Fishnets & Fedoras

Treat Parkinson's Disease With Tango

An unusually serious one, this. Research shows that tango can actually be good for people suffering from Parkinson's Disease, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Researchers Gammon M. Earhart, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy, and Madeleine E. Hackney, a predoctoral trainee in movement science, compared the effects of Argentine tango dance classes to exercise classes on functional mobility in 19 patients with Parkinson's disease. The participants in the dance program showed significant improvement in several standard tests for patients with Parkinson's disease

Tango is often viewed as one of the more challenging dances to become good at, rather than merely proficient. I can't help wondering if it's that quality of concentration and co-ordination that helps in this situation.

The researchers said that while dance in general may be beneficial for patients with Parkinson's disease, tango uses several aspects of movement that my be especially relevant for these patients including dynamic balance, turning, initiation of movement, moving at a variety of speeds and walking backward.

The Guardian goes to Buenos Aries

Just before New Year, The Guardian, a UK newspaper published a couple of tango articles. In the first, journalist Robert Elms headed to Buenos Aries, to dance the tango.

This is the "tangopolis", a swaggering yet blue city obsessed with the wheezing melancholia of the accordion, and the blazing footwork of the dancers. If you really want to understand the complex psyche of the Argentinian capital, you have to know tango. If you really want to know tango, master its moves and more importantly its soul, you have to fly for 13 hours and immerse yourself in this big, disorientating southern town. But then what a town.

For those keen to follow in his foot (dance) steps, there's also a travel guide to the capital of the tango world.