COVID-19 Tango Sentiments

August 2020

Pooja Kumar, Founder of Guardia Vieja

Traducido al Español por Ana Margarita Cordero Álvarez

Due to formatting limitations on this site, footnotes have been converted to endnotes. These will be designated by ‘[EN#]’. If you prefer a pdf of the article, please feel free to view a copy here.

I have started writing this article so many times over the course of the last two months. While the months of March through May felt a bit like one of those nightmares, where you are just free falling waiting to hit the ground, June through July have felt a bit like standing on quicksand. While something more solid seems to be taking shape, it is still a bit unnerving to feel like I can’t trust the ground beneath me to not swallow me whole. So, you can imagine, it’s been hard to figure out exactly where to start and what to say.

I am not a scientist, in either the natural or social sciences. I say this up front because I want it to be clear that what I am sharing here are just my perspectives. In this article, I am hoping to share the insights that I have taken away, partly from launching, reviewing and analyzing the results of the COVID-19 Tango Sentiments Survey and partly from observing the world around me over the past few months.

As readers, I hope you will get another perspective to consider as you form your own. And as members of the Guardia Vieja family (current or future), I hope you can understand why we will be taking the steps we will as we continue to respond to COVID-19 and join us on this fork in the road, as we find our way back to more solid ground.

I. Background

The first time COVID-19 started to cross my radar was in February, when two friends began sharing their respective family’s experiences in Wuhan. At this point in time information was still emerging. Those on the ground expressed that sheltering in place wasn’t so terrible, as there were videos of people picking up new skills, stopping to spend time together with family, and entertaining each other at home with TikTok videos. It didn’t seem quite so serious in these early social media posts, nor in the news coverage at the time.

A few weeks later, I saw the Johns Hopkins Dashboard monitoring global outbreaks of COVID-19 for the first time and I still couldn’t understand what the concern was. There were a couple of hotspots, most notably over China and Italy; and while there was some chatter of virality and severity, according to the numbers, the majority of people seemed to be recovering.

So, when I had two back to back trips coming up, one national and one international, I didn’t think much of it. There was still this sentiment in the air that this was just a new type of flu. Having said that, as I arrived at my international destination, in early March, I already knew how wrong I was.

At this point in time, countries all over the world were starting to issue travel restrictions. Italy was starting to emerge as an epicenter, and not only were travelers from Italy being asked to self-quarantine as a precaution, but the country itself was starting to restrict movements between the North and South. I wasn’t even in Italy, but by now, I was watching the trends more closely, worried about whether I would be able to get back home to the United States and whether once I did, I would be able to really get back home to ATX. What if the US would also start restricting interstate travel, as cases were emerging in California, Washington, and New York?

Well, I made it home. And barely a week or so later, our offices stated we would be working from home indefinitely.

Why am I starting here? Back in February and March? Not even talking about Tango or milongas?

For two reasons:

It is important to note that this was a rapidly evolving situation, and actually, it still is; and
At this point in time (early March), there was so much that I, along with the world, simply didn’t know and couldn’t have imagined.

By May, although both of these were still true, I had started to learn a lot more. There still was no ‘primary source’ of information for me. The reality was most government and media outlets seemed to be reporting things out on a slight delay. I was learning more by combining what I was seeing in the ‘news’ with on the ground stories from second or third degrees of separation, from friends of friends in Italy and Spain or academics and experts in my social and work networks.

I also found a lot of smarter people than me and started to listen to more TED talks and podcasts from various experts on the scientific, economic, and social impacts this might have.

Having said that, while I could teach myself a lot of ‘facts’, this pandemic isn’t simply a scientific or biological issue of natural science. It is intersectional. There is a social science component to how we as humans will respond. So, with my own baseline of understanding, I wanted to better understand the sentiments of people around me, because these sentiments might be a better indicator of how things might actually evolve, beyond the hopes and warnings of all the experts.

And so on May 11th, we launched the COVID-19 Tango Sentiment Survey to try to understand the perceptions that others were forming. And yes, while we looked at COVID from the perspective of how it impacts sentiments around Tango, there are a lot of transferable insights to broader social communities.

II. The COVID-19 Tango Sentiment Survey

For those who took the survey, you are likely familiar with the broad areas we were curious about. That was a while ago, so in case you need and refresher and also for the readers who might not have had the opportunity, here is a brief overview:

A Little Bit About You: Some basic demographic data to help us better understand the participants.
A Little Bit About COVID: Gathering perspectives on how participants monitor signals around the virus and what factors might be most important to them.
A Little Bit About Your Expectations of Organizers: Made up of a few sub-sections, these questions seek to understand the expectations participants have of Tango professionals who might be organizing some type of event.
A Little Bit About Your Perspective on Your Community: Gathering perspectives on how participants define ‘Community’ and their perceptions around these communities.
A Little Bit More About You: While the first section was more about demographics, this section was more about trying to understand the risk tolerance of participants, given all of the aspects we had them consider in the prior four areas.

