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COVID-19 - The Effects on the Dance Community · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_04: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_04: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: Each week, we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_04: As of this episode's release day, March 18, 2020, the entire world has been dramatically affected by the spread of COVID-19.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_04: The Making the Impact family has come together in this unpredictable time to discuss the repercussions for the dance community due to the abrupt shutdown of community events, cancellation of performances and competitions, and general uncertainty for the future of the industry as well as the world at large.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_04: We've brought dance professionals from across the U.S.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_04: to give some perspective and share their thoughts about this crisis.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Hey everyone, and welcome to this week's very special episode of Making the Impact.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I am here today with my co-host Leslie Mueller.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Hey y'all.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Today we are here to discuss the effects of the coronavirus that is sweeping the world.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: The COVID-19 virus pandemic has been a tough one to handle as countries around the world are shutting their doors and restoring to quarantine to try to end the spread of the disease.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Most recently, the virus has finally made its way to the United States within the past week.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: School closures, event cancellations, and even the NBA, Disney World, and Broadway are turning off their lights for the next month while our country navigates this crisis.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: As for our dance community, we've been hit hard since we are in the heat of competitive dance season.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: Studios around the globe have been required to close to prevent the spread of the virus.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: Dance competitions and conventions have had to cancel their events, whether it's due to the venue closing or by mandate of the government preventing large events from continuing.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_04: As for all the dance teachers, competition directors, professional dancers, studio owners, and self-employed artists, we are all being hit financially with this horrible situation.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's uncertain when things will get back to normal and when we will begin receiving a paycheck again.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_04: But in the meantime, we hope everyone can come together in this time of need, brainstorm ways to stay positive and collaborate as a community.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: We would also like to add that we don't have all the answers.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: We are here to share our opinions and thoughts about how to best navigate this unprecedented situation, and we urge everyone to use your best judgment in making decisions for yourself, your family, and for your business.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So today to discuss this topic in full detail, we have three IDA judges and professionals in the industry who come from all different parts of the country and parts of the dance industry.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: So first let's get to know our guest, Julia Galloway.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Hi Julia.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hey guys, how are you?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Good, how are you doing?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing alright.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: We are getting through it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we are.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Can you please just share with our listeners a little bit about who you are, where you're from, what you're doing, and any career credits you want to share so we can get to know you.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm currently living in Miami, Florida.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: I currently dance for the NBA with the Miami Heat.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I also perform and dance at Walt Disney World as well as Universal Orlando Resort.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm kind of in the theme park industry, but uh as well in the sports entertainment industry as well.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, Julia.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: And let's get to know our next IDA judge and guest, Dion.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Dion.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: Hi.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: How's everybody?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: So happy to have you here.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Can you please share a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and any credits?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I am Dion Hamza.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: I uh currently live in Harrison Township, Michigan, which is Metro Detroit area.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Currently, I am a teacher at a studio.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I judge different dance competitions.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: I am out of the performance world now because I am a mom, and we all know performing and traveling is really hectic when you're a mom.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then I also am a real real estate agent, so I do that as well.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for being here, Dion.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: And our final guest is Mr.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Joey Ortolani, who many of our listeners may remember from our choreography episode.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Joey.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, what's up, guys?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Not too much.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: And just so we can remind all of our listeners, please share a little bit about who you are and where you're from and what you're up to.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for having me back.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I wish it was under better circumstances.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Joey.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am originally from Long Island and I currently live in New York City, which is one of the hardest-hit areas for COVID-19.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I am currently a competition director for a Long Island dance studio.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I run the entire competition portion of this studio, in addition to helping the studio, my co-director, uh run our recreational program with uh all the decision making going on.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Before I was a performer, I still am.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just haven't been lately.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just some of my credits are Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Saturday Live.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I did the Broadway first session tour of Bullets Over Broadway, just random regional, not random regional theaters like Courtney and Leslie.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: We worked on Royal Caribbean, not together, but at the same time.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks all for being here, and we're gonna get through this together.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: So my first my first question for you guys is I love that we've gotten people from different parts of the country.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm really curious.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_04: I was recently I was just in Kansas City this weekend.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_04: Kansas City was business as usual.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_04: A few things were shut down, but things were normal.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: It was very, very normal there this weekend.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm curious what Miami looks like right now.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so Miami is honestly the same as it is every other day.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think just this morning a few yoga studios have started to close down, but obviously the MBA has closed, which affects everything.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: And once the NBA closed, you know, everyone followed suit.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: It was like a domino effect.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: So for me personally in Miami, not having my main job as an MBA dancer is deafening.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: There's no end result.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: So we don't know whether we're gonna get our jobs back or if we'll can just you know end the season where it is.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: But as far as Miami as as a city, everyone's going about business as usual, uh everyone's at the beach going to their Sunday brunch, it's really not much different at all.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that is interesting.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: So how does that compare to Dion UN Michigan?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: I can't leave my house.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, everything is pretty much shut down.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: The school shut down when Governor Whitmore, which as Michigan's governor, shut down schools Thursday night, which was supposed to start today.