Mar 12, 2012 9:00 am406 views
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Ask Claire Barker how she became a tango dancer and she tells a story that begins when she became a nun. Barker - a professor of internal medicine at the University of Illinois - had a friend who was staging a production of "The Sound of Music" at a local theater and needed more holy sisters for the abbey scenes. Barker auditioned, and was cast not only as a nun but also as a dancer in the ballroom scene. Dance coaches for the production noticed Barker's knack for the Viennese waltz and encouraged her to continue dancing. She enrolled at the Regent Ballroom in Savoy, Ill., and soon fell in love with the Argentine tango. For the past five years, she has been hosting monthly "milongas" (tango dance parties) at the Channing-Murray Foundation on the Illinois campus.