Overall, the survey consisted of 47 questions and we received 188 reponses. Participants represented 90 cities across the world. Notably, Austin (11.11%) and Buenos Aires (6.11%) had the most participants. The top ten cities, although still dominated by the United States (7 cities), also have representation from Argentina, Canada, and England. Despite the geographic diversity, it is relevant to note that the responses are more representative of perspectives from the Americas and Europe, as we did not receive any responses from Asia, Africa, or Australia.

Over the past couple of months, we have been sharing the results in the form of infographics. A gallery of these infographics can be found scattered throughout this page. There are a number of ways this data can be analyzed and we will not be exploring all of these in this article. I hope to cover three key insights that I found most helpful in helping me better understand the current Tango and social landscape at large, in order to determine the next steps for Guardia Vieja. If you prefer to complete a more comprehensive review or might be curious about a particular question, a copy of the raw data can be found here. [EN1]

Insight 1: The False Consensus Effect

The false consensus effect is a widely observed and empirically proven cognitive bias, whereby people tend to assume that their personal beliefs in a given situation are widespread and common. It is relevant to juxtapose this with the reality that the responses of the survey showed significant differences in beliefs on almost every question asked.

The closest we got to consensus was on the question of whether Organizers should have hand sanitizers available at events. 59 participants chose to not respond. Of the remaining 129, 92.2% agreed, while 7.8% disagreed.

For better or worse, 19.1% of participants indicated that they were not monitoring any data trends or news related to COVID. Based on subsequent responses to questions in the section ‘A Little Bit About COVID’, it appears that the true number is closer to approximately 3%. [EN2]

The ‘better’ of the ‘better or worse’, looks something like this: Even before the pandemic, I would often try to start conversations with people about an event on the news and be met with some variation of the response, ‘I don’t watch the news anymore. It’s generally just depressing [or stressful] and I can’t handle it.’ There are some individuals who truly can’t manage the number of notifications, causes, and data points that need to be kept track of in today’s world. And while I don’t subscribe to the ‘ignorance is bliss’ philosophy, I can empathize with it.

The ‘worse’ of the ‘better or worse’, for me is not something that can be gleaned purely from the results of this survey. It is something I see increasingly on social media platforms. It is the increasing polarization based on the false consensus effect. The ‘unfriending’, ‘unfollowing’, and refusal to engage in conversations and debates, when someone doesn’t share that personal belief that we feel is so widespread and common.

Whether you are part of the 3% or the 97%, if you are not aware of the false consensus effect, you will miss part of the bigger picture and so when you arrive at an event assuming that everyone is thinking, as you do, you might be deeply disappointed, and in the case of COVID, you might be opening yourself up to risks that you are not yet ready to assume.

Given the varied responses throughout this survey, it is increasingly important for me to take the time to understand the perspectives and practices of every individual I might interact with in physical proximity. While this is more feasible for me as an individual, as a small business, I’m not sure that I can do this effectively at scale.

Insight 2: Money Matters

This wasn’t a question I felt the need to ask in the survey, because I could see the answers all around me. Most of our Tango teachers and organizers are facing devastating losses of income that they might not recover from. We have seen announcements from well established institutions like DNI Tango stating that ‘due to current travel restrictions and unsustainable economic pressures, … [they] have faced the decision to close ….’ (emphasis added). Similarly, my feeds have been flooded with fundraisers to support Tango. Even historical symbols like La Viruta and Milonga Parakultural have not been immune.

The modern global economic model for Tango was always unsustainable. This crisis is only placing a spotlight on it. The reality is that many of our teachers, organizers, musicians, and artists are barely able to sustain a ‘paycheck’ to ‘paycheck’ lifestyle and even then oftentimes have no benefits to fall back on, if they are injured or sick. And the reality is that this is not unique to Tango. It is also the case when it comes to artists across many genres.

While there is less I can do about national or international economics, my hope is that COVID-19 is an opportunity for us to re-examine the value proposition of what Tango as a culture means to all of us and to start making real changes to help sustain it in the longer term. Afterall, if the survey is any indicator, it seems we can move the needle at least a little.

The question I did ask was this: ‘If size limitations made Tango Events more expensive, would you still attend?’ 31.4% (59) of participants chose not to respond. Of the remaining participants (68.6% or 129), only 6.2% (8) said they would not and another 5.5% (7) expressed they were unsure [EN3]; 39.5% (51) said yes [EN4]; and for the remaining 48.8% (63) it depends on the amount of increase, with the group split on a maximum increase of up to 25% or 50% of current costs.