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Our school decided to shut down Friday too, because it was supposed to be half day.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So now I turned into a homeschool mom.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna see how this works.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if there's enough wine in the state of Michigan for me to be a homeschool mom.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: But it's funny because like when you drive around, you wouldn't really know that everything is like I don't think you have people that are I mean, obviously I feel like everybody's seeing like the pictures everywhere of like groceries, like grocery stores is the only place where it's like everything's gone and it's super busy.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: But you still see people driving around because there's people that aren't taking it seriously, then people that are taking it super serious.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think people really know what to do.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Our dance studio was gonna stay open, but I feel like because of everything, like the domino effect that she was talking about, it's kind of it's trickling down.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like the studio decided to close, and now we have bars and restaurants that are gonna be closing and only open for takeout.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't really think we've seen the effect yet, totally.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just kind of taking it a day at a time.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really know what else to do besides do that.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: But the mortgage industry, because rates are so low, I'm busy on that end.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So but I don't know.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm every morning I wake up and it's something different.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: You do, you wake up and you take it a day at a time.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think that's what everybody's having to do because there, you know, just it truly feels like from Thursday on, every five minutes there is something new and something has changed and somebody's plan has changed.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I know last week I was seeing dance studio, you know, letters go out saying we're not gonna close, we're taking all these measures to prevent the spread of the virus, and then literally the next day they backtracked on that and said, Nope, we're gonna close.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it is just we have it's a waiting game kind of and a you know, a f very fluid time.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, on my end, and you know, we I feel like that we as a country kind of went into action around Wednesday, Thursday was like the big days.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: And for the past week prior to, I was actually in Dubai and I was there teaching at a new dance convention, which was an awesome experience and a beautiful country.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it was really interesting to see how they were also being hit by the coronavirus and how they were handling it as a country.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Last weekend, our event was scheduled to be on Friday and Saturday, this March 6th and 7th.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And literally the day after our event happened, which we can't believe still, the country shut down all of their schools for four weeks and were not allowed to run any sort of school programs or events and things like that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: So we like just made, we just slipped through the cracks and were able to have a successful event, which we are so grateful for.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: But it was interesting to kind of see that happening while I was over there in Dubai when I wasn't hearing of anything happening in the states yet.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: It hadn't really made it over to the states because competitions were still on as of last weekend.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: We were all there, I'm sure.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: There were IDA judges out across the country.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone was working, everyone was happy.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: We were excited about the the competitions coming up this weekend.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I was flying home on Thursday, the the day of all days, the fly home.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so many people were texting me when I woke up for my flight.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, when is your flight?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna make it back?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because the United States is banning travel into the country from Europe only, but I wasn't in Europe.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: So luckily I was like, I'm not in Europe.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: I had to do it, I had to take a minute and try to figure out where Dubai was.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was worried, I was worried that you had like a connecting flight, like you were connecting in Rome or something and then having to come over or something.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what I that's what I was thinking of.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: And like luckily, we had a direct flight from Dubai to to JFK, but still it was so interesting for me to see everybody panic and freak out.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: And like, of course, my mom is like, you need to get home, oh my gosh.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I was kind of like, I kind of want to extend my trip out here.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's so beautiful.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: But everyone's like, That's why we love you though, because we love you.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I maybe it's best for me to get home into my home country to be safe.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: But it was it was definitely interesting to kind of witness that from two different places and seeing what was happening on social media from the states, but also experiencing it in person in Dubai as they were trying to handle the situation.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it's super crazy.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: And let's talk about New York for a little minute, Joey.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Joey, I want to hear what because I haven't been here all weekend.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: I was gone for the majority of the year.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I haven't really been here.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_04: Tell tell us what it's like out there.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's crazy.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, as a person, I have anybody that's close to me will be able to tell you that I've had a backpack in my closet for years that has like canned goods, protein bars, can opener.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: Are you serious?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: First aid.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, I mean we've all I mean, all of us we've been living in a post-9-11 world and preparedness is everything, and we live in one of the busiest cities in the world, and you never know when in the middle of the night or during the day something's gonna happen and you need to be prepared, and you are gonna wanna have a first aid kit.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna want to have, you know, a Swiss Army knife with all of the attachments and the screwdriver and the you know what I mean?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a very prepared person in life, and this is just rocking my world.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't it's really crazy.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: In New York, actually, development just today.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Last night before I went to bed, it was just New York City that was closing all bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and then today it's statewide.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it all goes into effect tomorrow, though, if I'm not mista I could be very mistaken, so don't quote me on that.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you're right, Wednesday and Thursday last week.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a week on Wednesday, I was still having dress rehearsals with my kids because we hadn't gotten the official word that competition for this coming weekend, March 20 to 22, was canceled yet.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: We were still holding out hope.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was still rhinestoning costumes as of Monday and Tuesday last week.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Which in my head, I'm like, how crazy were you to think that you would even need the rhinestones for sure.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's over.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: We need rhinestones.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, Wednesday was the day, and then Thursday was when we started battling with the notion of closing the studio.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: A bunch of studio owners from multiple competitions just discussing with them what the best course of action is.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, before I mean, as of Wednesday last week, they still had a choice of whether or not they would cancel, or they were still reliant on the venues, which for most competitions, at least in the Long Island area, is schools, school performing arts, like their auditoriums and stuff like that.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we're heavily reliant on schools opening.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our recital for my studio is at SUNY Stony Brook.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we're subject to a SUNY school.