Longboater dances way to Tango World Championships

Wendy Feinstein wasn't expecting to find a new passion at 63, but that's exactly what happened when she visited Argentina four years ago.

By Katie Johns
| 6:00 a.m. March 15, 2017

Wendy Feinstein had never taken a dance class until she was 63. Now it' s something she does every day.

Longboat Key
Neighbors

Don’t cry for her, Argentina. The truth is, she never left you. All through her days, through her existence, she kept her promise.

Longboat Key’s own Wendy Feinstein returns to Argentina in August to compete in the Tango World Championships in Buenos Aires.

“If I make it past the first day, I’ll feel like a huge success,” Feinstein said. “I already feel like a huge success just being asked to participate, but I’m not unrealistic either.”

It was just four years ago that Feinstein and her husband, Jerry, traveled to Argentina for trips to Patagonia and three days in Buenos Aires. While in the Argentine capital, the couple took in a tango performance, and she was hooked.

Hers is a love of the Argentine tango, which is never to be confused with American tango. That’s akin to confusing a banana with an orange, she said.

Feinstein’s partner in the Tango World Championship will be Flavio Catuara, who remains in Argentina while Feinstein practices daily at Sara Dance Center in Sarasota, where she met Luis Pena, her dance instructor.

Pena, who has been teaching dance for almost 25 years, has been leading Feinstein since she was bitten by the tango bug, showing her the ins and outs of the art of the dance.

“It’s part of being a dancer,” Pena said. “Being able to use music from the beginning of the beat to the end of the beat.”

Working with Feinstein has been an experience for them both, Pena admits. But while he said it’s hard to express how much she’s grown as a dancer, he can see her growth in how she interprets the music. The respect is mutual. Feinstein, 66, said dancing with Pena is like sitting in a favorite chair. It’s comfortable.

Dancers at the competition, regardless of experience, dance either a salon tango or stage tango. And though Feinstein has been practicing stage tango with Pena, she and Catuara will be dancing salon tango — the clean cut, classic Argentine tango.

“It’s an unknown,” Feinstein said. “This whole thing is an unknown. I have to put trust in Luis. Luis is the man who taught me to dance. Anything I know how to do, Luis is the reason why.”

Argentine tango is not choreographed. It’s improvisational. It’s a series of steps led by one dancer and responses from the other. And because her partner is 4,700 miles away, she hopes to dance with several different teachers between now and August.

Feinstein said you can never have too many teachers. All of her dance teachers have teachers because dance is something you can never perfect she said.

“It’s just a language I want to learn how to speak,” she said. “There’s just this body chemistry thing going on between the partners.”

After that first performance four years ago in Buenos Aires, it was her husband who encouraged her to learn the tango after Feinstein mused that she wanted to return in the afterlife as an Argentine tango dancer.

Is she daunted by the challenge of a world championship? Hardly. Climbing mountains, literally, is something she's use to. In fact, she's climbed several of them, including Colorado's Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, La Plata and Twining Peak. The 66-year-old is also an avid cyclist, skier and kickboxer.

“It’s a journey and no matter how much you want to be here in the journey, if you’re here that’s where you are,” Feinstein said. “You cannot judge your progress by where you want to be. You can only judge your progress by where you started. Because where you want to be, you never are. Nobody ever is.”