After months in lockdown, a weary world is ready to dance
Even in the depths of the pandemic -- even when the world locked down, leaving billions isolated and desolated -- there were those who danced.
“I did not stop dancing for a second,” says Federico Carrizo, who competed in the Tango World Championship in Buenos Aires last month. “In the kitchen, on the street, on the balcony ...”
Some danced alone. Some danced alone and yet together, swaying and twirling across the internet. Some danced to be freed of the shackles of the coronavirus, if only for a moment.
Federico Carrizo and Juan Segui dance while competing in the final round of the stage category during the Tango World Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
“It was very hard to be for a year and a half without being able to go out to the recreation center to dance,” says Joaquin Bruzon. “Sometimes during the quarantine at home we would dance to try to improve our spirits.”
Now, once again, the Failde Orchestra of Matanzas, Cuba, can perform danzóns like “El Naranjero” and “Cuba Libre,” “A La Habana me Voy” and “Nievecita.” And once again, Bruzon and his wife, Milagros Cousett, can glide across the dance floor.
Maybe it’s because of the advent of COVID-19 vaccines. Maybe it is because feet can be repressed for just so long. But it seems that everywhere, dancers are letting loose.
At a family gathering on Topanga Beach in Malibu, California, Pejiman Sabet takes his wife, Gili, in his arms and dances in the sand. “Love is everything right now,” Gili says.
In Taytay, the Philippines, members of the INDAK Banak dance company wear masks to prepare for an upcoming competition. Abegail Mesa is overwhelmed -- finally, she can dance with her friends.
Members of an informal plaza dance group wave cloth fans as they dance to music at a public park in Beijing, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
In a Beijing, a park is alive with plaza dancing -- an activity popular with middle-aged and older women, curtailed at the pandemic’s height. “As long as I can move, I will keep dancing,” says Li Fei, a lead dancer.
In a Soweto studio, Tsimamkele Crankydy Xako practices South African dance gleefully. On a Cairo rooftop, Nadine El Gaharib spins in the air. In Gaza City, Palestinians romp in traditional uniform.
And in Oruro, Bolivia, the Diablada de Oruro dance -- a fixture of the Andes for hundreds of years -- is back after a one-year hiatus. Its absence was keenly felt. Dancer Andrea Hinojosa recalls how hard it was to sit at home last year and watch tapes of previous carnivals; he was elated to don the spectacular devil’s costume once more.
"Today,” he says, “the joy is back, we are dancing La Diablada again.”
People dance in close proximity at Paradiso pop venue, club and cultural center, in Amsterdam, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, the day The Netherlands dropped the coronavirus related 1.5 meter (5 feet) rule. Paradiso is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Egyptian 26-year-old dancer Nadine El Gharib, dances on the rooftop of her home in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. “Dance was crucial when COVID-19 started in terms of taking care of my well-being,” Gharib said. “When restrictions forced us to stop going to the Opera for classes I started online dance and it introduced me to a new world of dance. It was very inspiring.” (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Joaquin Bruzon and his wife Milagros Cousett dance during a rehearsal for the Failde orchestra's Danzon music in Matanzas, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. The couple said it was very hard to be for a year and a half without being able to go out to the recreation centers to dance. Sometimes during the quarantine at home we would dance to try to improve our spirits. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Palestinians wear a traditional uniform perform during a folklore dancing festival in Gaza City, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Indian classical Odissi dancer Damini Mehta, 22, poses on the ghats of the river Yamuna, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. Mehta, a professional dancer and a young entrepreneur said that she has cultivated a sense of sacred significance with the dance during the pandemic, it has helped her experience familiarity during uncertain times.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
A woman dances to the rhythm of the Mandinka drums during the Kankurang ritual in Bakau, Gambia, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. The ritual is associated with circumcision and initiatory rites. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Andrea Hinojosa, center, dressed as devil perform the Diablada de Oruro" dances in Oruro, Bolivia, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. Hinojosa says "It was difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic, I missed not being able to dance at the Oruro carnival, I remembered with nostalgia watching the videos of previous years how we danced, today the joy is back, we are dancing La Diablada again.”(AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Kafi Payne dances during a freestyle dance class at Rhythma Studios on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Pejiman Sabet and his wife, Gili, dance in front of their family members on Topanga Beach in Malibu, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, as a surfer rides a wave in the distance. The couple, who were fully vaccinated, said the gathering was just to appreciate life. “Love is everything right now,” said the wife. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Tsimamkele Crankydy Xako, 28, center, a professional dancer, practices with others at the Soweto Moves Projects dance studio in Soweto, South Africa, Tuesday Oct. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Oksana Kagno and her dance teacher Yuri Nezdoiminoga perform during a rehearsal in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. Kagno runs a successful business of supplying LED screens to TV shows and events – but in her free time, she enjoys ballroom dancing. In 2019, Kagno and her dancing partner Yuri Simachev earned the title of the world vice-champions in Pro-Am – a discipline of ballroom dancing in which a couple consists of a professional dancer and an amateur. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Abegail Mesa, center, dances with members of the INDAK Banak Dance Company in Taytay, Rizal province, Philippines on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, as they practice their routine for an upcoming virtual dance competition next month. The group practices at open spaces wearing face masks and in small groups to adhere to health restrictions in their area. Mesa said that she had to stop dancing during the lockdown because of restrictions. She feels overwhelmed now since she can bond with friends and continue dancing. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Ana-Maria Simionescu, left, a dance instructor of the Swing Steps Bucharest club, dances with Marian Ganciu at sunset, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. Members of the club gathered for an outdoors dance session in the Kisselef park, as the sharp rise of new COVID-19 infections led to restrictions of some indoor group activities. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Text from AP News story, After months in lockdown, a weary world is ready to dance.
Lead Photo: People dance on a promenade facing the mediterranean sea as the sun sets at a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. Every Sunday swing lovers gather to dance in front of the sea organized by the swing dance school MesqueSwing_Poblenou. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)