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not until the end of May, but we're still not even sure if we're gonna have a recital, let alone any semblance of a competition season.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of just what I've experienced in my few days being back in New York.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like that the supposedly the grocery stores are crazy too.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like you you mentioned, Diane, how they're kind of crazy everywhere.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: I was successfully able to go to the grocery store and buy things.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like that I I maybe had a better situation than other people in their experiences.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's funny that you brought up Thursday, Wednesday, and Thursday, because Thursday was the night where I was on my way home from teaching, and I was like, maybe I should stop and get a few things.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I needed to go grocery shopping anyway, and I was running out of toilet paper, so I might as well go get it now.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked into the grocery store at 9.15, had my basket full of stuff that I knew I wanted to get by like 9:30 within 15 minutes, and I didn't walk out of the grocery store until almost 11:15 at night because the lines were so long.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: But yesterday, but by yesterday, which for us was Sunday and Saturday, I've made a couple of trips to the grocery store, and every time it's been very quiet.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's not the most selection in the world, especially if we're looking for like bread or different cuts of meat and stuff like that, but whatever you can manage to get, there is actually a decent selection.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it I think it calmed down a little bit.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's gonna happen now that they've closed all restaurants and bars and nightlife and stuff.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: People might but we c I mean people can only hoard so much stuff in their freezers and refrigerators.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_04: True.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it is New York City.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: We're very small.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: How much meat can you freeze before the whole thing is the freezer's full now?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you gonna do?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: I actually went grocery shopping yesterday, but I saw something online that's that suggested, you know, a lot of the normal grocery stores are pretty pretty empty now because everyone's going and getting all of their things and hoarding up.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: But I saw something online that suggested to go to your local Asian market because they're kind of dealing with the rippling of like kind of racist ripple effects of people just not wanting to shop there because of you know ignorance.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I went to my local Asian market yesterday and it was completely stopped.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: They had toilet paper, they had paper towels, they had gloves if you want them, and all sorts of good food.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: So that would definitely be something that I would recommend if you you know do find yourself at Target with no food on the shelves.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely check that out.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: And you're also supporting local businesses, so it's nice.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's great.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_04: That's excellent.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's so good to know that that's available because I mean New York City has a ton of Asian markets too.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: So exactly.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'm even just thinking of New York's subway system and how that is getting, you know, compl it's completely empty from what I've heard.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't gone on the subway since I've been home on purpose, but I haven't had a need to because I have everything in my neighborhood that I need.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I know like my boyfriend has to take the subway to work and he's told me it's been completely empty.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: People in New York are recommended to not take the subway because obviously that's a perfect place to trans, you know.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, transmit a virus.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, transmit the virus.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: But they're recommending, you know, Uber, they're recommending biking, walking if you can if you're in walking distance.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just been a really crazy effect.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: And like there were rumors that the MTA was gonna shut down the subways, but I don't think that's gonna happen.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think that it could happen.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it could, I guess.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: It could, but they haven't done it yet.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think that'll be a last resort.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I mean, the shutting down of I'm not trying to like feed into fear or panic.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to preface like as we go forward with this conversation as a studio director, there's a lot of pressure to adhere to the community vibe and feelings and emotions, and our decisions don't necessarily reflect how we as individuals personally view the situation.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to like feed into any fear or panic, and like I said, I'm not like an expert or anything, but by them taking the drastic they I mean, as of early in the day on Sunday, yesterday, the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, was adamant about attempting to keep schools open with some politically justifiable reasons, such as you know, parents can't go to work if their kids don't have somewhere to go because they need the child care for while their kids go to school, or you know, in low-income areas, these kids need a hot meal and it's affordable at school for them.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So there were some valid reasons.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: But from early in the day yesterday to waking up this morning, it went from trying to keep schools open to closing down the entire school system plus any small gatherings in places like bars and restaurants and theaters.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the the moral of the story, at least in New York, is maybe it wasn't so silly to stock up on toilet paper, not out of fear of actually getting sick, but just out of having to be told that we have to stay where we are.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't think it's I think it's not necessarily a bad idea to have maybe stocked up on some things.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, not even in the vibe of you know freaking out about it getting the illness or whatever, which I guess is valid for certain walks of life, but it seems very possible that it could translate into the subway if it if all these measures with closing down bars and restaurants and schools doesn't seem to stem the flow of new infections.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think that they're approaching taking drastic measures to make sure that we somehow try to contain what's going on so that we're not still in this situation four weeks, eight weeks by Christmas.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: Dion, I'm curious, how many studios do you work for?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I uh just right one right now.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: I actually because of being a mom, I was working for two and it was just too hard and to kind of manage.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: My husband was like, I'm a single father because I'm never home at night.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: I was working every single night and I was traveling on the weekends judging.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: So just one right now, work two nights a week.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um then which kind of allows me to still do like after school activities with my son.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: I can pick and choose.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm judging, but I'm not doing as many weekends this year just to try to be at home more.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm home a lot.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, also I was gonna ask, what what's the situation at the studio you teach at?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: What are you guys doing in lieu of actual classes?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like what's what's going on with your studio?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So up until last night, like Joey was saying, I think I don't think our studio owner particularly wanted to close, but because of everything around us closing.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, we have 800 kids at our studio.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: We have four different studio or four different rooms going on at the same time, which you're gonna have you're gonna have more than 50 people in one in one particular area.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And just because you have you have families that are like, oh, this is stupid.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: We should we don't have to do any of this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like we've had worse situations happen in the world and nobody took this drastic of a measure.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have other people are like, you're crazy if you're not closing, you know, well, we're all gonna you're gonna contract the virus.