The show must go on; artistic director implements safety measures to host ballet summer camp
The show must go on
The Straz is finding new ways to help students improve their dancing skills during the summer. They're currently hosting the Next Generation Ballet, a ballet summer camp. It took a lot of planning and Zoom calls to figure out the logistics, but they made it work.
TAMPA, Fla. - The logistics of having a summer dance camp might seem like a nightmare, but Philip Neal with the Straz Center for the Performing Arts has it figured out.
Neal is the artistic director for Next Generation Ballet Senior Intensive, a ballet summer camp hosted by the theater.
In order to make it all work, Neal instituted 12-foot social distancing, required students to take their temperature daily, wear a mask, and sanitize all surfaces between classes.
“We didn’t want to open until we felt that we had all of the safety precautions into place. So you sort of wake up and reinvent the wheel every day. I created 12-foot social distancing instead of six because they are really active and we don’t know how far it might spread. I created boxes. I call them my Hollywood Square boxes,” Neal explained.
The students dance within their own box, and all students have marked spots on the ballet bars. Although this isn’t the way camp normally goes, Angelica Reyes is still very excited to be here.
“It makes me feel so happy and liberated because I have been stuck in my house for so many months,” Reyes said. “It’s such a nice stage and such a nice theatre. I just get to dance like, more out there instead of four walls.”