Tango Lessons

April 9, 2018
At the beginning of this thoughtful and entertaining memoir of the transformative power of dance, Flaherty is a directionless 25-year-old with a humdrum job at a nonprofit and a platonic live-in boyfriend in Queens. She grew up with a cocaine-addicted single mother until, at age six, her father brought her to live with him and his new wife in their loving home. Flaherty was first introduced to tango on a high school term abroad in Argentina; a decade later she decided to sign up for tango lessons in New York City. The first classes were disappointing, but she soon found meaning and fulfillment in the dance movements and in the arms of her partners. Flaherty wonderfully sketches the tension and play within the dance (“every time a leader lunges forward and the follower steps back... the leader opens up an empty space, inviting occupancy”); throughout, she captures the emotions and the mournful, elegiac beauty and history of tango (“for Argentines, it is a living history, written in them root and blood and earth”). In tango’s embrace, Flaherty learned to let go of her troubled past and find her own power and balance on and off the dance floor. This moving story of dancing into womanhood is unforgettable; readers will warm to Flaherty’s unassuming voice and marvelously rendered love of tango, “a sad thought danced.”

April 15, 2018
An essayist's debut memoir of how a passion for tango dancing transformed her life.Flaherty took her first tango lessons when she was 16 and studying abroad in Argentina. Ten years later, she was living in New York, unhappily surveying the dismal prospects in both her love life and professional pursuits as an actress. Desperate "to do something, however bold or blind," and longing for human touch, she plunged back into the world of tango. A traumatic childhood that included living with a substance-abusing, man-hungry mother marked the author at her deepest levels. The more she engaged with tango, the more she realized that at the core of her desire to master the dance was a wish to simply "close my eyes and trust." Her first lessons felt like a liberating "insurrection." But later encounters with "the maestro," an older man who sought to school her in tango and a passion she did not want, tested her resolve. Flaherty persisted, and as she improved, she found other teachers who showed her that tango dancing was a dialogue of "betrayals and...broken loves" between two bodies as well as a pathway to a womanhood she had suppressed and ignored. She eventually found her way into the New York underground of tango venues, where she met Enzo, the lover who moved her into greater awareness of a body she had allowed to be led but had not allowed to lead. A fellow "tango nerd"-turned-friend named Marty helped the author evolve. With him, she learned to dance a tango that was a sensual expression of an autonomous woman unafraid to take risks in life and love. Well-researched, eloquent, and entertaining, Flaherty's book is not only a witty, incisive reflection on a beloved dance and its history. It is also an intimate celebration of dance, life, and the art of taking chances.A vibrantly intelligent reading pleasure.

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May 1, 2018

In her debut memoir, Flaherty takes us on her journey down the rabbit hole into the world of tango. What starts with taking a single dance class becomes an obsession, with the author eventually describing herself as "a four-door Volvo among Ferrari coupes" in regard to the skill level she achieves. Surviving abuse early in her life, Flaherty struggles with intimacy in her 20s, and Tango enables her to touch others, in a formal sense. Working tedious jobs and in an unfulfilling relationship, she becomes immersed in a culture of classes and clubs. Since this takes place in New York, the atmosphere of the city makes the scene all the more romantic. As Flaherty gets better at the dance, her self-confidence and independence grow. Despite the book's dark themes (even with a lighthearted cover), Flaherty establishes an intimacy with readers that will make them hope she finds happiness. VERDICT An engaging memoir that will have readers looking for the closest tango studio.--Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
Flaherty first came to tango at the age of 16 in Argentina. That early fling turned into an obsession when she started to study the dance in earnest at the age of 25. Burdened by the darkness of her traumatic childhood, she was living in New York with a boyfriend who was mostly a platonic roommate, doing drab work while trying to get a fledgling acting career off the ground. Tango was her refuge. But as she eloquently describes in this searching memoir, this was no easy escape into a world of fishnet stockings and sassy heels. Instead, she learns that to truly tango requires dedication, perseverance, and a willingness to let go and embrace the unknown. As she navigates the unwanted attentions of a showy instructor, ill-advised romantic turns with dancing partners, and late nights spent in the arms of strangers at milongas, or tango events, Flaherty slowly finds her own axis, both in dance and in life. With an acolyte's enthusiastic, detailed devotion, Flaherty traces how this demanding dance gradually led her to demand more for herself.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)