Tango’s once-warm embrace has grown cool under Argentina’s strict coronavirus quarantine, though aficionados are finding a way to circumvent social isolation with virtual classes…
Tango’s once-warm embrace has grown cool under Argentina’s strict coronavirus quarantine, though aficionados are finding a way to circumvent social isolation with virtual classes while they wait for dance venues to reopen.
The lockdown means milongas, traditional dance clubs that dot the Buenos Aires cityscape, are closed indefinitely.
Teachers are maintaining a minimum income from online classes, but they can’t replace the connection that makes the dance so powerful for many.
“The embrace represents 100% of tango,” says Jonathan Villanueva, a teacher at Style and Elegance, a tango academy which is now offering its classes on Facebook. “The essential thing is contact with the other.”
It leaves practitioners of the passionate dance experiencing a unique artistic anguish, tango was never meant to be danced alone.
But in some ways, the lack of the embrace, or of a partner to hold, fits with tango’s penchant for nostalgia, absence and melancholy.
At 35 and with two decades of dancing behind him, Villanueva is giving online classes for the first time.
“What we are doing with our classes is alleviating the need of people who want to learn,” he says.
From the covered patio of his house in Buenos Aires, he demonstrates the steps and give directions to students that he cannot see.
Chairs are suggested as an imaginary dance partner, and he himself often uses a broomstick to help with posture.
