Why has the coronavirus put the dance in motion?

• In a France which lists more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus per day, discos and nightclubs are the only places to close.

• A measure experienced as an injustice and discrimination by professionals in the sector.

  The latter say they feel despised.

• Who wants the skin of the dance and why?

"In the collective imagination, rocked by a very Catholic French tradition, dance leads to debauchery, debauchery to sex, and sex to immorality", immediately coward Christophe Apprill, sociologist specializing in ballroom [understand in the broad sense, any couple dance or supposed to lead to it], associate researcher of the Observatory of audiences, professionals and cultural institutions (Oppicc) and author of

(Ed. L'Harmattan, 2021 ). Debauchery and sex… This is why dance would be the first to suffer from the coronavirus pandemic? Is there a need to look any further as to why, on Monday, the only restrictive measure taken in an attempt to counter the fifth wave of coronavirus was the closure of discos and nightclubs?

On leaving the health defense council, the executive announced that they would close their doors for four weeks from Friday.

So, in three days we will say "goodbye and see you next year" to the club music, to the more or less nice DJ, to the vodka-Redbull at 15 euros and to our friend Natacha's attempts to forget this jerk. of Marc in the arms of another man.

"Goodbye and see you next year" especially to the dance which we miss so much.

Journey to the end of night and contempt

But who wants the skin of the dance and why? In the land of the Enlightenment, non-artistic dance would always have a bad reputation. At his trial, his alleged futility is the first charge, "which would deprive him of his legitimacy within the world of culture". “We have thus seen the associated ministry defend theaters, cinemas, museums, but never nightclubs,” explains sociologist Christophe Apprill. Not really artistic, without sporting or competitive goals, ballroom dancing is quickly associated with "the dance of people who do not think, who have nothing to express"

Dance without purpose that does not deserve to be saved or defended.

And as all of Natacha's suitors at the Macumba will have shown us, ballroom dancing is also - above all?

- the eroticization of the body, much more than other cultural or sporting activities to which it can be compared.

Useless, indecent, decadent ... Dance would therefore be the perfect candidate for "roughly" measures, even if it remains difficult to hope that the closure of the 1,200 currently open discos will suffice to contain the fifth wave of Covid -19.

For a few more dances

Patrick Malvaes, president of the national union of discotheques and places of leisure (SNDLL), does not say anything else: “We are subjected to discriminatory treatment because we are an easy target. France is a country with a majority over 50, who don't care whether the discos are open or closed. Who will defend us? The government does not have the guts to tighten the screws on schools and colleges, so we have it. "

Still, according to the executive, the decision makes sense in a France which has more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus per day on average, the whole on the continuous rise. Discotheques have regularly been a source of clusters and compile everything that is most conducive to the transmission of the virus: an enclosed place, many people, no masks, physical activity, shouting, singing and excessive physical contact. So much for the “Olivier Véran minute”, which can justify the nightclubs closing during this end of the year. Just as they were the only establishments not to know the first deconfinement of 2020, the last to reopen during the third and the first structures of less than 1,000 people to use the health pass.

But why are they the only ones to drink, when bars, restaurants and gyms or concert halls have many similar characteristics?

"There is a feeling of injustice and total incomprehension, it is an act of death that we are doing - again - to our sector in distress, while other equally contaminating places have no restrictions" , Patrick Malvaes despairs.

But where curfews or the closure of bars and restaurants had provoked the ire of the street, demonstrations and protests, the closing of nightclubs has passed without anyone - except professionals in the sector - seeming indignant.

Because, as we have seen, dance suffers from significant social contempt.

What meaning should we give to dance?

Yet this is its whole paradox: despised even on a popular scale, it remains a majority culture. According to various estimates, between one and eight million people in France dance at least once a week, attests Christophe Apprill. The ball [once again, in its broadest sense] was the number one place where couples met in France until 1975. It remains solid number 2 today, second only to work.

With the closing of nightclubs, it is not going too far, just before the end of the year celebrations, to affirm that the French will continue to dance at home, with their friends, in bars, etc.

During previous deconfinements, "people danced and infected themselves anyway, in places less controlled than ours", sighs Patrick Malvaes.

During the Second World War, with the ban on balls "dancing remained in France, but in clandestine balls", smiles, for his part, Christophe Apprill.

Hunt face-to-face dancing, it comes back to tango.

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• epidemic

• Sociology

• Dance

• Nightclub

• Nightclub

• Covid 19

• Society

• Coronavirus

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