The fun and friendship of soul line dancing are infectious.
When Tanya Rogo F’13, MD, MPH, came to Providence for her pediatric infectious diseases fellowship, she wanted to dance. She tried a few classes before finding Ocean State Soul Line Dance. “It just ended up being a really great community of Black women that I’ve been able to connect to,” she says of the intergenerational group (which does include a couple of men). They brought balloons to class when Rogo turned 30, and held a farewell barbecue when she completed her fellowship and moved across the Atlantic to help overhaul the pediatrics residency program at the University of Rwanda School of Medicine. “When I started in 2013, there were 21 pediatricians in the whole country,” Rogo says. “And since then, that number has more than quadrupled.” After four years in Kigali, Rogo returned to the States to practice in the Bronx; in 2021 she was back at Brown, where she’s now an associate professor of pediatrics, program director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship, global health educator in the Department of Pediatrics—and on Tuesday and Thursday nights, a dedicated member of Ocean State Soul Line Dance. “For me, that’s like protected time,” Rogo says. “As I’ve moved along in my career, I’ve actually realized how important it is to me for my wellness. So I very much try to avoid missing class.”
SHE’S ELECTRIC
While soul line dance is highly choreographed—the Electric Slide is an example—there’s room for improv. “Once we have the steps down, sometimes a couple of us will add our own little twirl,” Rogo says.
DEI LEADERSHIP
As vice chair (and future chair) of the Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity Task Force for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Rogo is working to make her specialty more representative of the population it serves. “We’re not diverse nationally,” she says.
FOUNDATIONAL WORK
“There’s still no pediatric infectious disease doctor in Rwanda,” Rogo says. She returns regularly to Kigali to teach the subspecialty to residents, and is developing a fellowship curriculum that will launch in two years.
SEE ONE, DO ONE, TEACH ONE
When Ocean State Soul Line Dance performs at events, they start on the stage, then move to the ground where “the audience could stand between us and dance with us,” Rogo says.
