about the intensity between the two people dancing, the seriousness. I’ve always been curious about tango.

by holly darling

Vita Markman is a passionate Tango dancer, integral Tango community member, badass leader, completely present follower, and a computational linguist to boot. In this inspiring interview, she draws parallels between language and Tango, tells the story of her first dance class in Russia, and explains why she so ardently supports Oxygen Tango, which she calls her “spiritual home.” Wow.

What drew you to Tango initially?

It was the performance by Tango Mujer, which included Fabienne and Sharna. I saw the performance, and I thought: this is something I must do. It wasn’t just another “couple’s dance”; it was these women dancing together, and it was so beautiful. There were several pieces that really stood out. One was a dance where Valeria and Sharna were the two key performers. Sharna was doing the man’s part, in a suit; they were doing both gender roles as two women, and one of the things that struck me was how unusual it was, and it wasn’t your standard, banal man-woman dance. The second thing that struck me was how Tango has incredible similarity to language.