Tango in Times of Corona

In these times of novel coronavirus , the general advice is to keep at least 1.5 meters between people. Anyone who has ever seen a tango dance probably knows that it is impossible to stay so far away from your partner. This casted doubts in some communities regarding how to cope with this situation.

In my case, dancing is a hobby . A lot of people is doing a lot of sacrifices because of the overall situation. From a personal perspective, not being able to dance for a year does not feel like the biggest of my problems. However, many people live at the other side of the spectrum. They are professionals that depend on these activities to survive.

Supporting Teachers

In many cases, teachers live out of their classes. If they are not allowed to work, they can't sustain themselves. Several countries decided to shut down activities such as gyms and classes in general. Or they forbade having groups of people in closed spaces. This means that classes are no longer a possibility.

I, honestly, didn't find a practical solution for supporting teachers themselves. Donating money does not feel the right call in moments when we are all on the same boat. Some came up with very creative ideas to teach online, but it requires that you have the space (and no neighbors downstairs).

Milongas and Clandestine Milongas

One the outbreak started, I read a blog article saying that if the tango community survived SARS , with more reason it would survive just a flu . The problem in milongas is that a lot of people gets cramped up in a small space. Adding to the fact that the age average is generally high, it creates a ticking bomb of problems.

I, personally, consider that milongas are a big no-go during a pandemic . However, I started to receive invitations to clandestine places. People organizing gathering without publicly advertising it. I think it is important to establish boundaries, and this is one I was not willing to cross. In The Netherlands many milongas are not the main source of income of the people behind it. They are useful to build a reputation and recruit students. They are, however, an essential part of building a tight community.

Musicians

The third leg of the stool are the musicians. In normal times they could perform, they could travel. Musicians are, however, the easiest to support. We can just buy their music. For sure, listening to them on Spotify may represent a revenue, but I do think that buying musing directly has a much greater impact. For a while, instead of paying a subscription, I choose to buy musing through bandcamp .

Of course, I am not mentioning professional dancers . I didn't include them in this group because it is not something that belongs to the normal dancing environment, but to the show business.