Or donate to them, if they've set up a FundMe option, or use some streamed lessons, or other online course.
They're going to have to adapt to the new reality for some time to come, whenever that gets back to normal.
Tango in times of pandemic
- Thread starter rafaelomondini
- Start date
They're going to have to adapt to the new reality for some time to come, whenever that gets back to normal.
TTanguero
Forum Master
In the UK, there is a Facebook group called Where I am NOT dancing tonight. The idea is that, each night we would normally be dancing, we post where we would be and donate the usual entry fee to the organiser's fundraiser.
www.facebook.com
Where am I NOT dancing tango in London tonight?
Help London milongas survive the virus! The purpose of this group is to support local London milongas during the COVID-19 pandemic until they are able to resume milongas, so that we can stay strong...
www.facebook.com
JournalInTime
Forum Master
Each time I've been paid, I've sent a couple hundred $ to the studio of which I am a member. (Granted, that's Canadian $, but I'm a writer, so it's what I can afford.) I'm not sure that really helps much on its own, but hopefully the other members – particularly the more affluent ones – are doing so as well.
I think you will experience behaviour
rather like that by the local dancers
in Buenos Aires, they will stay away
even if people naively organise milongas,
and that is assuming that public dancing
will be permitted any time soon.
Trust and faith in the health of potential
partners will not return for a long time.
Reuven Thetanguero
Well-Known Member
I'm left with the uncomfortable feeling that this is a
rather irresponsible statement.
It's much worse than merely being an aerially transmitted
virus, it's virulent and it "hides". Contamination can be
picked up from surfaces where infected droplets have landed
but also from surfaces that an infected person has touched.
That contamination has to be transferred to the mouth
or even the eyes, presumably by touch. That's why hand
washing is emphasised so much.
But in dance that contamination can easily and accidentally
be passed direct, body to body. And what about sweat emitted
or even projected in active dances? Even in relatively restrained
Tango there are men who sweat enough to have wet shirt backs
and there are women with wet fronts (let's not go any further
with that one). And then there are women who turn their head
and thus their face towards their partner, a nasty habit copied
from show dancing and not at all appropriate for social dance.
Of course people circulating in any crowded space
is a risk right now, so such events are banned, probably
for the forseeable future. But you seem to be implying
that dance could be included in any relaxation.
I would certainly disagree with that, and perhaps so will others
with a stronger sense of responsibility and self-preservation.
Surely we already know by now that waiting for symptoms
to show is one of the reasons why this infection spreads.
That is far too late.
The self-imposed self-isolating of the possibly symptomatic
infected doesn't really work and cannot be enforced.
I see little hope of an end anytime soon, physical distancing
and more quarantines if necessary are the immediate and
continuing future. Until modern medicine finds a solution.
If there are any asymptomatic but innocent spreaders at a dance,
then other dancers are likely to be infected. There is plenty of
evidence in Argentina and Uruguay of the virus being spread
by asymptomatic people who have attended family celebrations
by breaking the quarantine in one way or another.
Let's face it:
there can be no Tango during the time of this Pandemic.
The same applies to all other group dancing and classes
whether it be for dance or for other forms of exercise.
My point is whether there's physical contact or not doesn't matter because if you're in a crowded place with someone who is infectious and they are talking then you've already been exposed. Dance is simply a gathering of X people and should follow the same rules as other gatherings of X people, neither more nor less.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
I think there will be distance regulations for public locations and events in general and for "dancing" in special.
My point is that in every scenario I imagine, we will lose a large proportion of the dance schools and other professional tango infrastructure. Therefore the restart will take place in a (semi) amateur environment.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
Agreed, the regulations might be about dancing in general. But is it an advantage to be thrown into a basket with after ski parties? Anyhow, a few meters of distance an it will be permitted earlier or later. The question is, how attractive that will be for a large scale of attendees? Enough to pay the rent?
snapdancer
Forum Master
I believe that dancing is riskier than many other social interactions because
(1) A couple is physically closer than in most other social interactions
(2) Dancing increases physical activity and lung activity, some dances more than others. Increased lung activity will cause shedding of more viruses and expel them further.
I don't expect social dancing to be safe until an effective vaccine is widely deployed.
(1) A couple is physically closer than in most other social interactions
(2) Dancing increases physical activity and lung activity, some dances more than others. Increased lung activity will cause shedding of more viruses and expel them further.
I don't expect social dancing to be safe until an effective vaccine is widely deployed.
It depends how much longer it continues - and that probably also depends where you live. Moving west it will continue longer, without some dramatic solution.
If it continues for several months then 'dance schools' will need to evolve to the new environment and their [solo] customers, and those who will inevitably drop out.
That will mean both keeping the fires burning, and finding innovate solutions, so that there's something to pass on.
Also worth noting that, in some areas, dancers are older. They're going to be hit hardest, and take longer to emerge from lockdown.
TTanguero
Forum Master
Best estimates of a vaccine are 12-18 months away (it's six months just for the safety-testing phase, unless an existing vaccine is somehow found to be effective). A reliable antibody test is probably 1-2 months away.
Me neither for all the reasons you stated.
There are additional aggravating factors which is that the dances often people from wide geographic distances. I can be pretty sure that the vast majority of people shopping for groceries at the local Butera are local as in live within 3 miles of that store. But some dancers at the Glendora drove 20 miles and also attended two or three dances a week, also within ~ 20 mile radius of their home. The dance culture creates a really wide, broad network of people who come in very close contact with each other intermittently, and then go back and circulate with other smaller community.
This makes social dance events quite able to spread the disease from community to community. They aren't unique in this regard, but it simply has factors that allow broader and more rapid spread than, say, shopping for groceries.
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