Tango and Ecologies of Stress
/In my previous entry, I talked about the role dismantling oppression plays in creating safe, pleasurable tango experiences for everyone. In the next few entries, I’m going to explore the questions we need to ask ourselves to get there. And the first step is acknowledging that these systemic inequities exist.
But let’s get intimate about it. Let’s get into the capillaries of where and how our outer lives meet our tango lives and the ways in which one affects the other--for better and for worse--starting with stress! Stress is a physiological defense response to danger or perceived danger. But very rarely are we running from lions or getting in fistfights for food. While these physiological responses are well-adapted for dealing with those types of stressors, your body also doesn’t distinguish between a lion coming at you, or a high-intensity work deadline. Chronic visitation of this state--whether via food insecurity, toxic social settings, or demanding work environments--is damaging to your body over time. These effects are well-documented and there’s an entire industry dedicated to reducing and managing stress. Socially, tango can be a protective buffer to the effects of stress on a few different levels. It can also exacerbate the effects on those same levels.
I’m going to dig into those levels via the ecological shell model--a model looking at aspects of stress based on the premise that an individual’s health is influenced by factors beyond their individual biology and genes. Those factors include social relationships, environmental factors, and socioeconomic structures/policies. Each level is defined below and includes both an example and a reflection question to consider how it can interact with our tango experiences. As you read through, notice how you personally are affected at each of these levels--both in your tango community and your life at large.
What did you notice? What connections did you make between how your life affects your tango experience, and how your tango experiences affect your personal sense of stress or well-being? How might these differ for people who are a different age than you are? For people who are a different race, gender, or sexual orientation than you are?
Are there parts of your tango experience that exacerbate stress you feel at any of these levels? What parts of your tango practice (if any) help soften or mitigate those stresses? How does tango replenish or resource you to better deal with stressors--at any of these levels?
These exploration questions are not at all exhaustive, just a fraction of everything we could possibly contemplate. The next installment will explore stress responses that happen in the immediate tango environment--and how existing social hierarchies in the tango community create more stress for some than for others.
Feel free to share your reflections in the comments!
One of many places to continue:
Watch 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay
Watch Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity, directed by Dr. Shakti Butler
Things you can do today:
Donate to the Loveland Foundation - “The Loveland Foundation was established in 2018 by Rachel Cargle in response to her widely successful birthday wish fundraiser, Therapy for Black Women and Girls. Her enthusiastic social media community raised over $250,000, which made it possible for Black women and girls nationally to receive therapy support. The Loveland Foundation is the official continuation of this effort to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls.”
Subscribe to Anti-Racism Daily for daily, bite-sized bits of education and related actions you can take. Commit to taking a few of the suggested actions per week - start out with even just one if you want to ease into it
How you can practice anti-racism with Oxygen:
Check out the second Move Together roundtable which discusses how to continue to address systemic racism in dance scenes. Move Together is an initiative that benefits Black artists, dancers, and musicians in the global Lindy Hop, Swing Dance and Blues Dance scene. The insight and information in their roundtables applies to tango too. Share what you think in the Oxygen Facebook group.
Learn about white supremacy culture and consider how it manifests in tango spaces. Read Oxygen's new Values doc, which will continually evolve as we learn more about how to disrupt supremacy culture in our community. What would you add to it?
Do NOT:
Betray your humanity by choosing to still remain a bystander on divesting from white supremacy
Consider yourself “woke” or “an expert” after reading this--or any--singular article. I myself am still learning these concepts and how to apply them personally and in community
Take my opinion as a monolithic representation of how people with my shared identities feel about this
Start apologizing to your POC/queer friends for how terrible white supremacy is in general (if you have something specific and personal that you did and want to apologize for, get their consent first, and remember that you aren’t entitled to any specific outcome)
