CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Eleven years ago, Manuk Colakyan didn't know how to dance and thought he didn't like to dance. Then he and his wife Leda visited friends in their native Istanbul who convinced them to attend a tango festival.

The fluency of the dance, dynamic music and the social aspect of the event awakened in Manuk a desire to learn the tango. Leda was his enthusiastic partner in the tango lessons.

Now they are visiting Turkey again, where they danced in the International Istanbul Tango Festival earlier this month. Manuk, 56, also was the deejay.

"Tango dancers are very particular about their music," he said. "The rule is that you play three or four tangos of the same era and orchestra." Then they play a song not intended to be dance music to give the dancers a break and to switch partners.

He has more than 30,000 recordings of tango music, specifically Argentinean tango. He played his musical selections for the 600-700 dancers who gathered from more than 40 countries to tango at the Istanbul festival. They danced in the columned splendor of an anteroom to a Roman cistern built in the ancient city.

"The festivals usually have historical venues like old palaces," he said before leaving for Turkey. "This year I'm especially excited. I'm going to play in a Roman fourth-century cistern. It supplied water to the local palace."

The Colakyans danced in other sessions that were held in an elegant summer palace built by Sultan Abdulaziz in 1856, a fine arts garden and a 17th-century monastery.

On the dance floor, dancers switch partners and move in a counterclockwise direction at about the same speed as other dancers to avoid collisions. It is customary to ask someone to dance by catching their eye, smiling and nodding, and perhaps raising your eyebrow with a nod toward the dance floor. A return smile and nod indicate acceptance.

"I like to dance with lots of other people," Leda said. "The tango is our passion."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Eleven years ago, Manuk Colakyan didn't know how to dance and thought he didn't like to dance. Then he and his wife Leda visited friends in their native Istanbul who convinced them to attend a tango festival.

The fluency of the dance, dynamic music and the social aspect of the event awakened in Manuk a desire to learn the tango. Leda was his enthusiastic partner in the tango lessons.

Now they are visiting Turkey again, where they danced in the International Istanbul Tango Festival earlier this month. Manuk, 56, also was the deejay.

"Tango dancers are very particular about their music," he said. "The rule is that you play three or four tangos of the same era and orchestra." Then they play a song not intended to be dance music to give the dancers a break and to switch partners.

He has more than 30,000 recordings of tango music, specifically Argentinean tango. He played his musical selections for the 600-700 dancers who gathered from more than 40 countries to tango at the Istanbul festival. They danced in the columned splendor of an anteroom to a Roman cistern built in the ancient city.

"The festivals usually have historical venues like old palaces," he said before leaving for Turkey. "This year I'm especially excited. I'm going to play in a Roman fourth-century cistern. It supplied water to the local palace."

The Colakyans danced in other sessions that were held in an elegant summer palace built by Sultan Abdulaziz in 1856, a fine arts garden and a 17th-century monastery.

On the dance floor, dancers switch partners and move in a counterclockwise direction at about the same speed as other dancers to avoid collisions. It is customary to ask someone to dance by catching their eye, smiling and nodding, and perhaps raising your eyebrow with a nod toward the dance floor. A return smile and nod indicate acceptance.

"I like to dance with lots of other people," Leda said. "The tango is our passion."

When they returned home after the trip that sparked their interest in tango a decade ago, they couldn't find any local instructors. They took their first lessons in Boston when they were there for a family visit.

"After that, we connected to an Argentinean teacher and traveled to her classes and workshops," he said. "We took lessons with lots of people. We're still learning. There's always room for improvement."

They began traveling to festivals and taking lessons from teachers at the festival workshops. Today they teach, sometimes at January's Dance and at the YWCA in Charleston. They're regulars on Friday evenings at the Atlantis Nightclub in Kanawha City, where they and a group of friends offer a variety of dance lessons. The Colakyans teach the tango and Manuk mans the deejay controls.

In April, Leda and her partner, Duke Jordan, tied for the top score in the Dancing with the Stars fundraiser for the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. They danced the milango, a precursor to the tango. Manuk and his partner, Linda Arnold, danced the tango and won the most audience votes.

The Colakyans, who were married 35 years ago in Istanbul, don't usually compete, but they took part in the fundraiser. They travel to tango festivals all over the country and in Istanbul. Manuk is a chemical engineer with Dow Chemical. They moved to Charleston 25 years ago when his job brought them from the West Coast, where they lived for nine years.

"Charleston is home now," he said.

Neither Manuk nor Leda nor other serious tango dancers clutch a long-stemmed rose between their teeth.

"Hollywood put the rose in their mouths," Manuk said. "I think Valentino did that in a movie in the '30s."

Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.