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Dancing through Lockdown

It was at our Arts Academy situated in a game reserve next to the crocodile river northern part of Gauteng province, South Africa.

It arrived, swooped around our nation and suddenly we were under lockdown. I remember listening to the Minister of Education declaring that all schools must be shut. This was after after changing our term 1 timetable three times in a space of two weeks to ensure that all students had written exams before any announcement of closure.

In two days parents were arriving to collect children at our school.

There was a spirit of happiness, almost excitement .. a holiday many thought.

I remember praying with my team for our little arts dance school to survive  what was coming, the unknown that seemed to threaten our existence. We definitely did not need that as we had just gone through a serious crisis(malicious allegations by ex-learners and parents) that almost destroyed our school a few months earlier..

Everyone went their ways, scattered around the country and faced how to teach both academic classes and dance classes online, it was a welcome challenge (we were ready to tackle it head on), moved to a serious frustration and later to a crisis.

We were having issues communicating with all our learners, the real issues of having a school with majority children who come from extreme disadvantaged homes is that data is simply a luxury. Shelter, food and water were the priority, we could not even think of what most arts schools had - zoom classes, google teams, facetime..

WhatsApp became our chosen method of online teaching, my job  as principal was to keep parents updated ,teachers motivated through the challenges, they too were feeling the impact of ineffective classes, learners not being available, no response from some, sometimes as long as three weeks of not getting hold of a learner and sending people to look them and their family, checking on our orphans who were home alone and the cripple worry for their safety.

Watching the world and tik tok infiltrate the social media spaces and the freedom, exhilaration and liberating way dance was shared and knowing that majority of our learners could not access  the abundance of online information, lessons, competitions, webinars that was on offer.

We were facing serious issues - basic survival of our people. Lack of food was real -data prices too high, , bad connectivity,  unemployment increased, parents stopped paying for fees, teaching suffered, depression set in, suspension of half the staff for three months kicked in.

Dance was simply a luxury.

I had no answers for the staff, parents, learners and stakeholders.. nobody had any answers we were experience our first pandemic. We prayed.

I started dancing for soothe myself, I danced to save myself. I shared my clips which we mostly done impromptu, on Facebook and Instagram, it made others feel better. 

I sang and danced my native Setswana Traditional dance as I was working and going about my daily chores.

I clapped , sang,  hummed and danced .. I prayed.

Dance for me is prayer

It is the place where I am the best version of myself, where my soul is laid bare.

It is the place where I transcend and move to another realm.

I survived lockdown for over 75 days indoors dancing for my sanity , my peace and my joy.