CALGARY -- Dr. Neville Headley is a dentist by trade, but the Calgary man surprised many of his co-workers and friends when they found out he was the executive producer of a world-renowned dance show.

It’s called ‘Tango: The Musical’ – a two-act Broadway-style live production featuring 11 world champion Argentine Tango dancers.

The show was supposed to be an in-person event, but the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the idea of a livestreamed show.

“My love for dancing all started about six years ago when I was as a volunteer member of the promotion committee with the Calgary Stampede,” Headley said.

“I decided I wanted to learn how to line dance so I went to the old Ranchman’s Dance Hall to learn and I discovered they provided a whole bunch of different dance lessons.”

For the next year, Headley took every lesson from country style line dancing to west coast swing and eventually Argentine Tango.

He travelled to Buenos Aires to see the world championships and was inspired to take more lessons back home in Calgary. It was at one of those workshops where ‘Dancing with The Stars’ choreographer Sergei Tumas was visiting from Los Angeles.

“Long story short, we just kind of collaborated, he had this idea for a musical and needed someone to be the financial trail boss so that’s where I volunteered,” Headley laughed.

“We worked on the production, we had some live shows including one here in Calgary, a couple in Los Angeles and even shows in Buenos Aires. But with the pandemic we were able to capture 11 world championship couples, get them on stage with a Latin Grammy award winning pianist and a 10-member orchestra and put together this two-hour online show.”

Headley adds that Calgary has an extensive Argentine Tango community and he himself has performed in productions including Phantom of The Opera.

“Once I started dancing tango it was the romanticism and the passion that the embrace involves in the dance that stuck with me and it kind of gets in your blood,” he said.

“It’s just an amazing journey of 10,000 steps so it doesn’t matter if line dancing gets you started or if you dive right into Argentine Tango, find something that you’re passionate about, get your heart rate up and just stick with it.”

The first viewing of Tango: The Musical will air on Calgary community livestreaming platform, Public Place Network.

Tickets can be purchased online.