All the right moves

Tango instructors find love connection as they share passion for dance

By R.J. Ignelzi, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Monday, January 4, 2010 at 12:15 a.m.

When does one plus one equal one? When two people come together to tango.

The bodies of Isabelle Kay and Florentino Guizar seemed to melt into a single fluid dancer as they glided gracefully across the floor at yesterday’s fourth annual San Diego Tango Festival. More than 320 seasoned tango dancers gathered at Shelter Island’s Kona Kai Resort for the last of a four-day event, which featured advanced classes and hours of social tango dances, or milongas.

“In a society that doesn’t offer as much human interaction as we’d like, tango gives people the opportunity to connect with the opposite sex at a basic, fundamental level,” said Guizar, who with Kay teaches tango. “Tango creates a connection that strikes at the core of your being.”

The couple started out as dance partners at a local milonga party and soon developed a partnership in both romance and business as they began Tango Concepts in La Jolla about 5½ years ago. Specializing in Argentine tango dance lessons, their instruction differs from some other tango classes offered in San Diego.

“Everyone else always teaches steps and patterns. But we teach improvisational tango,” Kay said. “We teach our students to be comfortable moving. If they have to follow patterns and steps, they stiffen up. Social tango is largely an improvised dance, and you can’t be stiff. You need to use your body. You need to feel the dance.”

Trained in individual performance dance, Kay studied ballet, modern and African dance in the West Indies, where she grew up, and later at the National Ballet School in Washington, D.C., and Ballet Rambert in London .

When she injured her back 12 years ago and performing became painful, Kay found what she calls “the magic of tango.”

“I was captivated by tango. With tango, I could move again,” she said. “If you learn the dance properly, you can dance tango the rest of your life.”

In addition to teaching tango, Kay is the manager and academic coordinator for the Natural Reserve System at the University of California San Diego.

“Tango has been a way to be creative and artistic and get a break from being the scientist. The two halves of myself get satisfied by doing two things,” she said.

Guizar came to tango by way of Mexican folk dancing. From age 8, he took classes and performed throughout his native Mexico, studying with the Ballet Folklorico de Amalia Hernandez in Mexico City and leading the Harvard Ballet Folklorico de Aztlan at Harvard University, where he was a student.

Like Kay, after decades of stomping and pounding performances on concrete floors, Guizar’s body needed a break.

“My knees just got worn out. That’s when I started dancing tango, because it’s so much gentler. I can tango for hours and hours at a time now. I’ve become addicted,” he said, noting that he has his “tango addiction” under control and now dances just four nights a week, instead of six or seven.

There are four basic movements to tango: walk forward, walk backward, walk sideways and pivot on one leg.

“The four elements of tango are like syllables in words,” Kay said. “They can be assembled into a huge range of language and become poetry.”

The man always leads and the woman always follows in tango, which can be a difficult concept to grasp for some novices.

“In tango, the man must use his left brain and the woman uses her right brain, and together they create something new each time they dance,” Kay said. “For women, tango becomes a moving meditation as the man invites the movement and the woman responds.”

Men usually enjoy the idea of being in control in tango, Guizar said, laughing. “It’s one of the few times many of us get the chance.”

Don’t get the wrong idea about this dance of passion. Despite how provocative it appears on the dance floor, tango has a tradition of respect and decorum.

“When dancing tango, people are as close as you can imagine, but there is a strict ritual of politeness,” Kay said. “It takes two to tango. The dancers are independent, yet depend on one another for the connection and magic of Argentine tango.”