Should we take it as a sport? Culture as an activity? Should the criteria laid down be applied to schools? No one has an answer and each one is arranging as it can. Or not. In fact, there are many who are still unemployed, who do not dance, because the new conditions are unacceptable to them or because, as the dance's joy of the need to fulfill them says, they feel that it is not worth dancing under these conditions.

Unprotected

In the post "The pandemic has put dance in a critical situation", we began to see the situation that dance is experiencing in these times of pandemic. Among others, Patxi Montero, Iker Tubia, Oier Araolaza, Aritz Ibañez and Mikel Sarriegi participated. Most people have denounced the situation of helplessness and the inability to decide where to go. Patxi Montero has referred to the difficulty in deciding where dance is located in the Basque Country. The following options and requirements have been identified in the CAPV scheme:

Patxi Montero has asked many of these days about the mention in the section on physical activity of intense physical activity: "Can dance be considered a living physical activity?" ". Iker Tubia has set himself in the Navarre regime and has found the following mention in relation to dance:

- In the teaching rooms or dance practices, the capacity shall be calculated at a rate of 5 square metres per person. In addition, if the distance of 1.5 metres cannot be secured, masks should be used.

Spaces for Dance

The first major problem for the development of protocols is the space for dance. Dantzaris have always complained that there is no proper public infrastructure for dance. Until a few years ago there were hardly any dance halls in our villages and although in recent years they have multiplied, in most cases they do not have either size or facilities (floor, tapestry, columns, mirrors, lighting, ventilation, changing rooms, etc.). meeting minimum needs. If this was the starting point, most dance halls have become useless with the limits of distance and capacity established to avoid contagion of covid19.Oier Araolaza tells the case of the Kontuz dances group of Eibar:

The usual test site of our group, Arantxa, the dance classroom located in a house of culture, has 135 m2 and at the time of delimiting the capacity has now an access limit of 14 people. It is usually normal walking when we get together less than 14 days, but most days are older.

If the Navarro regime provides a space of 5 square metres per person, in the dance room of the Casa de Cultura Portalea de Eibar, 9.6 square metres per dancer is provided. As so far more than 14 dantzaris met in different groups and performances, members of the Kontuz dance group have been forced to look for a new espacio.En room of 135 m2, with 5 m2 per person, 27 people could enter. It's one thing to go in and be each standing in place. But to dance, to move through space, it seems difficult that every dancer can save a distance of 1.5 meters if they fit 5 m2.

Street air doesn't exist

97% of the Covid19 taquadas are produced in closed rooms. Therefore, outdoor air is the most recommended, while closed rooms are the most dangerous for contagion. But for both the air-free and the closed spaces, the usual spaces in many localities, the school facilities, have suddenly become impossible in the CAV and Navarra. The Department of Education of the Basque Government has prohibited this course from being used for activities outside the school. In Navarre, the opening of school infrastructures for this type of activity has also been prohibited, since all extracurricular activities have been suspended and out-of-school people have been banned.

On the other hand, in the closed rooms it is recommended that ventilation be continuous, natural and on the street. In other words, they are not completely closed rooms. The simultaneous opening of windows and doors during the development of the activity is considered a priority, as most of the infections are occurring in rooms without natural ventilation. If before it was difficult to find the right rooms for the dance, this last condition can turn us into a lost tour for the dance, impossible for most of us.

The question of kisses

If there have been serious controversies in the street, the rope that has brought the case of kisses is not shorter in the dance. If dance is equated with the physical activity of a gym, the Basque Government has a clear answer:

Within a gym, should I do physical activity with a face mask?Yes, it is mandatory because they are closed spaces for public use and open to the public.

In addition, a little later on it says:

In those moments of intense physical activity in which the use of the mask is incompatible in accordance with the provisions of Article 6.2 of Royal Legislative Decree 21/2020, its use shall not be mandatory. In these cases, it will be necessary to ensure a safety distance of more than 2 meters between people who do not live, as well as good ventilation conditions, complying at all times with the protocols of each installation.

It is possible to discuss what "living" physical activity is and whether it is done in dance, but taking into account that it is an activity that spreads the virus through dance, breathing and sweating, and that most of the time it is carried out in closed dance rooms, the most dangerous context of contagion, if besides complying with the norms they want to avoid contagion, music should be considered as basic protection measures. Covid19 spreads rapidly in dance and singing activities without kisses. Two examples: The National Ballet of Spain closed its headquarters a few weeks after the National Ballet of Spain resumed its dance activity and confined 107 dancers to the contagion in their essays. In Manresa, 26 infections have been recorded in a choir after an unmasked trial.

Will we be able to keep the flame on?

Oier Araolaza, from the Moa dance group, sums up the moment:

We're all aware that this is going to bring a big bill into the dance. If you have to avoid contacts and take care of distances, you can't do a lot of dances that you normally do. If you have to use kisses, many dancers prefer not to go to dance, tired of a kiss at school or at work throughout the day, as this discomfort is not easy to digest at the time of personal enjoyment. Since the beginning of the confinement, the only activities have been uneven online attempts and masked video recordings, and if we cannot now recompose regular trials, the group could disappear. So we're here, renting a bigger room for essays, analyzing and selecting the repertoire that we can dance, and convinced that it's possible to dance with those of the kiss.

Mikel Sarriegi of Aurtzaka has drawn a future full of uncertainties, short and crude:

The future, absolutely uncertain. We do not dare to plan almost anything. Waiting for the moment.

Aritz Ibáñez of Duguna warned that "Goal is the right one to stop":

For the months that have come, our only goal is to continue to maintain the continuity of the group of dances.

Iker Tubia, from Oberena, has also taken into account continuity as one of the points.

Our main challenge has been to keep the team unified

That is, keeping the flame of dance on in the worst conditions of a long time, that is the challenge of the protocol for Dance that we now have in our hands.