Instructor Shannon Mockli rhythmically counted, keeping time for her students. Her words rang out in Gerlinger Annex, studio 352. “Around, six, seven, eight,” she said through the fabric of her face mask. 

In front of her, eight masked dancers moved in synchrony. Each danced within designated 12 by 12-foot spaces marked off with yellow and green tape. 

Behind her, three more students danced over Zoom on the large screen that loomed over the class. Their pixilated bodies froze and jumped back to life as they cautiously navigated their space at home. 

At the bottom right-hand corner of the 60-inch monitor, sophomore Haleigh Tjensvold waved from her aunt and uncle’s living room in South Eugene. Throughout the year, Tjensvold hit more record players, slipped on more bouncy balls and got tripped by more “rambunctious four-year-old” nephews than ever before in her 18-year dance career.

“As students and teachers, we develop norms and expectations for coming into the class,” said Mockli. “And sometimes the biggest hurdle is to be gracious with ourselves in recognizing: I'm taking a dance class out of my kitchen, or out of my bedroom.”

Everyone at the University of Oregon Dance Department yearned for full access to studios, contact dancing and cheering crowds at performances. But, students’ flexible attitudes and faculty’s ingenious logistic adaptations gifted the University of Oregon dance community with an optimistic sense of normalcy that set them apart from others.

Problem Solving

In March 2020, the studios closed. 

Concerned over the wellbeing of their students, potential decrease in enrollment and sudden job insecurity, dance department faculty scrambled for solutions. 

Some faculty members strategized creative curriculum changes with each other at socially distanced barbeques in their backyards. Others tapped into a worldwide network of dance educators, who collaborated over Facebook, Zoom calls and webinars, to explore the ins and outs of teaching dance during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Dance Department Director Brad Garner and the department’s facilities staff felt obligated to meet everybody’s needs and find creative adaptations. By the end of the summer, they conceptualized a model where dance classes could resume in all mediums. 

For virtual students, they constructed media carts for each studio. Monitors equipped with huge screens and special wide-angle cameras helped professors and their students communicate and learn from one another. 

For in-person students, they implemented a traffic flow through Gerlinger Annex, strict capacity regulations on studio space, distancing parameters, creative sanitization techniques and staggered class times. “For the first two months I mopped all the studios every day,” said Garner, who has since supplied each studio with Swiffer mops for the students to clean the space themselves.  

Adaptations

Instructor Sarah Ebert made it her mission to adapt her choreography for the students at home. 

Before March, Ebert’s dancing filled the space with big circular movements. Since studios closed, obstacles like couches, lamps and kid’s toys, made the big movements hazardous and inconvenient for her and her students. 

So, Ebert and other professors adapted. 

Ebert’s movements changed to take up more linear characteristics as a compromise for the space that she and her students were confined to. 

Other professors, like Mockli, slowed and simplified their choreography to accommodate for the confusion that came with learning dance virtually. Over Zoom, “Everything is totally reversed,” said Tjensvold. “You really just kind of have to guess, and then pray to God that you work on it again in person.” 

Despite the obstacles, Ebert looked to the class material for ways to create a sense of normalcy and camaraderie for her students. “We are looking at rhythm as a way to build community,” said Ebert. “So, while we can’t be physically near one another, we can be together in time.”

For students like senior Claire Sparks, the opportunity to dance with her peers for one last year gave her something to be grateful for. Participating in person brought her added excitement. “I get to come and dance every morning and not be stuck in my apartment,” Sparks said. “I get to actually see people and interact with people.” 

It took time, but students and faculty adjusted to the adaptations. The changes required a lot of extra effort to navigate, but as Ebert said, “Dance is a mirror of society.” And this school year, limited space, Zoom, and extensive cleaning practices are simply a central part of society. 

When Mockli stepped back and looked over some of her students present in front of her, and others in the virtual space, she recognized a new norm. It took a lot of reflection and flexibility, but she grew to accept it. “You know, the dancing feels differently in this moment in time, but we can still be creative,” Mockli said. “We can still be our badass selves.”