Tango in times of pandemic

journalintime, if you are in montreal?
will you sing from your window leonard cohen ? is it happening tonight ..?

they are singing leonard's "so long marianne "
..'come over to the window my little darling ..'
 
. . . and Québec just shut down all non-essential services. We'll have water and electricity, and be allowed to leave home to buy food, pharmacy items, and gas . . . and that's it. If you don't work in the water, power, food, pharmacy, or gas biz, you have to stay at home. If you can't work from home, you have an unpaid vacation.

Tomorrow, the Canadian government meets provincial leaders about "emergency measures." That's our very polite term for "war measures," and includes the power to command medical testing and order citizens to support anything that needs supporting (not to mention enforcing "stay at home" with soldiers).

Interesting times. All tango will be at home with my girlfriend, though the Internet lets us theorize and hold virtual milongas.
 
In the UK, a minimum three-week lockdown. Allowed out for essential shopping (food and medicine), essential work, caring for others, exercise.
 
JournalInTime said:
. . . and Québec just shut down all non-essential services. We'll have water and electricity, and be allowed to leave home to buy food, pharmacy items, and gas . . . and that's it. If you don't work in the water, power, food, pharmacy, or gas biz, you have to stay at home. If you can't work from home, you have an unpaid vacation.

Tomorrow, the Canadian government meets provincial leaders about "emergency measures." That's our very polite term for "war measures," and includes the power to command medical testing and order citizens to support anything that needs supporting (not to mention enforcing "stay at home" with soldiers).

Interesting times. All tango will be at home with my girlfriend, though the Internet lets us theorize and hold virtual milongas.
Click to expand...
NYState and CA have been "PAUSEd" for the past several days (officially since Sunday in NYS), which amounts to about the same as Québec--all nonessential services have been closed and employees asked to stay home or work from home (for those who still have a job). Everyone else is supposed to go out for necessities and maintain social distancing when outside (six-feet). Supermarkets (most of the big chains) are limiting access to a small number of shoppers at a time. Our economy is in the toilet as anyone who follows the market indices has noticed. Some teachers have started online workshops. I'm not sure how they are succeeding, but they are trying. I'm mostly listening to a lot of tango music and missing my local milongas. Cooking and eating and drinking, too. Stay healthy everybody. And remember to wash your hands. ;-)
 
TTangero said:
In the UK, a minimum three-week lockdown. Allowed out for essential shopping (food and medicine), essential work, caring for others, exercise.
Click to expand...

I think the halfway approach where they weren't actually enforcing anything and relied on people to "do the right thing" was a bad compromise. Obviously this shutdown isn't sustainable for an extended time, hopefully we can transition out of it into mass testing and targetted rather than general quarantine.
 
ArbeeNYC said:
Some teachers have started online workshops.
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I had an online private, via Zoom, on Sunday. They demonstrated some small variations on things I've done before, and then gave me some solo technique exercises, watched me do them to make sure I was doing them correctly and then set those as homework before the next lesson.

It's obviously not as good as a normal lesson, but was still worthwhile.
 
ArbeeNYC said:
Our economy is in the toilet as anyone who follows the market indices has noticed.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we're getting as much news about that as about the pandemic here. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Being a left-leaning person with no investments, it's probably best that I don't opine.

ArbeeNYC said:
Some teachers have started online workshops. I'm not sure how they are succeeding, but they are trying.
Click to expand...
I chatted online with my tango coach yesterday. She earns her living teaching tango and working as a Pilates and yoga instructor. As all dance and fitness studios are closed by law here, things are bad for her personal economy . . . though she has been doing Skype lessons with some clients.

ArbeeNYC said:
Cooking and eating and drinking, too.
Click to expand...
A lot more cooking and cocktail-making here. Even "Eh, I'll just make some quick pasta" has turned into cooking a sauce from scratch, seasoning and cooking chicken to add to the pasta, etc.

ArbeeNYC said:
Stay healthy everybody. And remember to wash your hands. ;-)
Click to expand...
Mine have never been so scrubbed!
 
Rabbit said:
hopefully we can transition out of it into mass testing and targetted rather than general quarantine.
Click to expand...
They started widespread testing in NYC then stopped it. It pulled healthcare professionals from other essential tasks and also required that they change their protective equipment with each patient tested. Given that such equipment is in very limited supply now, they stopped the testing. They are now testing people who have to go to the hospital or have been hospitalized due to severe complications. Everyone else they are asking to stay home and rest until it's over. I don't think a long-term quarantine is going to be viable though, psychologically, socially, or economically. The strains would be tremendous.
 
TTangero said:
I had an online private, via Zoom, on Sunday. They demonstrated some small variations on things I've done before, and then gave me some solo technique exercises, watched me do them to make sure I was doing them correctly and then set those as homework before the next lesson.

It's obviously not as good as a normal lesson, but was still worthwhile.
Click to expand...
Interesting. So, you were able to learn something even over a video line.
 
ArbeeNYC said:
I hate to break the news to teachers but some of their students' personal economy isn't so great either. It's not as if everyone else is doing all that great.
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Judging by her words to me, my teacher is clearly aware of this. On the other hand . . .

The demographics of the local tango community don't lie: A large minority or a majority are retired, and have no job for the economy to affect – and a large minority or the majority of those are living comfortably off conservative investments (I had one man explain his market-resistant portfolio to me at the milonga!). Among those still working, a clear majority are in academic and professional roles that offer tenure and/or allow telework; you can't throw a boleo at our milongas without hitting an architect, banker, lawyer, notary, professional engineer, professor, etc. The stereotype of tango fans as wealthier than average is rooted in reality up here. A surprising number of local dancers either don't work or work less than 40 hours a week (leaving plenty of late nights for tango), and take multiple vacations per year to attend overseas festivals and visit Buenos Aires (where owning an apartment is very common).

So . . . my teacher isn't without potential "angels," even in these times. Three of her students in particular are just plain rich. One of these and his wife work only because they choose to; both have family money spread over the globe, and they travel almost weekly when the airlines are running. Here's hoping these people can help my teacher, because my personal economy sure won't be up to that. :(
 
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