In the spring semester of 2020, Moorpark College’s Dance Club stopped meetings and stayed inactive even when all classes transitioned online. The revival happened when Hannah Rios, club president, organized for meetings to happen again and recruited people into the club.
Before the pandemic started, the club used to be a performance group that would perform at campus events. The transition from in-person to online club activities has been quite an adventure for the club with the different formats it has gone through.
In the fall of 2020, the club started working out with hip-hop choreography. Everyone quickly realized how hard it was to rehearse over Zoom. Some issues included the sound disappearing or Zoom freezing, which can sometimes be a significant issue. With online classes, not everyone has the proper dance flooring or enough space.
An upside to being over Zoom is having the option of having your camera on or off.
“An availability to do something without being seen and perceived can sometimes be a relief,” explained student Morpheus Kostromin. “Being able to focus on something that doesn’t come to the body as second nature can be a good distraction from other worries and anxieties.”
With the realization that the usual club format was not going to work, the club switched to “single-class” format.
Single class format is agreement to meet every week for class, unlike a semester-long class or becoming an official member of a club. Since there is no dance that is being worked on to be performed, every meeting stands alone and the choreography does not carry over to the next week.
The dance world soon came together as a community and adapted quickly to what was happening in the world around them. Industry leaders began offering virtual classes live via Zoom and Instagram Live. There was even a website made that hosted a master calendar of everyone’s weekly classes. With this new opportunity brought to the dance world, it inspired Rios to also try it with the dance club.
Rios expressed, “Dancers from all over the world got the unique opportunity to learn from teachers and choreographers from all over the world, and the chance to learn new styles.”
Rios has taken the role to coordinate with students and alumni to plan virtual classes and events. As of now, two alumni have been able to guest teach from their own cities.
Along with having different guest teachers, the students are also able to explore a variety of new dance genres at each of the meetings.
Striving to make an experience as valuable and enjoyable as possible, dance club is an outlet to all of these students and alumni.
“I definitely think that dance is an outstanding outlet for what is going on in our world. When I dance, the weight of the world disappears,” shared freshman Emmy Ham. “Not being in person sharing everyone’s energy is like missing out in magic.”
More information on the Digital Dance World can be found here.