An unspoken mission for Guardia Vieja has been to develop a more economically stable operating model for Tango. We have been lobbying to ensure DJs, Photographers, and Videographers are paid for their services. And whether we can raise the base pay for Teachers and Performers externally or not, we hope to be able to raise it within Guardia Vieja. We aim to create an elevated experience that attracts new patrons and that existing patrons are willing to pay more for, in order for us to pay this forward. As organizers we think of ourselves as leaders, and hope to build a community that shares these values.

We felt the need to meet this call to action, even before COVID, because some of the social dancers and teachers who we held as inspirational totems to dance or work with someday were quitting and joining coding bootcamps for more economic stability. We have an opportunity for progress rather than a simple preservation of Tango. I hope that COVID-19 is a wake up call for more individuals to join me in creating a more sustainable operating model every day and not just in crisis mode.

Insight 3: Dealing with the Biggest Tangover Ever

Tangovers are a real thing. You know that feeling on the first day back to ‘real life’ after a Tango Marathon, Festival, or trip to BsAS. The zeal and passion that we have for Tango is often described as an addiction and this abrupt ‘cold turkey’ interruption of life without it is a real loss for many people. And processing loss takes time. It has for me.

Many people are experiencing real grief for their ‘normal’ lives [EN5] and for Tango dancers, this includes the ability to dance with someone else. For Participant 49, it runs even deeper:

“I am considering how detrimental lack of touch is in our world.
Understandable at this time, but long term [it] concerns me.”

Even before the pandemic, there have been a number of studies and articles alerting us to the detrimental effects of touch starvation and isolation. [EN6] In some cases, prior to the pandemic, social dancing was actually prescribed as a means to combat some of the negative side effects of touch starvation. Having said that, it isn’t the only remedy. A massage (these can be self soothing and not necessarily by a practitioner) or a gravity blanket, to name a couple, also help. And so, in balancing both the spread of COVID and the dangers of touch starvation, I stand in solidarity with many others in continuing to suspend public events.

However, there is more to Tango than dancing Tango. This might be a little blasphemous for me to say, given that 94.7% of the participants of our survey identified themselves as social tango dancers. And if you ask the average person on the street what Tango is, the first thing that comes to mind is that ‘super sexy dance with a rose’.

Deny it all that you want, but we have had this conversation with someone on a plane, bus, or backseat of UberPool (when travel was a normal thing we did). The first thing most people think of when thinking of Tango is the dance. And yet there is a huge part of Tango that sits outside of the dance.

For most of my Tango life, when I’ve gone to a milonga, I have spent most of my time hanging out with friends, catching up on their lives, philosophizing about the latest Tango concept I’m discovering, and maybe most importantly (for me, anyway,) people watching! When I call myself a social Tango dancer, the emphasis is on the social.

My dance is something I have focused on in private lessons, group classes, practicas, and in 1:1 practice sessions with the occasional study buddies over the years. While I can study movement modalities and technique through practices like Gyrotonics and Feldenkrais, what I can’t get out of other movement modalities is the social intimacy of Tango. It is an experience that can only truly be enjoyed with others.

My pre-COVID Tango experience might not be the typical one, but for me, Tango has always been extremely rich and interesting, because it has always been more than the physical dance and technique. Which is not to say that I don’t miss the dance. But maybe more than the dance I miss the hugs. While there is no substitute for being with others in person, I am also really grateful that my diversified approach to Tango means that I don’t feel completely isolated now that we cannot dance it.

Luckily, all of my time socializing at milongas has allowed me to develop some deep and meaningful connections that have withstood and maybe even strengthened during this time. I have had VCs and phone calls with many of the same individuals I go to milongas for and have had the same philosophical (and nonsensical) conversations about Tango and life that I would have at the milonga.

However, I am worried about the potential of an ever growing ‘loneliness epidemic’. [EN7] Prior to the pandemic, people would often joke, wondering how anyone could have ‘non-Tango’ friends. This lifestyle is often so all consuming that milongueros are often the sole social circle for many individuals. Especially, for what I call the ‘Tango Gypsies’: Tango dancers who primarily dance outside of their hometown, traveling from one city to another, sometimes as often as weekly, heading to marathons, festivals, and encuentros.

Let me start by stating that this is not meant to be a competition around who has it worst. We all have it bad. Having said that, I also feel there is potentially an emerging high risk group of people: 27.7% of participants (52) indicated that they are both quarantining solo and not yet dancing with others.

Some of these individuals may have meaningful non-Tango relationships or they might have experiences similar to mine and have found resiliency in the relationships that they have created. But even despite both of those, they likely have some really lonely days. As I said, it takes time and I by no means want to pretend that it’s been easy from the start or every day, since. The alternative is that this is a significant group of people who might be facing both the COVID-19 pandemic and the loneliness epidemic.

