Incredible Motion

Dancer-choreographer Martha Graham called dance the "hidden language of the soul." It’s a language that Wolfgang Sachse speaks fluently.

Wolfgang Sachse is an engineering professor who dances tango. He tangos in Ithaca, Syracuse, and Rochester; he tangos in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland; he tangos at airports, at village fountains, and atop mountains. He is a man who dances wherever he can. And he’s not alone: There has been a global explosion of tango during the past decade. "You can look online," enthuses Sachse, "and find tango communities all over the world."

Sachse earned his B.S. in physics at Penn State and his M.and Ph.D. degrees in mechanics and materials from Johns Hopkins before joining Cornell in 1970. The Meinig Family Professor of Engineering, Sachse is on the faculties of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where his teaching covers the fields of experimental mechanics, dynamics, vibrations, elastodynamics, sensors, and actuators. Over the past decade he’s been teaching a freshman Introduction to Engineering course focused on the diverse technologies and design integration of digital audio and video players. His research focuses on the use of ultrasonic techniques to characterize material properties, to detect and diagnose possible failures in them, and to predict their future performance. He has authored and edited four books, written over 200 technical papers, and received two patents while editing the journal Ultrasonics and chairing the biannual Ultrasonics International conferences.

Photo by Wolfgang Sachse

But does any of this relate to the tango? "Oh, not at all," Sachse confirms. "It’s yin and yang. I have my research and my professional life and this is the antidote. I’ve discovered another part of the universe here in Ithaca: At our weekly practicas and milongas less than one third might be Cornell people, the rest are locals." He jokes, "I’ve been told there are 300 important people in this town, and I am proud to say I’ve now met 72 of them."

Sachse first got involved with tango by taking pictures of it. "In 1994, three out of four of my grad students were learning to dance tango, so I went to a couple of events. I saw the incredible motion, of two people moving together in a beautiful way. I found the connection between people fascinating, so I tried to capture that on film." His wife, Gretchen, died of cancer in 1999 at age 54. "That was a reality check. It made me realize there was more to life than just work." But what finally pushed him over the edge from watching into dancing was attending a friend’s 40th wedding anniversary milonga. "I saw the couple dancing together and smiling, after all those years of marriage. A few months later I went to a memorial milonga to celebrate the life of a young tanguera who had died of cancer. I learned that tango celebrates milestones in people’s lives, both good and bad. This dance has helped me to move on with my life."

Photo by Wolfgang Sachse

Tango as a dance includes three principal styles: There is the tango which is the classical dance music comprising a melody with a bass beat; the vals, which is flowing so that the dancers are moving continuously, and the milonga which is usually fast and has the dancers stepping on every beat. The way in which these are danced may be show or performance tango or classical, Argentine tango. "In Ithaca we dance tango," says Sachse, demonstrating with precise, tiny steps in his eclectic office in Thurston Hall, where piles of his panoramic photos and homemade tango calendars fight for space with engineering materials. Sachse shares tango books and pictures, playing tracks off a new tango CD from Japan while simultaneously explaining his work with passive ultrasound. "I listen to materials talk." He rips a piece of paper. "Do you hear that? It’s like a fault that’s moving. It’s seismology of the microscale."

On the macroscale, has clearly also learned to listen to his own moving parts. "Now I’m able to move comfortably. I try to give a strong lead, so my partner can just close her eyes, enjoy the movement and sensuousness while gliding across the dance floor. Fifteen years ago I was afraid of moving my body, but tango has let me connect my body to my soul to be touched by my partner. Tango is not just a dance."

—Melanie Bush