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From This Day: After 16 years, couple ready to tango for life

 
Desiree Munera and Victor Crichton married at Cay Pointe Villas in Indian Rocks Beach.
Desiree Munera and Victor Crichton married at Cay Pointe Villas in Indian Rocks Beach.
Published Dec. 12, 2014

The year was 1998. Desiree Munera moved to Clearwater that summer. Her father had died, and she came up from Fort Lauderdale to be nearer to her mother, Minerva.

Living in South Florida, Desiree had begun taking Argentinian tango lessons. She had even signed up for a trip to Buenos Aires. Her instructor referred her to Victor Crichton, who teaches in the Tampa Bay area.

Argentine tango differs from other versions in that it is "an intimate dance between two people," Desiree says. "It's not a dance for show. It's a personal conversation between two people."

"It's a partner dance," Victor says. "You definitely have to learn together, to get through problems without blaming each other. Whatever doesn't work for one person soon doesn't work for the other.

"The man's job is to protect the woman on the dance floor, to make sure the lady enjoys herself. It's not an egotistical thing for a man. It's two very different roles, and done in a respectful way."

"Generally speaking, you don't get involved with students," says Victor, 61. When a friend expressed interest in his new student, he was encouraging. At the time, Victor told him, "She's too young for me."

He was concerned about Desiree, however. She was a relative novice, and he thought she might feel out of place among more accomplished dancers in Argentina's capital. He offered her individual lessons in addition to the group classes in which she was enrolled.

"When I came back, we started dating," says Desiree, 53. Their first date was Oct. 24. Exactly 16 years later, they exchanged wedding vows at Cay Pointe Villas in Indian Rocks Beach.

"For me, the first thing that I saw was that he was so charming and kind," she says. "We had a lot of things in common. He was easygoing. He was easy to talk to. It flows naturally with us."

Both had been married before, and Desiree has two daughters, Tatiana and Andrea.

"We were beyond the age where we were thinking about (having more) kids," Victor says. "For me, there was no specific need to get married."

They made many trips to Argentina together, and both teach and perform throughout Florida and the Southeast.

Still, Desiree says, "I wanted to make sure that our base wasn't just the tango, that if we took tango out of the equation, we would survive as a couple."

Over time, they took on several remodeling projects in the house they share near Pinellas Park. They kayak. They went zip-lining on their honeymoon in Costa Rica.

"We had gone through … lots of things together, deaths, kids ... all kinds of things that married couples go through," Desiree says.

Victor, who works full time as a computer programmer for Pinellas County, proposed last year in a little park on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle that has a view of the Space Needle.

Desiree hadn't expected it then, but it wasn't a complete surprise. "We just kind of wanted to make it official," she says.

They found a beach venue, and Desiree, who is a professional wedding planner, added vintage touches to the setting. And she changed from her wedding dress into a shorter, red silk one for their first dance — a tango.

"There are a lot of parallels we draw in dancing and in life," Victor says.