Typical dance teachers tell how teaching has been during the crisis
A few days before the anniversary of Mexico’s Cry of Independence, folk groups, which in other times would be getting ready to make their presentations, will keep their costumes in storage due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately for some, in the sixth month of the pandemic, restrictions have begun to decrease in different counties, but massive events are not yet allowed.
Blanca A. Soto, president and founder of Tierra Blanca Arts Center – who has made folkloric presentations for Mexico’s Independence Day for many years – said that the most important thing right now is learning to renew ourselves.
For this reason, he invites the instructors of the arts to pass this positive energy to their students, especially the youngest ones who do not exactly understand the magnitude of the pandemic.
Soto said that on March 11 he received the news of the temporary closure of his studio and now he is grateful that at that time the authorities had, in some way, lied.
“At first they said [que sería solo] two weeks, after April … We continued making plans for presentations when they opened, “he said.
“It’s good that they didn’t tell us it would be more than six months because at that time, we wouldn’t have taken it very well.”
Beginning April, Soto continued classes virtually – via Zoom – twice a week. All in order to continue learning under the new normal.
This continued until the end of the course at the end of June. She explained that it was important to lead by example and show students that the group was not disappearing and that it was just reinventing itself.
He said he recognized that several colleagues had to close their dance studios or are in great trouble because they owe the rent from the premises.
However, for her the situation was different since the city of Huntington Park granted her the place to give her classes, so she did not have to worry about the rent.
Outdoor classes
For her part, Dinora Meza, another instructor of typical dances from the group Bailes de mi Tierra, is located in Riverside County, said that for them, the news suddenly fell that classes were canceled indefinitely due to COVID- 19.
She offers her classes at a very low cost, $ 20 a month per person, at the Menifee Community Center, where children, youth and adults attend.
“First we hoped that [el cierre solo] it was for two or three months but then it got longer and longer, ”said Meza.
Like Soto, Meza had to cancel all the community events planned for the summer. But unlike Los Angeles County’s strict restrictions, for him in Riverside the restrictions were already looser.
It was then that he spoke with the parents of the underage students and proposed the idea of having classes outside the community center. And while some accepted, others were still afraid to meet.
“First we started with 5 children, then 7 and then 10 … As time went by, there was more confidence.”
The Riverside instructor said the classes have so far been conducted successfully and without contagion.
“Until now it has worked for me to give classes outside and I have had to see families who take their children to class because they also get sick from being locked up.”
However, Meza assured that depending on the place it may be the level of contagion. When she doesn’t teach outside the community center, she offers them at home. She said the distance from house to house in the town of Menifee is usually half an acre. A big difference compared to the few feet of distance between homes in Los Angeles.
He added that probably for the Day of the Dead, in November, they will hold their first community event with folkloric presentations since the pandemic occurred.
A virtual Scream
For his part, Soto said that for months every Sunday he has been holding a virtual event called “Mexicans at a Distance United by Dance” where choreographers, master conductors, instructors and music enthusiasts meet to talk and hear about it. art.
This Sunday, September 13, will not be the exception since on the eve of the Cry of Independence, the group will carry out the art and culture forum through a Facebook Live on its Tierra Blanca Arts Center page.
Soto said that the guests will be presenting videos of their work as well as personal interviews and even with interesting anecdotes under the theme of “What we teachers are silent.”
Soto said he is aware of the severity of the contagion in Los Angeles and that he currently has no crowd events planned until at least 2021.
“If we don’t dance for now, nothing will happen and if it is very necessary, people can do it from home. I cannot put the health of my children at risk, ”he said.
After all, she says, the most important thing for her is to share the hashtag #quemueraelvirusnolacultura in her virtual events.
