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THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON HIGH SCHOOL DANCE PROGRAMS
IMAGINE.... you have put hours of hard work into a project you are passionate about, and just before it is ready to be shared with others, it gets taken away from you by a worldwide pandemic.
That's the reality for students in the dance program at North Surrey Secondary School.
Grade 10 students Gaia Urayani-Tolentino and Destiny Calapiz dancing on the hip-hop team in the North Surrey dance room. (Claudia Culley)
On March 13, Surrey public school students went on spring break. Little did they know, that would be the last time they'd step foot in the classroom for the school year, due to COVID-19. This halt on in-person teaching also included all after-school clubs and team meetings.
At North Surrey Secondary, this meant one of their most popular after-school teams, the dance team, would cancel their practices and upcoming performances, just weeks before anticipated competitions.
Dance is not only an art and a physical activity, but a way to express and release emotions. For many, dance is a type of therapy where feelings can be communicated without words.
The North Surrey dance program hosts an average of 120 students a year, offering dance electives for students to take during their high school years and after-school dance teams.
Many students rely on the program to stay healthy, both physically and mentally. With its closure, many students saw negative effects on their mental health.
“It really took a toll on my mental health because dance was a way to express my feelings … whether I was feeling angry or frustrated or sad, I was able to express my emotions through the movement of my dance,” said Grade 12 dance student Keana Morris. “Not having dance in person really affected my mindset and it made me unmotivated.”
Want to see more from Keana Morris? Check out this video!
A GRADE 12 STUDENT IS PUT IN AN UNPRECEDENTED POSITION DUE TO COVID-19
Teacher Menelaine Valencia knew her students relied on the dance program. To fill this void, she started offering dance classes from home through Zoom calls, leading to the start of an online dance video series called The Quaranteen Show.
"The Quaranteen show is a stand-in for what our usual year-end show would be,” Valencia said. “We had our peer tutors take on the task of collecting videos from all the students in each class and compiling them into one video, and because we didn't have a live audience, we would release them (online) every couple of weeks … so that people can have an opportunity to watch the dances that would have been on stage.”
All Surrey school district students can watch The Quaranteen Show online, while snippets of dances are posted to the North Surrey dance page on Instagram. Videos include student duets and trios, dance class routines and dance teams’ routines, all filmed with online platforms.
HOW A SURREY SCHOOL DANCE TEACHER MANAGED TO GROW FROM COVID-19
Learn how Menelaine Valencia dealt with COVID-19 from a teacher stand point with this audio story!
Now, with school back in session, the program is running again, but with masks and social distancing in place. The dance teams are restricted in size, with only 40 dancers compared to the usual 80 or more. All live performances and competitions, historically the program’s main attraction, have been cancelled.
“When all of the performances and competition opportunities were cancelled, I was very heartbroken because it was my first year of coaching and I wanted to showcase the choreography I created,” said Grade 12 student Lilian Pham in an email interview.
Want to see how the North Surrey dancers go about their practices? Watch this audio slideshow!
NORTH SURREY SECONDARY DANCERS WORK WITH COVID-19 REGULATIONS TO EXPRESS THEIR LOVE FOR DANCE
The North Surrey dance program is a family-like community where students come to learn, teach and create dances. Even with COVID-19 regulations in place, the students love for dance shines through the complications.
Although the loss is challenging, this break in pace created new avenues for the North Surrey dancers.
“I started to realize in this time that I can start digging into dance education and put less focus on performances and more focus on creation, on technique and on dance history,” said Valencia. “My students should know the roots of hip hop, like who the first DJ was to who the first break team was, so it made me put into practice that dancing is beyond just performing.”
Valencia’s students are embracing the change and starting to look at dance from a new perspective.
“The dance teams now are able to learn the techniques and the fundamentals that they need in order to be good,” said 2020 North Surrey dance graduate Alisha Vongsy.
“Learning about the fundamentals of dance has taught me why a certain (dance) move is called (a certain name) … who created the move, and the impact they had on their community,” said Pham. “It has helped me to understand dance from a historical perspective.”
The North Surrey Dance program is also seizing new opportunities during COVID-19 by creating choreographed dance videos, which are shared online for viewers to enjoy from the comfort of their homes. Check out the Halloween video by the break dance team, the Remembrance Day video by the contemporary team, and the Christmas video by all North Surrey dance teams.