Posted by: Gareth   on:  14/07/2020   Category: news

The World Health Organisation's latest announcement is alarming, but not necessarily the end for dancers.

The WHO have revised their information to state that Covid-19 may be contracted through aerosol transfer. This announcement is due to the belief that outbreaks have occurred in choirs, restaurants and fitness centres from fine exhaled droplets. Unlike larger droplets that fall immediately, these can remain suspended in the air for hours and travel up to four metres.

If this advice is widely regarded as definitive, activities such as rock 'n' roll dancing would probably see to a return to harsh restrictions. This could shut down our activities altogether, given that financial viability is an important factor.

However, their advice specifically relates to indoor settings, particularly ones with poor or limited ventilation. This presents an opportunity, particularly for Australian rock 'n' rollers as our climate is a favourable one. We could lobby governments to let us dance outdoors. Perhaps not immediately in the middle of winter, but warmer weather will come.

We already dance outdoors on plenty of occasions, though it's usually at special events. Some of our clubs and members already have portable outdoor dance floors ready for use. New ones couldn't be that expensive to build.

We would need to find suitable locations, although even backyards could be viable. Numbers would need to fall within legal limits and other safety measures would have to be firmly in place. We could use mostly recorded music and live music on some occasions. While this may not be ideal, surely we could live with that in order to keep our skills and fitness levels sharp.

This dimension for an organised activity would require far more services from volunteers. But as the saying goes, if we don't use it we will lose it. My guess is that when it comes to losing or saving our favourite pastime, there will be no shortage of offers to help.