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think just because of what's going on in the world, she decided to close.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: I understand it.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I also I'm lucky enough to have a husband that's still working right now, so my income not making money teaching is, I mean, yes, we're gonna be short a little bit mu this month, but I don't even understand the people that rely just on solely teaching.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: The entertainment industry is no longer right now.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I wish I had the answer on what to do.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think that kind of turns into politics on where what is the government gonna do to kind of subsidize these people that you can't have everybody go on welfare.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Can't everybody apply for food programs, like that can't happen for the world to continue to go.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like our kids are obviously super bummed.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like this upcoming weekend was gonna be we're the studio I teach at competes, but they're not we kind of like our happy middle ground where the kids are still free on weekends.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: They still like we have our competition classes during the week.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: We do usually about four competitions a year.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: This weekend was supposed to be our last competition.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: So they're kind of bummed.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: We were we had two in a row.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: We were supposed to do this upcoming weekend where it was obviously canceled because the schools were closed.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then we were doing this weekend coming up, which we know is gonna be canceled or postponed.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know what we're gonna do.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think she's kind of I told her, you know, whatever she needs, let me know.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: I know they've been doing like online classes too, but then you I don't know where she's at as far as parents, like are parents, you know, like still willing to pay, but can you pay if they're not working either?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a domino effect.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of unanswered questions right now.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to stay positive and do what I can as a teacher, as a mom, as you know, understanding what people are going through, but I I just I don't know.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we we're just kind of closed right now.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking at the possibility of doing online classes and just to keep kids active.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: I just recently discovered TikTok.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know I know a lot about it from the kids, and I was dancing TikTok, and now I'm like, hey, let's put our dances on TikTok and maybe the kids will see it and they can practice.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Then we'll have a recital dance.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Our recital is not until the end of June, so we have a little bit more leave.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Time, so we might still be able to, but I think just taking it, you know, like I said before, taking it day by day, we don't know how long this is gonna last.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I think that's the scary part is kind of the unknown.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully we're still able to, but if not, as saying right now we're only closed for a week and then we're gonna look, but the school's like my son doesn't go back to school until April 13th.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I I don't know what's gonna happen as far as that.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully they figure something out.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're able to not be on the shutdown for very long.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that a lot of the the school districts are closed for that length of time.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Many of them, from what I'm hearing around the country, are closing into April and the middle of April.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that many dance studios are feeling that pressure of, well, if the school's closed, then I probably it's best for me to stay closed.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they're kind of guiding off of that as well, even if the, you know, the government says that we can have classes that are in smaller sizes or whatever it may be.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think it, you know, parents are gonna be hesitant to want to bring their children to class because they're like, oh, well, the kids are out of school, and if the school thinks that we shouldn't be there, then why should we be at dance class?
• 23:08
  unknown: Yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: Joey, what's your studio doing?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I think I said a little earlier, we're closed for the upcoming week.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, you know, there's a lot of pressure to I don't want to say cave in because I think that the concerns are very valid, but there's a lot of pressure to sort of follow where the rest of the community is going with it for a time over this past weekend before it.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: As of Saturday, they hadn't closed all of Long Island's schools yet.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of popcorned based on the school district.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we had no confirmed cases in the confines of the studio.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we were sanitizing before and after every class.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: If a kid walked in or out of the room, they had to wash their hands right before.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: If there was no like any partner work, we had stopped doing partner work and stuff.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we were trying to hold some of our at least our competitive dancer rehearsals in small groups, like any small group solos, duets, trios.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was up until Saturday, and then they went the distance to close all of Long Island schools for at least two weeks.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: So then we felt it was more prudent to follow along with that just to uh not just to save face, but you know, you don't want to it when you're running a business, you don't want to be looked at like you're being irresponsible or cavalier with the health and safety of the kids.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we had had when we were gonna have those rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday, we had a few parents say, Yes, absolutely, we want to come, and then other parents on the complete opposite side of the spectrum that said, You're crazy, how could you even think of having classes?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: How did you arrive at this decision?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would say we're gonna keep bringing up Wednesday and Thursday of last week because those were the days where I think there was the most confusion and rapidly evolving information.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: We still didn't know if competition was happening, and it brings out some of the not best colors on all of us, I think, because we are seriously staring at, you know, dance studios for the most part.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's awesome that Dion, you guys have a studio of 800, but on Long Island where there's such a dense pop I don't know if this is true about Michigan, but in the areas that we're in the Long Island, you know, there's such a dense population of studios that I would say if you're a studio of 250, you're pretty you're pretty well off and you're lucky.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we're looking at serious financial issues about really I mean, some I mean a lot of studios are looking at not being able to make it through and might have to shut their doors permanently because they can't financially recover from the loss of business.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are currently exploring methods of online payment, but people, I just I don't see it as realistic that people are going to, especially when other walks of life are in financial strains because their work is you know, it's a trickle effect where parents, well, I'm not going to work or I might not be going to work next week, so I want to hold on to the money that I have.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to keep paying for my daughter's tuition when she's not even going to dance.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to pay competition fees that the studio has.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we've already billed people for a May competition.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to pay those fees and then have the competition be canceled.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or if I need to hold on to my money right now to make sure that I can feed my family or take care of my family because I might be out of a job soon too.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that trickles across to us.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that makes me happy is that at my particular studio, most of my staff, they are they're very, very part-time, where it's, you know, they teach one or two days a week.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Really, the only people on staff at my studio that are full-timers are myself and the other director and our like our bookkeeper, like the woman who like does all the money.