Andres Amarilla and Meredith Klein are emissaries for what was once a dying art. As an 11 year old boy growing up in the post-dictatorship years of Argentina, Andres was likely the one of the only children in the country learning the Tango. Cultural repression during the junta years had crippled a once-growing traditional dance form, which still resonates in the ears of foreigners as hallmark of Argentinean society. Slowly the dance was winding back into popular psyche, but a young generation had lost the art form. Andres took his rare training as youth and parlayed it into a career dedicated to teaching others a piece of his culture that had almost been erased.
Andres met Meredith Klein, a fellow dancer with ties to the Philadelphia region. After traveling and teaching Tango workshops on the road for several years, and getting married, the couple decided to take up a friends offer to use his South Street loft as a base for a part-time dance academy. Weary of a life of constant travel, they settled into Philadelphia two years ago and began plying their trade in the City of Brotherly Love.
“We saw a gap for growth in Philadelphia Tango,” says Meredith, and indeed there was. Their informal school soon drew nuevos, or beginners, from throughout the region. Within a year or so they had been forced to transistion from holding classes twice a week to virtually every day to keep up with the demand. Some drove hours to take private lessons with couple, who had gained some acclaim through the local news media. Meredith estimates that in two years they had worked with somewhere between 400 to 500 students.
Eventually they had grown too large to be accommodated by their informal loft space alone. They began to search for a yet more permanent location. They were drawn to Fishtown for several reasons, primarily affordability and the sense that the area was growing artistically. ”There was a feeling that the place was really exploding as a place to live,” recalls Meredith of their first forays into the neighborhood. News about the Arts Corridor Plan and the accompanying streetscaping project eventually enticed the couple into considering a space on Frankford Avenue.
Another element was the likelihood of finding new members who had never been exposed to Tango, just as Andres has set out to do years before. The real sensuality that Tango is famous for doesn’t grow just out of always dancing with the same person. The dance form evolves as you dance with new partners, says Meredith, and it takes a “diverse and vibrant community” to facilitate that.
The couple has high hopes for finding that community in Fishtown. So much so, in fact, that they are offering a 50% discount to students from the 19125 and 19122 ZIP codes that enroll in beginner classes. The next beginner session begins January 8th, so dust off your dancing shoes, and take a look!
Check out the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School at http://philadelphiatangoschool.com/ or visit their studio at 2030 Frankford Avenue every Wednesday night for $5 practicas, with lots of dancing and refreshments.
