At the Ramos Mejia public hospital, tango has become a way for the elderly at the geriatric unit to socialise and cure loneliness.
“When older adults stop working, they go into a sort of limbo with a lot of time on their hands, so it is very common for them to have a sedentary lifestyle,” said Alba Balboni, 67, who coordinates the tango project. “Through tango, they can return to an active social life,” she said.
As songs by Argentine tango legend Carlos Gardel blare from the dance room, doctors and nurses go about their daily business, rushing through corridors to treat patients.
“Tango has a lot of benefits for elderly people. It is like a magic key, but fundamentally it is the magic of the dance's embrace,” said Balboni, a psychotherapist who lived in the United States for 33 years.
The dance teacher showed the complicated choreography to new students, most a bit shy to hold their bodies and faces close to partners they had never met before.
“In academies, they focus more on the choreography. For us, it's the embrace,” said Federico Tressero, 65, after his weekly lesson. “Little by little, we get used to the embrace.”