Out on the Christopher Street Pier in the Hudson River, the sun is setting, Argentine music pours from a portable stereo, and couples twist and twirl in the intimate embrace of the tango. Nadia Nataskin, the unofficial organizer of this semi-weekly milonga, or informal gathering, gets up and tells couples to space out.

“Keep your distance!” she shouts, perhaps somewhat for show, now that she and the milonga are being observed by a Gothamist reporter. “Distance! Distance! Distance!”

Distance seems like a funny thing to ask of tango dancers. These are tangueros who glide across the floor ‘cheek-to-cheek and heart-to-heart,’ as they like to say. They pride themselves on intimately embracing not only their long-time partners but strangers who arrive for the first time, typically swapping partners after every tonda, or dance set. But Nataskin seems intent to make the case that the group is at least trying to practice social distancing. 

Gatherings like this one have divided the metro area’s tight-knit tango community, reflecting many of the same arguments around the country about what activities are appropriate during a pandemic. Some tangueros and tangueras, like veteran participant Inessa Zaleski, say dancing is perfectly safe—and crucial to sustaining mental health by providing “an alternate reality of absolute joy.” But, as cases continue to climb in New York, others fret that this alternate reality is reckless, because there’s no way to socially distance when dancing closely.

Listen to Fred Mogul’s report on tango dancing during the pandemic on WNYC:

“Tango is invigorating,” said Zaleski, who had come to the pier off Greenwich Village directly from the airport, upon returning from two tango-filled months in Paris. “It gives you a reason to get up in the morning, to get dressed, and go somewhere.”

France is currently in lockdown, after COVID-19 cases surged in October. Zaleski was ignoring New York State rules requiring people coming from France and many other countries to quarantine for at least three days, if they get tested shortly before and after arrival, or for 14 days, if they don’t. She also said no one she knew in Paris had gotten sick with coronavirus— a common refrain among the dancers on the pier, too.

However, Steve Beltzer, who founded the milonga on the Christopher Street Pier in 2007, is going elsewhere these days to get invigorated. When we met, he was traveling to Coney Island for a cold water swim in the ocean. Until COVID-19, he promoted a few regular dances around town, taking in suggested donations that became much of his livelihood. He and other promoters and instructors suspended all dance activities in March—but a group of “renegade” dancers, led by Nataskin, restarted it after the lockdown, without his permission.

“You would have to be pretty—I don't want to say ignorant—but you would have to be pretty willfully ignoring the facts to dance tango in this day and age,” Beltzer said. “But these people started showing up and doing an event where mine has been taking place: the exact same days, the exact same hours, and the exact same location—and they didn’t put me on the invite list.”

Beltzer and other allies have tried to call out Nataskin and others on social media and enlisted dozens of aficionados to make a multi-language video declaring ‘It’s Too Soon to Tango’—but they don’t appear to have had much success discouraging the dissidents from dancing. He and others have also complained to Hudson River Park officials, as well as to New York City and New York State, which jointly operate the park. 

A spokesperson for the park said, "After hearing complaints about tango in the Park, Park Enforcement Patrol stepped up enforcement against any dance groups that violate the State's health guidelines, dispersing them when necessary and handing out masks to those who do not have them when there is no crowding concern."

Nataskin insisted the milonga is safe, because there are never more than 20 people dancing at a time—the cut-off requiring a permit from the Hudson River Park Trust, which oversees the pier. Nataskin said that tangoing is perfectly safe, because the event occurs outside, and people are encouraged to stay home if they’re not feeling well. But it is all on the honor system. There are no protocols for taking temperatures or getting coronavirus tests. 

Jack Caravanos, a professor of environmental health science at NYU, says people dancing outside would have relatively low odds of transmitting virus through droplets or aerosols—provided they were wearing proper masks.

“You're not talking and aggressively releasing or spitting any aerosols from your mouth, like with singing or something,” he said.  “The wind movement is significant, so that you're immediately pretty much diluting any viral particles. So unless someone is coughing without a mask right in your face, I don't see much of a problem.”

But while most participants appear to be wearing masks, they are optional, not mandatory. Some participants believe they represent an oppressive infringement on their rights and express doubt about masks’ protective value.

“I can suggest it, but I cannot put my mask on them, if they do not want to wear it,” said Nataskin, who wears a small plastic mouth shield while dancing, but not one that meets CDC standards, because it’s open on the sides and doesn’t cover her nose. 

“We live in a democracy, so it’s your choice,” said Carlo Solo, who was sitting next to Nataskin, chatting between dance sets. Both were unmasked.

Solo and other dancers on break nearby grouse about Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio and the relatively strict rules that have kept dance venues closed. One man, who declined to give his name, proudly announces he hasn’t worn a mask a single time, since the start of the pandemic, whether inside, outside, or on the subway. When he starts talking about vaccines and the U.S. military, Nataskin protests, “No politics!” 

“It’s all politics,” he replies, emphatically, but drops out of the conversation, in deference to Nataskin.

In New Jersey, several people noted, there are several regular indoor milongas, under state laws that allow restaurants  to operate in spaces that are filled to no more than 25 percent of capacity.

“I could see doing that,” Solo said, about going to New Jersey to dance, now that the outdoor dancing season is winding down. “If I know people that are going there, if I know those people, and I know how they think, how respectful they are, how mindful they are – I would go.”

New Jersey is facing a growing surge in cases, with its positivity rate around 8%. More restrictions on gatherings have been imposed by officials, including reducing indoor gatherings to 10 people. 

Gayle Madeira, a former tango champion who teaches the dance, promotes events, and runs the region’s most comprehensive online calendar of events—which is now only online events—is among those who staunchly oppose traditional tango dancing during the pandemic. 

“Let's think about the logic here. If you have, say, eight couples and a really large space—sure, they’re spread out, but at the same time they're hugging!” Madeira said. "It’d be one thing if people respected the science and didn't switch partners, or decided to stick with a few people in a ‘bubble,’ that would be one thing. But they're not doing that. They’re switching partners all the time."