Moving Out

In the near infinite parade of suck we've had passing us this year, one of the biggest is Danceworks' Moving Company being cancelled, as no rest home of rehab center in their right mind will gather their residents in groups to see visiting strangers.

However, if anyone thinks a little thing like a global scale disaster is going to keep me from my annual "saying nice things" about Danceworks post, they're crazy.

The fact that Danceworks kept providing classes through this unquestionably poorly handled by anyone in high authority mess is one of the few things that has preserved Anabelle's, and many other dancer's, sanity.

Not much more than a week after all the shut downs started,  Miss Chris and her team had already set up downloadable online classes, and before long the whole shebang was running through Zoom.  I've seen schools and universities with fully staffed IT departments that didn't get everything set up nearly as quickly, or functioning as well.

When it was clear the normal recital couldn't happen last year, and Miss Chris leapt through a ridiculous number of metaphorical hoops to try for a class by class in person one, that finally switched to virtual as well. It was undeniably weird, but everyone got to show off their hard work for the year.  There were also activities like the "toilet paper toss" video to make the students retain their feeling of being linked together.  

Besides all the individual class Zoom performances, the seniors gathered in the parking lot, where Mr. Carl set up a surface for them to do their dance as a socially distanced group.  Many of us dance families attended their final performance together "Drive-In Style."  Once again Danceworks recreated that sense of belonging and home away from home that they have excelled at all these years, but in a modified form at a time all the dancers needed it most.

Summer classes, since the weather allowed it,  were also held in the parking lot. Starting in the fall, following some internal building restructuring, this year has been done hybrid to keep socially distanced spacing in the studio.  While the dancers don't get to spend "yappin' time" in the lobby before, between and after classes, they have been doing it over zoom, maintaining the bonds that have grown over their time together in the dance school.

The recital this year will be different then the past again, but once more thanks to the ingenuity and drive of Miss Chris and her team, it will likely be slightly skewed more towards normal.

With everything going on in the world, it's a delight to see this focus on compassion and artistry maintained for all the dancers who have relied on it to form bonds with each other and the staff.

Later edit note- Apologies if the title was misconstrued.

After Anabelle's first couple of years I had a hard time coming up with a "Moving" pun so I counted how many years were left and made a list, I didn't register  the double meaning since I knew this was her senior year (aaaaah!) post title since long before Covid.