Revisiting (and novelizing) Tango Fire

In late January of this year, my husband and I escaped to the city, an adventure I wrote about here.  We were there to see an extraordinary troupe of tango dancers who were taking their show, Tango Fire, around the world and had stopped for the afternoon in Philly.  Later that evening, at Amada, I turned and saw the dancers behind me—these marvelous, acrobatic creatures out of costume and laughing and willing, as it turned out, to let me sit briefly among them.

Such odd and beautiful conjunctions are not easily forgotten, and lately I've been writing the scene into this adult novel of mine—changing winter to summer and evening to morning and rearranging the dancers' heights, but not their spirits.   

There is no need to inflate their generosity.

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In which I go on the perfect date with my husband

This year my husband surprised me at Christmas with plans he'd made for an entire evening out.  Philadelphia would be our destination—an upper room with views in the impeccable Loews Philadelphia Hotel, located in the former PSFS building; a matinee showing of Tango Fire; and a dinner at Amada, the Jose Garces (you might have seen him on the TV show, Iron Chef) tapas restaurant.  A night like this would be special by any accounting; it was and is especially wonderful for me—an evening like no other in my married life.

I love Philadelphia; you know that I do.  I loved our lunch at the Reading Terminal Market before the show, loved walking, in anticipation, up Broad Street, loved stepping inside the melting pot that Philadelphia has always been—so many different voices and languages in the sold-out audience of the Merriam Theater.  And of course, I love tango—fell at once for the passion and talent and acrobatics and commitment of the Fire dancers—and tapas are my favorite meal at any time; no one does them better than Jose Garces.

But if you look here, at these photos, you will find, between a picture from the Reading Market lunch and the view outside our hotel window, that something utterly unexpected happened during this already perfect afternoon and evening; the dancers from Tango Fire had come as well to Amada.  I had my little camera with me.  They acquiesced to a photograph.  So that there I am, happier than I can say, among the things and places and man I love.

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