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it has made a very scary situation for me personally because my income and my livelihood is based off of being able to teach kids how to kickball change and take them to dance competitions.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really scary.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're trying our very hardest to find a way to continue on to have even a shred of income.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think let's since we're on the topic of like trying to continue to be inspirational to kids and try to keep, you know, a positive vibe.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_04: What is everybody trying to do in terms of are we gonna hold an online class?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: Are we gonna do a virtual competition?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: All this stuff has been floating around.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_04: I know that several studios that I'm affiliated with are doing Zoom classes.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: That way they are still offering a class and the people who have paid March tuition are have something to have paid for.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like there's a way to do that.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm curious, Dion, if your studio is doing anything like that.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: Julia, if you have heard of anything like that either, any innovative ideas that anybody is taking advantage of right now.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Our studio in particular has not taken advantage of the Zoom classes.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're gonna talk about it after this week, because we're we weren't, like I said before, we weren't intending on shutting down until we were kind of forced to.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: My my studio owner, I love her to death.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: She's like the biggest clean freak even before all of this.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, that's probably the safest place the kids could possibly be anyway.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I think Zoom class is something that would be beneficial for the kids.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just like Joey was saying, like just to give something normal in their life, to be at home and to move.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And because I know my kid, like my kid alone.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, my kid doesn't dance, the poor thing doesn't have a beat in his body, but he still like wants to go outside.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to play, he wants to run around.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: He like, well, he didn't really find it effective.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like he was like, Oh, homeschool, this is kind of cool.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Then I was like, he's like, let's go to Disney, let's plan a trip.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, baby, Disney shut down.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, Oh my god.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good home for him.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: As far as like the competitions, I don't know how they're gonna work.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't really talked to her about that, about the virtual competition because we can't hold classes.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: So how are you really going to do it?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And especially like our production piece has 60 kids in it.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we can't get them together.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Do we just do small groups?
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are the parents even open to it?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: I can't take video either.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm technol like the putting the headset and connecting to the podcast today.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: My husband had to show me how to do it.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like if you're if you know technology, it might be beneficial and it might be cool because you know, the positive side of it, it can kind of turn kids on like commercial because if they're doing commercial dance, they need to know how to dance in front of a camera.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's way different than on the stage.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this is something that could be beneficial, but being under pressure right now with all the stress, I think it's just gonna be hard for people to I don't know.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna some people might be really good at it, some people might be like, all right, I'm just classes.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think yes, because it's giving normal normalcy to your studio like culture as far as virtual competition.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Me as a dance studio, like a dance teacher, and I teach majority of the competition team, it's not something that I would really look at right now, but that's just my personal opinion on it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, speaking of all of these Zoom classes, I just I think it's been so wonderful watching on the online forums how everyone is coming together in at this time of need.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: There have been, me and Leslie were just talking about this before we did the podcast.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: There have been so many new free resources that people have figured out on their own, that have recorded, that have edited, that have posted online and said, hey, I'm here to help.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Here's an online video for strength training, here's flexibility and conditioning, here's a jazz class, you know.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Tune in here to stream with me at three o'clock for your contemporary advanced class.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's so awesome that that we are all kind of coming together as a dance community to figure out ways to, like we've said, keep our kids active in quarantine and when they're not able to go to the dance studio.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of dancers, you know, around the country may have access to a space in their house to dance and play around.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I had a I didn't have like a dance studio in my house growing up, but I had a really big room.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I would just dance and put my music on and dance in my room and shut the doors.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, and now with technology, which I didn't really have great internet and I had like AOL, Instant Messenger, and things like when I was young.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: So there was like no such thing as streaming or YouTube videos back when I was young.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: So now these kids have everything at their fingertips.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like you said, Dion with TikTok, I'm not a fan of it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't downloaded the app.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna give into it, to be honest with you.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: But but I feel like at this time uh in life, that how awesome is TikTok?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, these kids are gonna just watch these videos all day long.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna, they're gonna learn all the moves, they're gonna stay active.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: It gives them something to do, it keeps them dancing.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: As much as all of us dance teachers have been venting about how much we hate TikTok and how the kids just need to practice their dances.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now this is a perfect time for the kids to be doing their TikTok in the quarantine.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: But as far as the virtual competitions, I totally agree, Dion, and I understand that perspective.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: I will say that IDA has decided to launch a virtual competition that is launching Wednesday, uh, this Wednesday that you're gonna be.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: This is preparing.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: The reason that I wanted to make this virtual competition happen was I feel for all of the dancers and the studios who, like you mentioned, Dion, like you just said that your last two competition events of the season got canceled.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: You are kind of ahead of the game right now because a lot of people are just starting their seasons, whereas you have already pretty much finished yours or would have finished yours.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot of people in those situations where they were looking for that one final event.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, depending on how things progress, we're not sure if all of the competitions that are that are saying they're going to be postponed are actually going to be able to work out.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think all of us as a dance community, we're not sure if we're supposed to just push everything forward and change dates for our recitals and change dates for a competition event and you know, act like this month didn't happen and just push everything ahead.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: Or do we go back to where we started and leave our recital dates where they are there at?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we do that, then the postponed competitions might not work in our schedule.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just a really hard thing to kind of navigate and figure out scheduling-wise.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that a handful of competitions are starting the virtual IDA decided to do that.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: And in a way to give an opportunity for soloists at the moment, we're only doing a solo comp because obviously it's hard to get groups into the studio when you don't have access to the studio.