The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily affected many activities such as dance. I along with many others that attend The Linsly School dance at Oglebay Institute. This year, we have been able to perform some shows, although numerous performances have been canceled. We are truly grateful to get the opportunity to perform, even though it is limited. There have been many precautions that have been taken with both the rehearsal for our performances and the shows as well.
Precautions that have been taken during our rehearsal time include: always wearing masks, a daily COVID-19 survey, social distancing in the studios, no socializing after the dance is over, and routines in the ballet are to leave when they are finished with their rehearsal. Precautions that have been taken during our performances are similar, they include: always wearing masks, social distancing, staying into your assigned dressing rooms before the show starts, leaving once your routine is over, and a COVID-19 survey along with a temperature scan.
The performances during the COVID-19 pandemic are clearly different from performing pre-covid. Outside of there being differences towards the dancers, there are differences in the audience as well. The theatres are only allowed to be filled to 25% capacity and everyone must socially distance themselves. Each row is separated by another empty row, but exceptions are made for members of the same family.
As a dancer, performing these shows is a challenge. Wearing masks while dancing, and getting a large portion of the exercise is severely difficult. We have to make a breathing routine throughout our performance to make sure that we can continue to dance with the toughness of wearing a face covering. After each dance, everyone has the common struggle to catch their breath again, but after rehearsing with masks, we have managed to overcome this difficulty.
