My first email in my inbox this morning was the owner of the dance studio I rent for classes. Her county is opening up: when do we plan to come back to use her space? What are our plans/requirement/rules/etc.? Wow! We are still in lockdown where I live and I had not anticipated even THINKING about this for a few more months.
I have adjusted to online classes and am enjoying their safety despite missing teaching in person and being able to give hands-on help to my students. Some of my students are actually improving faster online than in person: it fits their way of learning better. For me, it takes the stress off of wondering if I am going to get sick, or if I am going to infect someone else. Because I have a compromised immune system from a bunch of rounds of pneumonia, I am careful. I also have many students in the at-risk age categories. Take one super-spreader in the tango community and look out!
Designated partners
Several of my students have reached out and asked me to find them a designated tango partner. They want to find another person who is also being careful, and only dance with them. When you add level, speed of learning, attitude towards practicing and personality to that mix, I feel like a matchmaker! Oy, the responsibility :-)
When you dance in a mask, wash your hands, and then only dance with one person, you are probably not creating a high risk. I can see that as a way to move from dancing with sticks, chairs, barstools, walls and the other accoutrements of Zoom tango.
Frankly, it’s a good idea for those dancers who don’t have a built-in partner at home. And like arranged marriages, there will be rough spots that are not anticipated. Any ideas from all of you as to how to implement that are very welcome!
Outside classes
I am feeling more hopeful of small groups meeting to dance outside than inside. It’s easier to keep your space in a larger, outdoor area. There are fewer surfaces to touch in common. There is fresh air circulating.
My neighbors, who also dance tango, met us outside in the parking lot across the street. We both staked out a few parking spaces, put the music speaker in between, and practiced canyengue for a half hour. We still wore masks, stayed at least ten feet away from each other, didn’t switch partners, etc. It still felt very daring to hang out with other people! And there is the question of pivoting on asphalt. . .
Inside classes would have to have that amount of space per couple, have good ventilation, be easy to access without touching a lot of surfaces, and would have to NOT change partners. That’s a lot of changes from classes before COVID-19. There is also the question of shared space: do I trust the other users of a room to be careful? I am going to spend part of my day pondering when I can feel comfortable doing that, because I am supposed to come up with an answer by Monday. Eek.
I want to hear from you
I want to start to formulate a plan for when we meet again to dance. I would like YOUR thoughts on what would make you feel safer: masks? hand sanitizer? designated partners? etc. What are your most pressing worries about dancing together? How would YOU structure a class to make it as safe as possible? When do you think that should happen? What health factors need to be in place (vaccine? testing? % contact tracing?)? I need to hear from you so that I can relay your thoughts to the studio owner about in-person classes; not just my opinions.
Thank you in advance!