Adapted Tango Program

Tango Mercurio’s Adapted Tango Program provides the scientifically proven therapeutic benefits of partnered and improvised social dance to people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) through a safe, interesting, and fun adaptation of traditional Argentine tango.

Developed by dancer and neuroscientist Dr. Madeleine Hackney, and inspired by the Tango Therapy Project in Philadelphia, the Program offers free six-week series of classes for people with PD and their caregivers. If you are interested in future sessions, please contact us to get on our mailing list.

In our Adapted Tango classes, volunteer instructors trained in our Adapted Tango Program and safety protocols for working with people with PD provide one-on-one support. We use a “practice embrace” in which partners hold elbows and maintain more distance than in traditional tango. Each 1.5-hour class consists of a seated warm-up, standing exercises, learning a new move, dancing with different partners as both leader and follower, music education, and socializing, with breaks as needed.

As a therapeutic tool, tango is a moderate-intensity activity that offers motivation and practice in numerous real-life skills that can be challenging for people with Parkinson’s and other conditions: walking forward and backward, initiating movement and stopping it, varying speed and rhythm, placing the foot and coordinating the whole body, navigating among others, sustaining attention, working with a partner and synchronizing movement with them, leading and following, and more.

In addition, tango offers a safe space for touch, social connection, and community, along with exposure to the dance, music, and poetry of a unique art form. It enables dancers of all abilities to enjoy moderate physical activity that helps them build new neural pathways and experience social interaction, which research has demonstrated boosts happiness and well-being.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, PD is the second most-common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, affecting 1.1 million people in the U.S., with nearly 90,000 diagnosed every year. The disease causes motor and non-motor symptoms that can be physically, emotionally, and cognitively debilitating. There is no known cure, but physical activity can maintain and improve mobility, flexibility, and balance, and also ease non-motor PD symptoms such as depression. 

Our Program is partially funded by a generous grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rotary Club, along with many generous donations from individuals. Please help us make up the difference by contributing to our GoFundMe campaign—the more resources we have, the more classes we can offer—thank you for your support!

For more information and to sign up for our newsletter, email us at info@tangomercurio.org.