Teacher vs. dancer

It's really important to distinguish between these two "hats" or roles.

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Recently I had an interesting exchange with a student in a class I was teaching. He is someone I dance socially with quite often. As he is not a regular student of mine, I had rarely danced with him in a teacher-student situation before.

He had asked me a question about why the move he was learning was not working to his satisfaction, so I got him to try it with me. At some point I felt the moment where his lead needed some improvement, so I resisted a little, stopped him and asked him to try it again, suggesting a correction or two. He looked at me somewhat taken aback and said, "But you're normally much easier to lead than that! That's not what it usually feels like to dance with you."

"That's because I'm not usually wearing my teacher hat when I dance with you," I replied.

As these things do, the exchange stayed with me and got me thinking.

What I said to him was very true: When I am wearing my teacher hat, I am focused on improving the quality of the other person's dancing. When I am wearing my dancer hat, I am focused on the quality of my own dancing. I think it's really important to respect that dividing line.

When I am, for example, teaching a private lesson, I do my absolute best not to compensate for my leader or follower's flaws but to pinpoint them and find ways to correct them. But when I am dancing in a milonga I do the exact opposite. I, in fact, pay little attention to my partner's shortcomings, purposely ignoring the most blatant ones and not even noticing the minor ones as I concentrate instead on just being the best follower (or leader, as the case may be) I can be, enjoying my partner's best qualities, the music and the moment.

Why do I think it's important to distinguish between the two "hats?" Because the primary goal of dancing socially is enjoyment and connection. If I start focusing on my partners' flaws I will necessarily diminish my own enjoyment as well as that of my partner. And I will also break the connection between us every time I begin to speak. The partner in my arms in a milonga is not there to receive instruction, whether he or she is my student or even knows I'm a teacher or not.

In a class there might be moments when I let go for a couple of minutes and just dance and enjoy – an overall good sign for the student I am dancing with – but "relax and enjoy" are not my primary goals in that situation. My objective, and the reason the other person is paying me, is to pinpoint their mistakes and help them find ways to fix them. That is my job. It takes a lot of focus, concentration and energy, both mental and physical, to teach, especially private lessons. While it is incredibly rewarding work, why would I want to do that job in my leisure time, during moments when I am allowed to just let go and have fun?

That's why I might feel different to dance with when I'm just dancing than when I'm teaching and that's why only teachers should teach – but never in a milonga.

Related post:

No teaching on the dance floor

A message of thanks to the community

Thank you for your collective hug of support.

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In these difficult times, the tango community has shown itself to be just that: a true community.

Here in Montreal, tango activities, along with every other social activity, have been shut down over the last few days in line with our government's social distancing orders and recommendations to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus that is taking over and turning over our lives. We, of course, are not alone. Countless cities around the world preceded us and others will follow.

This has resulted in putting all the tango teachers out of work and we're pretty nervous about our financial survival, not to mention our fears over the virus itself. Most of us don't make oodles of money to begin with, so we're not sitting on months or even weeks worth of savings. For tango school owners (like my partner and me) who have a permanent space, the situation is even scarier, because, in addition to our personal living and housing expenses we have to keep paying our commercial rent and expenses every month.

There are people who think our work is just a fun hobby for us. Indeed we are lucky enough to dedicate ourselves full time to our great passion and our work is often a lot of fun. I get to dance and socialize every day and I absolutely love teaching and DJing and hosting milongas. But I work every weekend and most evenings, the constant physical work means I'm always battling some injury or other and then there are all the behind-the-scenes parts of the job that are less fun: the finances, data entry, constant marketing and publicity, non-stop checking and answering of emails and phone messages, scheduling, managing the partner balance (and compatibility!) in classes, keeping the space clean, stocked and in good repair and the list goes on. Hey, it's a job and not even the best job in the world is all fun and games. There are times when my partner and I think people have no idea how hard we work, how many unpaid hours we put in and how financially challenging it is to run a school. But, in fact, many people do have an idea. Some students thank us and voice their appreciation or recognition regularly and some make it clear simply by making a conscious, continued effort to support and attend our classes and activities. 

