A New York-based artist talks healing and community through dance

WNYC News

Across New York City, every day, people are making impactful differences in their communities. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk is highlighting some of these community champions. This morning, we meet Walter Perez. A New York based artist and dancer from Argentina. Perez is the founder and executive director of Friends of Argentine Tango, a nonprofit established in 2013 to provide the benefits of dancing tango to communities that often lack access to it.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Friends of Argentine Tango was a project that started with my husband, Leonardo Sardella—also a tango dancer from Argentina. We started a program in the Bronx, and right now, we have 14 locations in four neighborhoods: the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.

I started with dancing in Argentina in 1993 when I was 21 years old with salsa and later tango. I started as a therapy. My mother passed away that year, and I was feeling that I need embrace and I need to do an activity for myself to take me out of the sorrow, and the mourning and dancing—it was a perfect match.

In 2000, I moved to New York, and I have the chance to teach for many dance studios, but I find out that I want to get more into underserved communities. Not only to people who have the privilege to take a dance lesson, and pay for classes and create a completely diverse community and teach them how to socialize and have to dance and to listen music and use this as a therapeutic tool and a way to connect with others.

We create programs for people with dementia and Alzheimer's, for people who have different abilities, and being gay with a partner; I want to also get this idea to have an inclusive setup where everybody could decide who to dance with and a safe space for people beyond their sexuality or their abilities.

I don't know if I could get the title of community champion. I just know that I'm passionate, and I love what I do. So, I think everybody could find a way to get the community together, to get people together, and to bring joy.