Paul Pellicoro’s DanceSport was once NYC’s biggest ballroom and Latin dance studio. It was famous for teaching actors to dance, and played a key role in seeding Argentine tango in the States.
Dancesport Tango
When the seminal tango show “Tango Argentino” moved from Paris to New York City Center and then Broadway in 1985, the show’s dancers started teaching at the newly opened Dancesport.
They were great dancers, but had a very traditional style of teaching. Paul taught them modern dance teaching methods. Several American dancers first learned tango there, and spread it around the country. One or two are still part of the New York tango scene. So the way tango is taught and danced in the States started once upon a time at Dancesport.
The studio rose to prominence after choreographing Al Pacino’s famous Tango scene in “Scent of a Woman” (1992).
It’s funny, but the American tango style of movement recalls Rudolph Valentino’s tango in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (1921). That movie made Valentino a superstar and the first Latin heartthrob.