I don’t have the data to say one way or the other. Having said that, depending on where you are on your own ‘coronocoaster’ [EN8] consider reaching out to someone you might have seen at the milonga and haven’t spoken to in the past few months. I hope we all come through this time more resilient, but similar to when we were dancing, we can really only do it together.

III. Guardia Vieja’s 2020 and Beyond

If you have been following Guardia Vieja, you have likely seen that since late March, we have been deploying a wait and watch approach that was monthly, and then quarterly. At this point in time, we are ready to start making some longer term changes and commitments:

We will be suspending all in-person events through 2021. As stated earlier, when considering the false consensus effect, it is simply not feasible for us to safely scale in person events. (Insight 1) Additionally, the survey indicates that even if an organizer took 100% of the precautions contemplated throughout the survey, only 29.3% of individuals would sign up. This number decreases to 18.6% if 75% of measures are implemented and 16% with only half of the measures. Given that we are a small business this simply would not be feasible from an economic perspective. (Insight 2)
Notably, we also agree with the 39.9% of individuals who feel that it is simply too early to trust data/scientific advancements, although maybe not for the same reasons that some of them might have cited. It was interesting to see the various interpretations of this question, so let me clarify what I meant by this statement. I absolutely trust in science and scientific advancements. Having said that, I will be waiting for sustained results over the course of a year or longer, before taking on the risk of inadvertent transmission or unknown side effects at scale.
The reality is even our leading experts have changed course on the advice provided to us over the course of these first 6 months. For example, Dr. Fauci’s advice on wearing masks changed as the risks associated with asymptomatic carriers emerged and additional research could be completed on cloth masks. [EN9]
I am extremely excited by the trajectory of emerging global research; however, I do not believe that most studies have actually been in place long enough to make me feel as confident in the results as I would need to be to take the risk of spreading this virus with public events.
We will be changing our main offerings. In 2020, prior to the pandemic, we were planning to pivot towards the development of a web-based docuseries: Tango Outside Tango. At the time it seemed unconventional and we weren’t really sure how it would be received. In part, because it was online and in part because we wanted to showcase life outside of dancing Tango.
The silver lining is that now, we are hardly going to be the first! We have been so incredibly inspired by the creativity of many others, as we collectively embrace Tango outside Tango by adapting to online concerts, old school radio shows, new writing projects, and so much more.
While our original plans around Tango Outside Tango are not feasible at this time, we have been working on a new concept and assembling a small but mighty crew to bring to life the enduring spirit of Guardia Vieja. We hope that y’all will join us, and in our typical fashion, ask you to stay tuned for an announcement next month! (Insight 3)
Nothing can replace Tango, forever, and we have big plans to welcome all of you back! Interestingly, the survey indicates that 51.6% of participants (97) reported that they had a community of at least one person or more who they are currently dancing with. I do believe there is a need to balance both the spread of COVID and the dangers of social isolation. Again, I caution people to honestly consider the false consensus effect, but I am excited for those of you who have found an individual(s) with mutual respect and integrity regarding the standards of care that you establish for yourself in these times, whatever those might be. (Insights 1 and 3)
While we are suspending public events through 2021, we can’t wait to get back to them. We are going to spend the next year planning an incredible Tango experience, for when we can be together again! So, get ready for our next pop up event to be announced in 2021. While we will remain flexible on the exact dates, there’s nothing to say we can’t start dreaming and planning for whenever it might be, and we will be in touch to bring you on the journey with us.
Until we can be physically together again, we hope y’all stay safe, healthy, and socially close!

Endnotes

EN1: Note: The very last section of responses have been removed to protect the privacy of participants.

EN2: For example, many subsequently indicated that they did in fact monitor some aspects, like vaccines.

EN3: These responses were normalized, as some individuals wrote in responses. Participant 50 was added to this group that said ‘no’. Most other write ins were normalized into a misc. category of ‘Not Sure’.

EN4: We normalized participant 96’s response into this category.

EN5: https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/04/grief-covid-19

EN6: For a few examples, please see: Touch Starvation is a consequence of COVID-19’s Physical Distancing; What is Touch Starvation; Why Physical Touch Matters for Your Well Being; Affection Deprivation; The risks of social isolation; Why loneliness is hazardous to your health; How social Isolation Affects the Brain; and A prospective study of Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Mortality in Finland.

EN7: See Washington Post article from 2017; or listen to this podcast with Dr. Vivek Murthy

EN8: I can’t take credit for that one, but I’m not really sure who in the world of social media coined it!

EN9: https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-doesnt-regret-advising-against-masks-early-in-pandemic-2020-7