For the next two weeks local builder Andy Birhenough is hanging up the toolbelt and swapping his steel-capped boots for dancing shoes as he heads to Argentina to do the tango.
The 47 year-old Belvedere Construction worker from Manchester took up tango nearly four years ago.
"I wanted to find a new
way of socialising and I don't really drink so going to the pub on a Friday night isn't my thing," Mr Birhenough said.
"I had always fancied finding out what dancing was all about."
He enjoyed tango because it was a masculine dance but at the same time quite beautiful, he said.
"It's a real sensual dance but you have to be respectful of your partner, so you can't throw her around."
On the building site his workmates, who wouldn't be caught dead doing the tango, liked to give him grief. "Obviously they give me a bit of stick but they all reckon it's a good idea."
Tango took a long time to learn and persistence was the key, he said.
"You almost have to learn how to walk again. You either stick at it and fall in love with it or you give up."
To dance the tango required partners to dance as one, he said.
"You have to move into her space. There's a lot of contact."
Having never visited South America he was looking forward to visiting the hot spots in the home of tango - Buenos Aires.
"It'll be nice to go there and experience the real deal."
