Art museum offers tango dance lessons

At Thursday’s Art Museum event “Embrace: An Evening of Art and Tango,” guests spent the evening with a combination of wine, dancing and fine art.

“Embrace,” combined a beginner’s tango lesson with a guided tour of specially selected pieces of art.

Guests also enjoyed wine, hors d’oeuvres and special tango performances at the Valentine’s Day event. The concept combined tango and fine arts to celebrate emotions beyond traditional ideas of romantic love, IU Art Museum’s Manager of Events Anita DeCastro said.

“It’s tying art to the emotions in tango, the feelings and expression that tango conveys,” DeCastro said.

“Embrace” was named to address the physical embrace between two people dancing the tango but also the idea of embracing different art forms, cultures and “anything in life,” said IU professor Alfredo Minetti, who helped craft the artistic vision for the event.

“We’re exploring the depth of what a relationship really is, be it romantic or not romantic,” he said.

The emotions caused by art throughout the evening “are not necessarily just joy, but feelings of sadness, nostalgia, melancholy,” he said.

Minetti said the very essence of tango lends itself to a unique emotional response.

“If you look at Latin American dance in general, a lot of the dances are very extroverted,” he said. “Tango is a dance that goes inward. It’s a dance for people to reflect about life.”

Minetti said outside of Argentina, Tango is just perceived as dance.

“In Argentina, it’s music, it’s poetry, it’s lyrics, it’s the interpretation of that poetry,” he said. “It’s really ultimately a way to see the world.”

After the tango lesson, participants were guided to pieces of art personally selected by museum curators. The five pieces were all from different cultures, including Tibetan, Greek and Italian, to further emphasize the idea of embracing what is different.

IU senior Kassie Heinzman and her boyfriend, recent graduate Nick Marquiss, came for the dancing.

“We were just looking for something to do tonight besides dinner,” Heinzman said.

 She also said she loves the setting of the museum.

“I love it here,” Heinzman said. “It’s a cool environment to be around art.”

Freshman Jovie Otter said she was also looking for something unique to do.

“I’ve never learned tango before, so that’s pretty exciting,” she said.

The event was ideal for those new to art and dance culture because it was not set up as a formal lecture, said Nan Brewer, IU Art Museum curator and one of the event’s coordinators.

Brewer said the conversational atmosphere was to allow guests to connect the emotions felt during the tango to the emotions displayed in the art.  

“Having music and theater and combining it with visual arts amplifies our appreciation and understanding,” she said.

DeCastro said she hopes the experience will be more significant than simply an evening of dancing and viewing art.

“I want people to say that they really experienced the tour that was being offered, and not just coming in and watching,” DeCastro said.

She said she hopes people left with a “deeper understanding of what tango means.”

“These connections will hopefully add a new appreciation or resonance for people with these art forms and art objects,” she said.