And now, when we need their support the most, when we have no clue how many weeks or months we might have to tough this out, we are being blown away by just how much the community is showing that it cares about, appreciates and wants to support us. The "us" I refer to now extends beyond me, my partner and my school to all the tango teachers and schools, because we are united in our struggle and have in fact been reaching out to each other for moral support and advice.

Dancers have sent so many messages of support, have prepaid lessons to be taken "post-apocalypse," have donated funds and rallied to encourage others to make donations to the schools so we can survive this period of unemployment and business shutdowns. Whether small or large, every donation has inched MonTango, our school, toward a longer survival period, but more than that, each one has left us feeling loved, supported and incredibly thankful. 

Six days ago (it feels like much longer already), when there were still just a handful of COVID-19 cases in our city and the government had not yet enacted emergency measures, we put out a message saying we were not ready to close our doors but would follow government directives closely and make changes as necessary. The very next day, as the number of cases jumped and large events were cancelled one by one we put out a new message announcing we were shutting our doors after all, effective immediately. In the interim, many dancers and students had sent messages of support, encouragement and understanding, making it clear they could see our dilemma and respected our decision to stay open, but there were also a few who were not so kind, who publicly condemned us and others like us for being so selfish as to worry about such trivialities as bankruptcy or feeding our families. When we read those messages we felt hurt and insulted and stopped feeling the love for a short time, but then, as always, we soon saw how much the kind and empathetic outnumbered the judgemental. In any case, within 24 hours we had decided to close anyway and in yet another 24 hours businesses like ours were being ordered to shut their doors.

Through all of this, overall, the tango dancers around us have shown themselves to be warm, caring, thoughtful and community-minded, leaving us feeling humbled and hopeful. And all while you are living your own fears and challenges because of this outbreak.

I thank you, my wonderful tango community, for the big, huge hug of support you have collectively offered to your teachers and organizers and I hope it's not too long before I can once again share some real abrazos with you.

Stay healthy meanwhile.

(No more) tango in the time of coronavirus

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Updated on Thursday, March 12, 2020

Yesterday, we promised we would evolve with the coronavirus situation, and it didn't take long for us to have to do so.

MonTango has decided to suspend all group classes, practices and milongas starting today, Thursday, March 12. We will reassess in a week and keep everyone informed.

Some of you will rejoice, some will say we are jumping the gun. While even we feel this decision may be premature, we prefer to err on the side of caution.

The factors that led us to this decision, quite different from the one we announced yesterday, include:

• The almost 50% increase in cases in the province of Quebec since yesterday, from 9 to 13 overnight.
• The cancellation of our local St. Patrick's Day Parade, not to mention the cancelled sporting events and concerts all over North America.
• The emergency measures announced today by Quebec Premier François Legault including ordering that all travellers and sick people quarantine themselves for two weeks and that events involving more than 250 people be cancelled.
• The fact Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in self-quarantine, because his wife came home unwell from a trip abroad. (We do not yet know if either of them have COVID-19.)
• The cancellation yesterday of all milongas in Buenos Aires for two weeks. That city has a comparable number of COVID-19 cases to ours.
• The decision by one of the few other full-time tango schools in Montreal to cancel their events for two weeks. (We have been in discussion since yesterday and definitely feel we should be united in this decision.)

We will reassess the situation on a week-to-week basis and keep our students and members informed as to start dates for the spring session and the restarting of weekend activities.

This was an extremely difficult decision to make, but we feel it is the right one.

Once again, stay healthy, everyone.

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Original post:

Tango in the time of coronavirus

Today, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially classified the novel coronavirus COVID-19 a global pandemic.

