“As we’ve been able to change with the times, we believe it will keep doors open for us in the future to serve a greater number of people than ever before.”

Elizabeth Mabie
Spur Ottawa Writer

With schools, recreational facilities, and parks shut down due to COVID-19, children and youth have been searching for ways to stay active and connected during this time of isolation. Some also just want to learn the art of dance, which has led to an increase in registration for Arise School of Dance.

While the Stittsville-based Christian dance studio had to close its doors because of the pandemic, they have found an innovative way to continue classes for their students. The nine instructors each upload pre-recorded videos for their respective classes, giving students the option of what time they want to take their lessons.

“We’ve been so blessed to hear from families who wanted to join our classes, but live too far away or the times haven’t worked for their schedules,” says Jennifer Turco, instructor and co-owner of Arise.

Between the teachers and the administrators, it took hours of work to set up the online-learning platform for home use. However, the system now enables students to ask questions through a comment section and upload private videos of themselves practising choreography for the teachers to review and offer tips.

“Now that we did the initial work to get it online, there is no limit to how many students we can have.” Photo courtesy of Arise School of Dance.

“The beautiful part is, now that we did the initial work to get it online, there is no limit to how many students we can have,” states Naomi Gilman, instructor and co-owner of Arise.

Gilman says some of the new students come from other local dance studios that haven’t been able to set up online lessons. Arise is happy to have them join in for a while to keep them on track with their training. The studio even expects more registrations to come in when businesses begin to reopen.

“While we can’t wait to get back to the studio and teach our students in person, creating this online studio will allow us to keep up some kind of online dance presence in the long term,” explains Gilman. “As we’ve been able to change with the times, we believe it will keep doors open for us in the future to serve a greater number of people than ever before.”

“Continuing with dance classes online at Arise provides community, support, exercise, encouragement, and even spiritual development,” says Natasha Rowsell, who teaches both dance and Bible lessons with Arise. “I’m so excited to be keeping my students and adding new ones.”

“While dancing at home misses the group dynamic, energy, and having your teacher right there, anyone can join from anywhere.” Photo courtesy of Arise School of Dance.

When the province-wide lockdown came into effect in mid-March, Arise was starting their end-of-year recital practice sessions. One of the major challenges the instructors face with an online studio is choreographing routines and hoping that the Biblical messages infused in the performances still come across.

“While an online recital limits some things, it opens the door for so much more. I always say, ‘the Gospel message must never change, but our methods to spread it have to,’” explains Rowsell.

Each routine choreographed by the Arise team reflects their desire to praise God through dance and send a message to the audience.

Arise uses the tagline, “Excellence in dance for the glory of God”. They teach their dancers, through devotionals and Bible lessons, to not perform for self-glorifying reasons, but to honour the god who loves them and gave them the ability to dance when He created them.

Teamwork and developing comfort in groups are also key areas Arise emphasizes as part of their program. Although these elements are greatly missed during this time, instructors and students are happy that dance can maintain a degree of their normal routines.

“While dancing at home misses the group dynamic, energy, and having your teacher right there, anyone can join from anywhere,” explains Gilman.

“At Arise we refer to our students and parents as family, so we’re happy to say, ‘Welcome to the family,’ to our new online students,” Turco adds.