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want kids around each other at the moment, so we can't film our dances in groups.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: But solos usually dancers might be able to get into the studio by themselves.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: They might have a home studio, they might have already had a solo rehearsal filmed, or they might have already competed.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it seems like a little bit of an easier way to launch a solo virtual event.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we wanted to do that.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: And all of the fees that we are asking, which is very low, are going to the judges pay.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: We're pretty much paying judges and giving them a little bit of work in this downtime, as well as giving the money back to the contestants with cash prizes that hopefully they can put towards maybe a live competition event later in the season that got postponed or to future training or, you know, whatever they want.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: So that's our goal with the virtual.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think that just having options is great.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of competitions are trying to make the virtual events happen for their own events, you know, as an option in case those postponed events don't work into studio schedules, they can say, hey, I know this isn't the full experience.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what the issue is with some of the virtual events is well, you're not at competition, you don't get the award ceremony, you don't get to watch the other contestants, you don't get to really have that full experience.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I totally understand that perspective as well.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: I just appreciate people like being innovative and trying to, you know, figure out ways around this and with like a technology background, because we are lucky to have technology at our at our service right now in this time of need.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, speaking about how everything has been affected financially and a lot of jobs, performing art jobs have been affected so much.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm very curious to hear, Julia, about your story.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: Since you do work for the NBA and you've also previously worked for Disney World, and you know, those things have now shut down.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: What was that experience like for you finding out about the the closure of the NBA?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so it was definitely something that hit us pretty hard and unexpectedly.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we were hearing about the potential things that would happen.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: There was articles circulating.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, are we gonna play an empty arena for no fans?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: That was definitely an option that we knew could come.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: And uh about a week and a half ago, my coach kind of pulled us aside and she said, you know, we're not gonna be able to have court rehearsals for our games going forward, which seemed at the time like the worst thing in the world, you know, because we've got 20 girls on a court doing dances that we've you know we've just we've just learned, and we normally have that time set aside allocated at the beginning of every game for us to go on court, space everything out, make sure that we look up to par because everyone in a in a basketball arena you're you're elevated, so it's an aerial view, all the formations are visible.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_03: So if you are not in your space, it's very apparent, and we want to look top shape.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: So that was really difficult for us, but we powered through.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_03: We had our game on Wednesday of last week, and we had about three minutes left in the game.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: The players were still playing, we were about to go on court for our last little runaround moment, and everyone just started buzzing.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember my friend turning to me and just saying they just suspended the NBA indefinitely.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: So we had in that moment, I realized you know, I just danced my last dance on on the courts, and now the season is is just kind of yanked out of out of our hands.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: And for some of us, we we were planning on leaving after this season, you know, we have a lot of girls retiring this season and just other people moving on in general into the next stages of their lives.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: So we didn't get a chance to s to say goodbye.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, it just kind of makes you think and reflect and realize that you never know when the last time you're gonna get to perform is.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: So that was the one positive that I could pull out of it.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's just a constant reminder of you know, give it all you've got every single time.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: You hit the court, you hit the stage, you know, wherever it is you're performing, you never get a chance to have that moment again.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: So just living it, living it up and giving it your all.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, once I had the a moment to collect myself and try to make a plan for what I was gonna do since I moved to Miami for this job, uh, along with a few other girls on the team.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: Most of the people here are from Miami, a few grown up here.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, they'll just kind of go on to their next thing.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, this is the only reason why I'm here.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_03: So it was kind of hard to wrap my head around, but I do think I'm fortunate enough to have my job with Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort still.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I figured I would go up to Orlando and try to see if I can make up for lost time there because I do love performing there so much.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then a few days later, the news hit that Walt Disney World was closing as well as Universal.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and actually not just Walt Disney World, all of the Disney parks uh throughout the entire world.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's just never happened in the history of the Disney company.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: So all my friends on overseas contracts have been sent home, and there wasn't really another option.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_03: So that is where we stand at the moment, and it's been a hard, a hard year for the NBA in general with the passing of Kobe Bryant.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: So I think you know, we're just taking it day by day.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, that's that's a really insane story.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so sorry that you had to experience that.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I think a lot of performers in this industry are feeling that exact same thing or have experienced something very similar.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: We're mentioning previously that Broadway shows have closed, and I feel like that they closed very abruptly and unexpectedly.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the same kind of situation as you were speaking about, Julia, there's a lot of Broadway tours who had to turn off their lights and close immediately as of Wednesday or Thursday.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: And many of those tours were planning to continue through April and maybe ending in April, but now with the early closure, some of those tours have now had their final bow, which is really, really crazy for a lot of people.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: The, you know, obviously many people have subletted their apartments and weren't expecting to have left tour early, so don't have a place to go and are out obviously out of money.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: The Broadway community is going to be out of money.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: Broadway went dark in New York City, I think as of Thursday night.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: So there won't be any shows on Broadway for the next month.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it's really a hard time to kind of figure out how to navigate that as performers.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: And not only are the performers affected, but so are every single person that's self-employed throughout the the country as dancers and educators and judges and teachers and things like that.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: I mean musicians, stage hands.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm thinking about just all the other the other integral parts of what we all do, you know, those people are out of work too, because the people on stage can't go to work.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's pretty harrowing.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: I think there's there's gonna be a lot of need for for therapy and for people to be able to express, you know, this this devastation.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this is one of those things that like this is going to devastate our industry.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: There's studios out there that are too small to be able to open their doors up without a month or two of income.