2020: A Difficult Year for Dance
With the impact COVID-19 has had on small businesses across the nation, the dance industry has been placed in a more volatile spot than it has been in a long time. With social distancing and mask practices in place, services that include people being physically active in confined spaces are forced into a position to either adapt and adhere to health guidelines or close down. Thus, our dance studio spent much of the beginning of quarantine trying to find a way to stay afloat as a business; the new dynamics the pandemic introduced meant that there needed to be some kind of distanced learning instituted for the school - it was our sink or swim moment. Fortunately for us (and many other Dance entities), applications and web services were coming out that would help businesses and institutions better connect with those they would be providing services to. This page is meant to document our trials and tribulations through this testing period to determine the best way to continue spreading the joy of dance during a global health crisis.
Slow Beginnings
At the start of March there was much speculation as to what would end up happening at the county level. Some places were still open and people were still generally unreactive to the impending circumstances. Aware of the inevitable however, the school began taking proactive measures into determining the best way to integrate with online learning. We needed some way to interact with students and provide them with an experience that mimics dance studio instruction as much as possible.
We first tried our luck with Google Meet, however the problem at the time was that some features like increased participant maximums and content sharing being hadn’t yet been pushed out and neither was it straight-forward enough for our instructors to navigate at the time. Switching to Zoom, our lives were made much easier. After some training and guidance, experience was gathered using it and it has been instituted ever since. Without the integration with Zoom, this dance school surely would have went through some tragic times.
Pictured below is a screenshot from an adult ballet class hosted on Zoom and headed by our principal and head instructor, Lu Lao Shi.
Summer Camp 2020 and C-DREAM 华梦
After giving the Zoom class format a try for a couple months, our school was beginning to find its groove. Abiding by the Santa Clara county guidelines as they changed and updated, we were able to alternate accordingly between being fully online and having a hybrid format with socially distanced classes with small maximums per studio classroom over the few months. Before we knew it, it was Summer and we were ready to launch our 2020 Summer camp. Including daily dance classes, we also were able to partner with the C-DREAM 华梦 organization once more to provide NCD students with an annual dance intensive through the instruction of guest instructors from the Beijing Dance Academy.
Pictured below is a screenshot of our summer camp 2020 students learning a new dance from one of the Beijing Academy instructors via Zoom.
Fall and winter Online
Following the summer camp’s conclusion, NCD waved goodbye to several graduating students who would be moving on to college. Many of these students had been with the school for most of their lives and are carrying the experiences, lessons, and values they gathered here with them in their next chapters of life. We wish them all the best and hope they come back and visit us!
Once classes started back up again for the Fall and Winter seasons, we again had to alternate between hybrid and fully-online instruction based on shifting county guidelines. We had also introduced new staff during this time in Andrea and Asia, both of whom have been a tremendous help to the school during this new era. Andrea’s passion for art and dance helped bring a fresh new dynamic to our instruction styles, allowing students (particularly our younger ones) to experience new aspects of dance that perhaps were not previously incorporated before in their instruction. Asia on the other hand brings a more seasoned and experienced style of ballet instruction which exemplifies the high standard of elegance and quality we strive for here at NCD. We are looking forward to seeing where our these partnerships take us next year!
Pictured below is newly introduced NCD instructor Asia Bui, demonstrating a basic ballet practice routine.
Weshine wdc 2020
To wrap up what can arguably be one of the most difficult years the entire world has encountered in a long time, we were able to once again participate in the WeShine WDC competition. Now obviously, no venue would be suitable for such a large event and as such prompted the need for remote submissions. With the help of many individuals within our internal dance circle, we were able to shoot high production footage of our dancers’ performances for the competition. Given everything that has happened and what our school has gone through, we found lots of success at WeShine 2020 as our dancers managed to bring in several accolades.
Here’s the compilation/highlight reel posted to our YouTube channel (which by the way, you should subscribe to)
Reflections
2020 has been a year that has challenged all individuals far and wide. We were incredibly fortunate to have been able to stay afloat despite the difficulties and only have everyone that supported us to thank - whether you are a student of our school (current or former), a parent, family member, and or simply a NCD supporter, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Truly, without your guys’ support and willingness to stay tenacious and pursue dance with us, we would not know where we would be today.
“Grateful” is a term we can use to summarize how we feel reflecting on this turbulent year. Our hearts go out to those who have been hospitalized and or are no longer with us due to COVID-19. We also wish to recognize all the frontline workers who helped battle the pandemic tirelessly for painstakingly long hours, as well as all workers who endured this time period in order to help maintain various essential services.
Thank you everyone, we’ll see you in the new Year! Here’s to brighter horizons…
Sincerely, New Century Dance