The tango community (indeed any social dance community) is a perfect potential breeding ground for such a contagious virus. Tango dancers spend an awful lot of time wrapped in the arms of person after person, holding hands, rubbing cheeks and exchanging sweat and probably even saliva particles. Not to mention all those surfaces in the milongas that have been touched by so many, from doorknobs to table tops, chairs and faucets.

Everyone is talking about this virus and many are asking us what we as organizers are doing about it. I am not the first tango organizer to publish my thoughts and recommendations on the outbreak, but as a teacher and milonga organizer who facilitates large gatherings of people with lots of physical contact, I feel it is my duty to speak out and share both what I know, what I recommend and what measures my partner and I as studio owners will take to protect people.

First: What does it mean that COVID-19 is now considered a pandemic?
Epidemic refers to a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease that is actively spreading, affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population.

Pandemic refers to the geographic spread of a disease. A pandemic is an epidemic that has crossed borders, spreading over several countries or continents, also usually affecting an especially large number of people.

Here are the WHO's recommendations for slowing the spread of the disease (stopping it is no longer deemed possible):

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or, if not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• If you sneeze or cough, cover your mouth with a disposable tissue. If not available, use your elbow.
• Avoid contact with anyone displaying symptoms of fever or cough.
• Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands.
• If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care, but call before you head to a clinic or emergency room. (The number to call in Quebec is Info-Santé at 8-1-1.)

In the context of the tango community, those recommendations would translate to:

• Wash or sanitize your hands thoroughly before and after every lesson and every tanda.
• If you are experiencing any cold or flu symptoms, don't take a chance with other people's health: Stay home.
• If you recently travelled to such highly affected areas as China, Iran, Italy or South Korea, stay away from classes and milongas for two full weeks.

What we at MonTango as milonga organizers will do:

• Provide soap and hand sanitizer. This is not new! We have always kept our bathrooms clean and provided hand soap as well as sanitizer. (Several people have written to ask if I have "considered" providing hand sanitizer, but for years we have kept a bottle of it right next to our water station. We will probably add a couple more bottles now, such as at the welcome table and around the dance floor.)
• We ask you, our dancers, to stay home if you are sick and we will do the same. This may eventually mean cancelled lessons or classes taught by one rather than two instructors, but lowering all risk of transmission must, of course, be our priority.
• Cancel events if it becomes necessary. Here in Quebec, as of today there are only 8 known cases of COVID-19 and as far as we know there have been no cases of it in our tango milieu. At this time we do not feel it is necessary to cancel our classes or milongas, but if official recommendations to the contrary come out, of if we suddenly feel it would be the right course of action, we will absolutely do so. 

Luckily for us we are living a very different reality from many dancers in Europe, Asia and even the United States. The virus has not yet hit our tango community and in fact has barely touched our city.

Today, we are counting ourselves lucky and, again, my partner and I don't yet feel that drastic measures are necessary. But with this virus, things could change by next week … or perhaps even tomorrow. We will keep ourselves up to date and as the official recommendations change, so will our response. If schools and public gatherings are closed, our milonga will close as well.

This is a scary time for businesses like ours. With expensive rent to pay every month, a few weeks without tango activities could have dire consequences for us and the other schools like ours. But the community's health comes first, of course.

It is hard to know what to do and whom to believe with so much different information out there and so many sharing their opinions and advice. Paranoia, fear-mongering and conspiracy theories abound, distract and annoy the heck out of me, but this disease is a very real threat and we assure you that we are taking it seriously.

I wish you all good health and will keep you posted as things change.

Further reading:

Other tango professionals I have read on the topic include Carol Horowitz, a fellow Montreal tango school owner whose very sensible recommendations you can read here and Alex Apetrei, a dancer from Zurich, Switzerland, who published a call to stop all milongas globally (while well-researched, I considered his recommendation somewhat alarmist, though I admittedly have a different perspective over on this side of the pond).

Here is a link to up-to-date coronavirus information from the Quebec government.