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: There's just there's not gonna be a way.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_04: So I I do think that it's, you know, it it is our job in a way to promote positivity and to see how how we can get people to stay active and to stay positive and to stay creative and collaborate.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_04: But at the same time, I think it is important to realize that this is a loss.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, you can either take that and create with it, or you should also just take some time to like feel it because it sucks.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like there's just no other way to put it.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a there's a very strong reality for especially us in New York, you know, as artists, we are often paycheck to paycheck, we are unless we're lucky enough to have like a really strong nest egg or a spouse that can help pick up the slack or something.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure for these shows that pay rent to these theaters that they occupy, at the moment at least, there's no rent relief.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: And because we aren't going to work, or because we aren't judging, or because we aren't dancing at a game, or because we aren't teaching, nobody's looked at us yet and said, Don't worry about it, you don't have to pay your rent for April 1st because you haven't had income.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're like, Well, my paycheck that was the last week of March was the last 250 bucks that I owe for my rent, and I'm not working for the next two weeks.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to do?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that that strikes me a lot is, you know, parents paying for dance lessons, parents paying competition fees, people buying tickets to Broadway shows, people buying tickets to go to the NBA, these are all what we would consider luxury items.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I obviously firmly believe that the arts are super important to kids and that you know, it's just as important for people people buy tickets to a basketball game to enjoy something separate from the hard parts of their life.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: People buy tickets to a Broadway show to escape and enjoy a story live in front of their faces and hear people hear and see people's talents.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Kids dance because it's better than their gym class where they have to just like throw a dodgeball at each other and they can actually get something creative and have a goal.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's just recital at the end of the day, or two, or if they compete, you know, it's something that it's they're developing a skill that you know, we know what dance education offers as far as team commitment and perseverance and strength training and physical activity and creativity and artistry and all of those things, but unfortunately, in a situation like this, all of those things become luxury items and they become they become non-essential.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, we as the professionals who stand the most to lose financially from those things not existing, we start to feel nonessential and we don't have a way of supporting ourselves.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: And likewise, I think it will also be a snowball effect for the people that don't get to enjoy those quote non essential things where no, you don't have to go to dance class to survive, you don't need to go to dance class to survive a quarantine.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: But where is everybody's headspace gonna be in a month or in three weeks or in two weeks?
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean, it's one thing if we say, by the end of this week, it's all gonna be over because we can all suck it up for a week, you know, it's the same length as spring break or something.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: But when we don't know if we're gonna have recital.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Someone, I can't remember who it was, brought up, you know, our seniors.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: My I have four graduating seniors on my competition team, and I've been with this studio for almost 10 years and I've watched them grow up.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: They've been texting me saying, When are you gonna reopen the studio?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't even care that my prom is gonna be canceled.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even care that sports night at school is gonna be canceled, I don't even care that whatever is being canceled, but I'm not gonna have my senior year recital because they haven't had prom every year their entire year growing up, but they've had recital since they were three.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: And their last year before they go off to college in mid-August is not gonna they're not gonna have a recital.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is they can't even wrap their heads around what that means.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: So my concern is also that where is everybody's headspace when they haven't been able to watch a basketball game even on TV or you know, or go see a show or go have those outlets for their pent-up energy that they maybe we all kind of took for granted.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hope that everybody can make it through with their with their sanity and that somewhere someone will offer, especially people in their 20s and 30s that don't have a retirement fund yet that they can dip into or you know, offer us single people, single people, single people offer us some relief from some of the financial burdens that we have, like living in New York City.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Leslie, you were joking that if somebody needed a place to live, it's with you.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: I might be coming to live with you because I was supposed to move April 1st and now come on down, I got a real nice room.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: The people are the the people I was supposed to you know move into an apartment with and share an apartment with don't feel like they're ready to move now or they don't want to move while finances are tight.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: But my apartment is gone as of April 1st and I need to go somewhere.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm hoping that someone offers not uh as much as working families are important, stuff like that.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a whole brood of people our age that, you know, we're not married yet.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have we don't have mouths to feed except our own, but we still need some relief because we are 100% out of our income.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping people stay sane.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm rambling now, but I hope people can stay sane without their outlets.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping that luxury items become a priority again someday.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that I hope that the dance competition industry, while we might have a couple of weeks off, it will be I hope it will be somewhat a little easy to extend the regional season into June, where normally it at the end of May.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping it will be somewhat simple to take up just a little bit of the end of the summer.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: Recitals might be a little later.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're just taking the first couple of weeks of summer vacation now, and we're gonna you know borrow from now to pay it later to hopefully get while later, while we're not used to doing regionals in June, hopefully we'll be able to recover and get some of it back because it's sad.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: It really is disheartening.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like you were saying, Joey, like the dance because the dance community has been really great at supporting one another, just like online forums and everything because we know how hard we're hit.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: Did I did I tap out?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: I know how hard we're hit.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh like we're definitely 100% luxury.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: But with that luxury, it's gonna be a trickle up effect instead of a trickle-down effect within economy because you know like people need relief.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's where hopefully we're not gonna go into politics, but hopefully the politicians take that into effect when it comes to like paying rent and mortgages and just everything in general.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: But with the dance community, I think if we all come together, like once we're like past this and we're starting to go on an upswing instead of a downswing, we can be like, okay, well, let's offer.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: We all usually have like July and August offer, you know, or people start competition for the next season during that time.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we do borrow from that and we extend some of the regionals.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe nationals are a little bit longer.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know some people can't go to nationals because of finances, but maybe they hold like a national for Michigan, a national for New York.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I I mean there are creative ideas that I think we can come together, but hopefully it just doesn't take too long that people will spend the money for that.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's what that's my concern is that people have the money for people to spend for those luxury items that they're not gonna freak out and then everything's gonna crash.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_04: So as a final little blurb here, guys, do you have any suggestions for studio owners or teachers or even just dancers in general as to how to sort of create their new normal in these next couple of weeks?
