“Let them praise His name in the dance,” Psalm 149:3.

Carrie Marston
Special to Spur Ottawa

Exercise and creative outlets are key in dealing with stress. This past year, Arise School of Dance was an early innovator, enabling their students to keep dancing the isolation away.

Early in the initial lockdown, the Christian dance studio pirouetted from in-person to interactive online classes. In the process, they gained a few students and certainly kept busy while many extra-curricular activities ground to a halt. They not only hosted an online recital, zoom and in-person classes, and professional ballet preparation, they also continued their spiritual formation with Christ-focused dance, music, and Bible studies.

“I think Leah as a dancer, and I as a parent, grew in our ability to persevere through challenge, which is definitely something a dancer needs, even without COVID as a factor,” states Diana Hood, parent to an Arise dancer. “We have good conversations about why she dances and she learned how much she really loves the dancing itself, enough to keep doing it even when the social aspect was gone.”

The studio took a break for some much-needed rest over the summer. Meanwhile, they also helped petition the government to allow dance studios to operate in-person classes with safety measures in place.

“Though it took a lot of strategizing and time to get our facilities set up, classes feel surprisingly normal.” says Arise instructor Merry Macuzzi.

Students participate in a digital recital from 2020. Photo courtesy of Arise School of Dance.

Students must enter the building one-by-one, going to their designated space, but instructors were able to use this to teach dance principles.

Macuzzi explains that “part of dance training is learning how to manage space well—whether a solo dancer needing to cover a certain amount of stage during a turn series or a group piece where formation is important.”

“We weren’t sure what the reaction would be when we were able to reopen in August, but people came flooding back,” says Naomi Gilman, an instructor and co-owner of Arise. “We hosted several successful dance camps in August and were able to start up our full season in September. We currently have 82 percent of our enrollment numbers from last year, which (all things considered) is really good.”

Although Gilman says keeping up with the ever-changing restrictions and rules has been hard and cost the studio in resources and time, she says they are happy to oblige if it means students can stay safe and do what they love. The studio even made videos to show students the new protocols.

With the latest lockdown, they had to pivot back to online classes, but they look forward to opening the studio again soon.

“Because of the simple and easy-to-follow protocols we have in place,” Gilman adds, “many parents have said they feel much safer sending their children to Arise than they do in a grocery store or sending them to school. Seeing the joy on the students faces makes it all worthwhile. The teachers have been a shining light through it all and hard times show you what you’re made of.”