Tango and Covid | Andrea Bindereif

Dreams on hold: Valerie Kattenfeld

Posted on: July 14, 2020 Last updated on: September 29, 2024 Written by: andrea Categorized in: Tango and Covid

A positive take on tango: Maia Martinez and David Salvatierra

Posted on: July 31, 2020 Last updated on: September 29, 2024 Written by: andrea Categorized in: Tango and Covid

Why haven’t I written about Maia and David before? Geographically they are two of the closest tango teachers to my East Coast home, which is where I have gradually shifted the center of my life over the past few years. On a personal level I have known these two ever since I started tango here in upstate New York. They were still dating, and Maia had just begun to teach David everything she knew about Argentine tango; he had been a dedicated salsa dancer and part-time teacher until then. I watched them moving ahead with their teaching, becoming professional teachers. Then I saw them getting married, starting a family, and moving from Newburgh further north to the Hudson Valley, closer to where I live. I became a regular at their tango events, and saw their community grow, and in return both of them supported me and my partner when we hosted musicians from Argentina. So why have I not written about them until now? The answer is simple: because they are too close. It is a delicate matter to write about people you know well. There is a personal relationship, and writing reflects a different image both of the people you write about as well as about yourself, the writer. So I approached the subject of Maia and David slowly until I at last felt confident that the time was right. Here then is my story: a couple of tango professionals in an unlikely rural area of America; a tango story in an unusual setting with a surprisingly positive take on the future of tango.

David Salvatierra and Maia Martinez. Photo courtesy of Dojo Dance Company

Tango Pros: How are they doing now? (Intro)

Posted on: January 15, 2021 Last updated on: July 9, 2024 Written by: andrea Categorized in: Tango and Covid

It’s a grey and cold January day here on the East Coast. The holiday season is over and we are in for a couple of dark and gloomy months ahead with no distraction to look forward to: few restricted social activities, no in person dance events, no quick escaping to a warm beach. The town is quiet and other than an occasional phone call there is not much happening. It feels as if the world has gone dormant. It should be a good time to pick up where I left off before Christmas — the final editing and layout of my tango book. But I’m distracted by the news with reports about the infection rates going through the roof, as predicted, and the political developments in Washington spinning out of control.

Tango Pros: How are they doing now? (Continued)

Posted on: February 3, 2021 Last updated on: July 9, 2024 Written by: andrea Categorized in: Tango and Covid

A few weeks ago I read an article in the New York Times about the dire situation of artists in this country (‘Can the Arts Bring Us Back? Yes, if We Bring Them Back First’, NY Times, January 17, 2021). The author, Jason Farago, points out the importance of the arts for us as a society and deplores the fact that artists in this country don’t get the recognition they deserve. Which is shown, for example, by the fact that freelance artists do not receive unemployment benefits, unlike most other economic sectors. Just as I had anticipated when I started to read the piece, Farago explains why France and Germany should lead as role models.

Tango Pros: How are they doing now? (Continued)

Posted on: February 7, 2021 Last updated on: May 15, 2024 Written by: andrea Categorized in: Tango and Covid

As the days grow longer and things altogether seem to be a little more hopeful, I’m starting to make plans to return to my home in the San Francisco Bay Area. This past year I’ve been seeking shelter from crowded Oakland in upstate New York. With more space around me, it seemed a safer place to get through this terrible pandemic. With the luxury of having two homes on different coasts, in the lively years before the pandemic hit, I had the opportunity to get to know two completely different tango communities: one very large and active with different events happening every single day of the week together with many high-profile teachers competing with each other, and the other one being a rather small and more dispersed community with only a handful of local tango teachers who also teach ballroom or salsa or at local schools to make a living.

Tango pros: How are they doing now? (Last)

Posted on: February 11, 2021 Last updated on: July 9, 2024 Written by: andrea Categorized in: Tango and Covid

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened had I stayed in Buenos Aires last spring. My visit was cut short by the outbreak of the pandemic. I had arrived in the first days of March, not sure whether I had done the right thing by sticking to my travel plan and not sure what to expect. My plan had been to spend several weeks in Buenos Aires studying Spanish in the morning and tango in the afternoon. The first cases of Covid-19 had arrivd in the USA, but Argentina still seemed a safe place. I was naïve, as were most of us. But I had no idea how quickly the virus was going to spread, and that it in no time it would turn into a pandemic.