Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Are Online Dance Classes Here to Stay?
Dance Magazine: In the time between COVID-19's first worrisome appearance in the U.S. and, for many, months of shelter-in-place orders, dancers and teachers alike found their opinions of online learning shifting: from outright resistance, initially, to begrudging acceptance, to—for some—actual enthusiasm. Choreographer and University of Illinois associate professor Abby Zbikowski likens that attitude shift to the stages of grief.
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3 comments:
I think this article brought up some very interesting points. I am glad the dance community has seemed to find a remote model for classes that generally are doing a good job in providing dance education and dance experiences. I like the idea of online dance much more than I like the idea of just not doing anything and waiting for the pandemic out, which seems to be a shared thought among people. I do think they also point out a lot of drawbacks to online dance classes such as students not having the proper space at home to dance. That was my initial concern with online dance classes but they also brought up the risk of injury for newer students in dancing while not having a teacher right there to make sure they are doing things safely. I did not initially think of this but I am glad they brought that concern up. I think the idea of keeping online dance classes after the pandemic is a good one because it makes dance more accessible to more students.
I love the notion of online dance classes being a thing that becomes permanent after the pandemic. I remember that every day during March when the lockdown first began that New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck would perform a live class on Instagram, which I believe she kept up with the entire summer. She would have thousands of dancers watching her and following along with her warmups every day, and it made me wonder about how many of these dancers didn’t have the opportunity to take classes before or haven’t been able to afford them recently. I love that even though the arts have been shut down for such a long period of time so many artists have offered lessons and masterclasses to people who may have may not have been able to attend them before. Artists are sharing their passions, skills, and talent with so many more people, which makes me hopeful that when theatre and dance come back that they will have a larger audiences then we could have ever imagined.
This article has many interesting points and I’m glad they brought up the pros and cons depending on your skill level. I took Tome’s Jazz II class last semester, which of course ended up online. I hadn’t been in a dance class in so long so I was very excited to get some training back into my body. The biggest drawback with online is that I was getting hurt much more often because of the lack of supervision. Which is not mine nor Tome’s fault, it’s just the nature of online. Plus I’m not one of the regular students so less attention was already paid to me, as it should I was just in the class for my own enjoyment. Online dance classes has opened up the world for much more global dance classes and experiences, I just hope dancers around the world are taking care of their bodies even more in these separated times.
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