These Hoos Know How To Tango

April 3, 2025
Candid of four pairs of tango dancers

Faculty and staff from across Grounds have found their passion with Charlottesville Tango. (Photo by Saint Hereford, University Communications)

Three scientists and a nurse walk into a room and start dancing tango.

It might sound like the opening to a joke, but it’s actually the first Charlottesville Tango event of the season – and the University of Virginia community is well represented.

Assistant professor of psychiatry David Acunzo, assistant professor of chemistry Jelena Samonina and emeritus professor of computer science Gabriel Robins, along with UVA Health nurse Cristina Ramirez, are devotees of Charlottesville Tango.

The group recently started offering classes for beginners, after a pandemic hiatus. While Charlottesville Tango is open to anyone in the Charlottesville area, UVA faculty and staff can be found at the group’s practicas, or practice sessions, and milongas, social dancing where people show up solo or in pairs to dance tango. Tango is a walking partner dance that originated in Argentina, characterized by a catlike walk and dramatic turns and kicks.

Acunzo said he came to tango by chance, when a friend invited him to step onto the dance floor at the student-run tango club at Princeton University. He thought he would just be learning a dance, and maybe meeting a few people. But tango has become an important part of his life. Acunzo is now the group’s president.

“It’s a culture, it’s not only a dance. … So as soon you start looking into it, there’s a whole world to discover, and that’s quite exciting,” he said.

Ramirez, an infusion oncology nurse and Charlottesville Tango’s secretary, has been dancing most of her life.

“When I was little, my parents would play music, and I would dance,” Ramirez said. “There’s a photo of me as a toddler, around 18 months old, dancing.”

She took ballet and jazz classes as a kid, but for most of her life, she would dance casually at weddings and other big social gatherings. Ramirez’s family is from Puerto Rico, so Latin dance (salsa and bachata in particular) was a way for her to connect with her heritage.

lululemon Virginia Cavalier collection
lululemon Virginia Cavalier collection

She initially came to UVA as a travel nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit and started dancing in Charlottesville. She was out dancing a year and a half ago and was talking to Mike Mallory, a former assistant dean of admission at UVA.

“Mallory had led me through some tango moves, as he knows the steps. After we danced, I mentioned to him that I had watched ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and saw an Argentine tango routine and was inspired to learn,” Ramirez recalled. Mallory told her some teachers from Richmond would be hosting a series of classes. Ramirez attended them, and she was hooked. She became involved with Charlottesville Tango, which was a smaller group at the time; the members would hold practicas at each other’s houses.

“It’s just such a welcoming and very friendly community. I’ve rooted myself in the dance scene here and it’s been very rewarding,” Ramirez said.

For Robins, it’s been life-changing.

Mike Mallory dancing, left, and David Acunzo dancing, right

Former assistant dean of admissions Mike Mallory and assistant professor of psychiatry David Acunzo are experienced tango dancers. (Photo by Saint Hereford, University Communications)

“It changes who your friends are, who you date, how you travel, who you travel with. It changes a lot of aspects of your life for the better,” Robins said.

Samonina grew up in Latvia, attending ballet classes and later learning Latvian and Polish folk dancing. In college, she started dancing disco.

“But tango, you can see it, it’s very special,” Samonina said.

Like Samonina, Acunzo came to UVA from Europe. Tango has allowed him to find community in the United States and abroad – on a trip to China, he ran into a dancer he had met earlier in Scotland.

“I’ve moved a lot to different countries because I was doing post-docs,” Acunzo, who is originally from France, said. “For me, tango was a way to meet people, find a community quite quickly, because you know the codes whichever country you go to.”

Group photo of UVA’s Gabriel Robins, Jelena Samonina, Mike Mallory, Cristina Ramirez and David Acunzo

Emeritus professor of computer science Gabriel Robins, assistant professor of chemistry Jelena Samonina, Mike Mallory, UVA Health oncology nurse Cristina Ramirez and David Acunzo pose for a photo. They said Charlottesville Tango didn’t just help them find a love for dance – they found friendships with each other, as well. (Photo by Saint Hereford, University Communications)

Some might find it unusual that so many scientists were drawn to tango. Acunzo said it’s a natural fit.

“There’s an artistic aspect to tango, but there’s a technical aspect, too. You have to think in terms of geometry, like where’s your center of gravity. In any tango community, there are the artists, and there are a lot of scientists and engineers,” Acunzo said.

At least one notable artist was in attendance for the first Charlottesville Tango event this season: UVA professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove.

Acunzo, Robins and Samonina credit tango for their friendship.

“There’s a couple thousand professors at UVA, and we’re all in different departments,” Robins said. “This has enabled us to connect with each other.”

Media Contact

Alice Berry

University News Associate Office of University Communications

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April 4, 2025

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