I find it hard to stay positive and upbeat right now. It would be easy to hide and just knit in some corner, watching podcasts (the grownup version of what my son is doing with Minecraft). I miss seeing all of you in person, although Zoom is really helping; seeing your smiling faces via the internet brightens my day!
I really look forward to teaching tango, even more than I did before. Focusing 100% on someone else, making sure that THEY feel better, that tango is still in their life, and that they can know that their tango will be improved when we get on the collective dance floor—that takes me out of my own worry and makes me feel useful. I am planning on doing short video “practice” moments that we can share, based on my classes. Again, I hope to be more useful to other people.
I would have never thought that teaching dance online would be in my cards. I didn’t understand how well it would work, and I dragged my heels despite comments on my Youtube channel (“I wish you lived here in Cairo!” etc.) that suggested I could connect with a bigger tango community than I could face-to-face. Now that I have been forced to look at this new idea, I see how good it is for our dance!
I think that our dance community will have permanently changed by the time we are allowed and/or safe to dance collectively. We need to be creative and find ways to continue to build our dance, tango and otherwise, in the upcoming months and maybe years. Perhaps it will be simply that we have thought more about our dance on a spiritual level, or practiced every day (ha!), or met people online to visit in other tango groups.
Tango has survived the 1918 flu epidemic, several world wars, the military junta, poverty, economic uncertainty on national level . . . and it will survive COVID-19. I feel sure of that.
Try to stay positive: we WILL be able to dance together again, at some point. I am going to make masks that match my tango dresses, I think. What about you? How are you keeping up your tango? How are you keeping up your spirits? Please share!