TANGO ON THE WAVES

Milan 2021

Imagine, dancing becomes an illegal act. Tango on the Waves is the frank account of a Tango Maestro’s attempt to keep dance alive in Italy during Covid 19. A 60,000 word memoir which follows Antonio Iantorno’s passion to keep dance alive in the epicentre of the contagion in Europe.

 Twelve chapters of diarized dialogue follows the events of 2021, interspersed with interviews of dedicated students and a glossary of dance terms for the unfamiliar reader. Footnotes are used for Italian language translation or sourcing of material as appropriate.

Tango on the Waves excerpt published by Association of Italian Canadian Writers Newsletter / Issue 97 Summer 2021

Milano, Gennaio 17, 2021
Last Saturday, the government announced that in the second wave of the pandemic, Lombardia, where Milano is situated, is a Zona Rossa or red zone. We have reached the highest level of contagion. All but essential stores are closed, there is a ten p.m. curfew that is monitored by the local police. Wash your hands, take your temperature and keep your distance. We’re warned there will be no quick exit. I think of my students who have lost much of the skills they acquired with the last four months of inactivity. If I suggested a Tango class there could be no personal embrace, not even between husband and wife. Instead, I decide to propose lessons online using the Zoom platform.

I will contact the students on WhatsApp, call a zoom meeting, but I don’t know who reads messages regularly, who will be available and what time of day. Some may think this is a money grab on my part. I choose the students with care, the historical group. They know me, but always the doubts surface. Doubts are like mountain wolves, they wait for the tired, the disoriented and lost prey. Attacking from all sides, they tear your soul to shreds.

Perhaps I should ask Nina to help me. Yes, I warm to this idea. She is a dynamic woman with the desire to make things happen. Last October she proposed I set up online classes. My initial queries met with a lack of interest back then. But we are in the never-ending waves now, perhaps there has been a change of heart. I will call her, ask for her help in offering the lessons. As soon as I feel I’m in the right mindset, I will call her. Nina is a volcano of energy; she is sure to act upon my proposal.

Vancouver, January 19, 2021
I join Antonio and Anna online in their apartment along with ten others, two couples but mostly singles. We peer out from our separate screens into cyberspace. I recognize Antonio’s apartment, having enjoyed fine meals and conversations there in 2019. I especially remember the spaghetti alle vongole which Anna prepared for me. It’s my favorite Italian dish. I sat beside the stove sipping prosecco and committing the recipe to memory. After they are steamed Anna removes half from their shells. When she tosses the clams and spaghetti there is a pleasant mix of seafood in and out of the shells. Delizioso.

That was before the plague descended, although now it is believed the virus was circulating in Lombardy that September as we day-tripped together to Bergamo. Covid later decimated the city where we took the funicular to the upper town and toured the Cathedral of Sant’Alessandro, a Baroque treasure from the 1400’s. That innocent day in September, I snapped a shot of Antonio walking down the sunlit cobblestones towards the Piazza Vecchia. It features in the Italy playlist on the digital frame beside my laptop.

Related article “TANGUEANDO IN COVID TIMES” PUBLISHED BY ACCENTI MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 2020. [Read the Full Story here]