Okotoks dance studios feel the Province’s new targeted measures are aimed in the wrong direction.
Under the new guidelines in place since Nov. 13, dance groups are feeling unfairly grouped in with the group fitness and team sports restrictions in place for two weeks as part of the targeted measures instituted last week by Premier Jason Kenney amid record numbers of active cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations in the province.
“I did see this coming, I thought something was looming,” said Erica Hendry, Alberta Dance Academy owner and artistic director. “My reaction was we’re a bit confused, we’re a bit sad, not sure all the measures totally make sense for us so we’re looking for further clarification.
“We’ve got some emails and some phone calls in, looking to understand better what makes dance dangerous?”
Hendry said Alberta Dance Academy has had no issues, no outbreaks, and have taken the time and money to invest and set up a virtual system to allow students to seamlessly switch from virtual to in-person at any time, particularly those that had any symptoms.
“Any of our students at any time since we opened in September, if they had any symptoms or were in contact with anyone that might have been positive they can just jump online,” Hendry added. “(Nov. 12) I made the call to go online and I had some really sad dancers, upset kids, upset teachers and parents.
“We’re just hoping it’s not more than two weeks.”
Though the system is in place for virtual learning to continue at the academy, it’s not a structure that works for everyone.
“It’s magical how quick these kids adapt and how resilient they are,” Hendry said. “But this is so hard on them and these younger kids, three-year-olds, the preschoolers, they don’t do great online, they certainly try and make it work.
“And it doesn’t work for every family either, you’ve got to consider do you have enough devices at home? Do you have good WiFi? Do you have the space to dedicate to movement and what not?”
Hendry said registration for the academy is at about two/thirds of a typical year.
The academy was preparing for a Nov. 28 performance of its Christmas musical with plans for a dress rehearsal on Nov. 27 and the show the following day.
Those schedules will have to be shifted under the new measures.
“It’s just all bizarre-land for sure, because they can still go to school and I’m wondering if the can still go to gym class,” Hendry added. “But they can’t have their extra-curricular activities and it seems to me, this is my two cents, but are these the right groups that we’re targeting here?
“I do want to do what’s right for Alberta and everybody and do want to bring the numbers down, but I don’t know if this is the way.”
Ali Hampshire, owner and artistic director of the Okotoks-based Possak Hampshire Academy of Dance, echoed the sentiment, noting the diligence shown by the Irish dance community during the pandemic.
“We’ve been operating faithfully since re-opening in June, we are an Irish dance studio which is very much set up for social distancing already as we don’t use our arms in dancing,” Hampshire said. “In having spoken with many other studio owners in Okotoks and Calgary, and across the province in general, dance studios simply are not driving this. There have only been a handful of dance studio outbreaks since the start of the pandemic in this province if you go back and look at the data.”
Hampshire said she feels dance studios have been unfairly grouped into group fitness, rec centre programs and spin classes under the new measures.
“What we instead offer is children’s dance instruction in which their class cohorts remain the same from September through to June and we have not identified a single case in our studio,” she said, adding there hasn’t been a single Irish dancer in the province who has contracted COVID-19.
“Our students and parents have been exceptionally careful. If we’re able to run schools, able to keep daycares open, if we’re able to continue with those other programs for children — gymnastics and cheerleading are still happening as of this moment — we fail to understand why a dance studio with safety procedures in place can’t continue to operate. Especially at this time, I just think the physical and emotional well-being of everyone, but especially our youth, is so important.”
Hampshire, who noted she believes Alberta leadership is doing everything it can to keep the case count down and fully supports not overloading the health-care system, added that the subtleties between different groups aren’t being understood.
“Say the difference between a high contact sport and a no-contact dance form and I believe they’ve thrown a blanket over all group fitness,” she said. “And are not really understanding there are many variations of what a group fitness class looks like.”
In the interim, the academy will be offering classes over Zoom which for many reasons is a less than ideal replacement, Hampshire added.
The academy had to shut its doors for three months at the beginning of the pandemic before re-opening in June. Registrations numbers have also taken a hit, sitting at around 30 per cent lower than past years.
Due to the pandemic, all Irish dance competitions have been cancelled, from those at the local level to world championships in which two Okotoks dancers qualified.
“It’s been a number of blows to their psyche, for sure, over the last several months,” she said. “And this is just the most recent of them. We have some very discouraged dancers and families on our hands.”
A petition titled ‘Keep Alberta Dance Studios Open’ has generated over 8,100 signatures as of Nov. 16.
“Clearly the data does not support that we are driving this spread,” she said. “And therefore I don’t believe it’s going to make a big difference in terms of bringing the numbers down by closing studios that are just not contributing to those numbers.”
For Hampshire, personal responsibility is the biggest piece of the puzzle and with that failing us, the government is forced to "in some cases indiscriminately target businesses in the hopes that will help."
“I have immuno-compromised family members, I have asthma myself and have no desire whatsoever to get COVID, but I also would like my business to survive 2020,” she said. “I also would like the dancers, who are part of my extended family and have been since 2006 when we opened, I would also like these dancers to come out of 2020 with their physical and emotional welfare intact.”