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: I know there are a few resources out there that I've seen that are offering free classes online or just different, you know, sort of dance challenges that are happening on Instagram and stuff.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_04: Anything that you guys know of that you would like to suggest just to help people out in this time of need?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the situation is still unfolding very rapidly.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of studios, especially if you're following some of the threads and the forums like Courtney mentioned earlier, we're still all kind of scrambling because it is still so fresh.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that the answer of how to get us through this while still maintaining a dance studio environment or still maintaining a competition industry is still unfolding and developing.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I am not super sure on directly like go do this virtual competition, go do this for your for your online classes, go do this.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: So my advice in general to teachers and to teachers is if you have side work that you usually do in your off time, like rhinestoning costumes or building set pieces for competition, or you have dances that aren't done yet, keep working on them.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do something for your brain while we're off to make sure that when we get back in the room, you're ready to go and nothing is left to be done.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have come I have production props that I'm actually going to work on today because I have the time for it now.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: And for the kids, I would say don't be afraid to try something new.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels a little unlikely that you know competition kids will tune in on Facebook Live and you know, stretch with me while I'm have my music playing in my apartment, or if you I even go to the studio by myself, it seems unlikely that we can get a rehearsal done for a large group or a small group or a solo over technology, but be willing to give it a shot at least, because you never know if you might discover something that's like, oh wow, this actually does really work.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for parents and students listening as well, please remember that this is uncharted territory for every walk of life.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are struggling to get the answer out of the studio that you want, or you are struggling to pay for the studio, or you are struggling to sort of get a straight answer out of somebody, just remember to approach each other with care and understanding that we are not as a studio director, you know, some people have already said after it's not even been a week, you know, you weren't communicating well, or you weren't keeping us posted, you weren't keeping us informed, but with an ever-changing situation, misinformation or light information or inaccurate information, it's just as harmful as the situation devolving or succumbing to panic.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: So just remember that, you know, every one of us has a business that we're trying to maintain and be able to survive at the end of all of this, whenever that may be, and to approach each other with as much care and understanding as you possibly can.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when for me, when I have information I don't I give it when I know it to be 100% accurate and without fault.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_03: I think just like a tiny little extra tidbit backpacking off of Joey.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: I think for students, I know it can be nerve-wracking to be cooped up, especially for dancers, because we naturally want to be bouncing off the walls at all times.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's how I can get, but I think something to think about while you're cooped up in your room is to take it as an opportunity to kind of go back to basics, work on your goals, because I think that in a studio atmosphere we can sometimes get wrapped up into you know, comparing ourselves to others and you know, just working towards what everyone else is working towards, but we're all individuals, so I think that it's a great time to sit and reflect.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_03: Might sound a little corny, but I love vision boards, especially for my older students, just being able to really visualize and put things together, you know, a little arts and class crafts moment here, but just being able to really see those goals and because we don't often get time to do that in our day-to-day life, especially as a student.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: You've got school and a social life and dance and everything.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: We hardly have time to stop and just relax and understand what it is that we need from this life going forward and you know where we want to be.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's just a perfect opportunity to really get in touch with your goals and you don't always have to know how you're gonna get there.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_03: None of us know how we're gonna get anywhere, especially right now, but just being able to to set goals for yourself and understand that they're achievable.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's a a great time for that.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_03: And as far as studio directors and teachers and parents in general, I think it's a great time to also sit and reflect, but more towards what what kind of fundraisers can we come up with?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know, what kind of things can we do to help the most vulnerable in this situation?
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I think, you know, banding together and emailing or FaceTiming, whatever it is, from the comfort of your home.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_03: But, you know, you're not alone.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_03: Just because you're isolated and in quarantine.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_03: Luckily in 2020, we have the ability to make do this right now and get to see your shining faces and talk to you.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's a perfect opportunity to just connect a little bit deeper than what we normally get to do.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_02: If you would like to follow our guests on Instagram, you can find Julia at LittleJulia, Dion at Beon.com, and Joey at JoeyOrt.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_02: Don't forget to head over to Apple Podcasts now to rank us and leave us a fabulous review.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: We love hearing from all of you listeners, and we may even share your review live on the air on an upcoming episode.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_04: You have a dance competition question you've been dying to ask the judge.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_04: Now's your chance to send us your questions.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_04: We might answer them on the show and give you a shout-out, or you can choose to remain anonymous.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_04: Submit your questions to us on our website at www.impactdanceedjudicators.com slash podcast via audio or text.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: Introducing IDA's Virtual Dance Competition.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: Officially launching Wednesday, March 18th, IDA's Virtual Dance Competition will be a solo-only event held directly online from the comfort of your home.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: Three IDA judges will critique and score your video routine.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: You will then have a chance to compete against other dancers from all across the world for high score awards and cash prizes.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: Interested in competing?
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: Registration is open now.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: Head to our website to learn more and contact us with any questions.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: We can't wait to see your dance.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_04: Coming up in the next few weeks, we've got some great topics, including performance anxiety, ballet, and levels of competition.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_04: Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and tune in every Monday for new episodes.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, keep dancing.