Dixie Sun News » Departments at DSU adapting to pandemic restrictions

Dixie State University's source of student news

February 1, 2021

Last Updated: January 30, 2021, 9:27 pm

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Due to COVID-19 restrictions, students in the dance department are dealing with abnormal behavior. While other departments allow full contact, dance classes require holding poles instead of hands. Photo by Bailey Chamberlain.

After studying for a semester of mixed and Zoom teaching due to the epidemic, the departments of Dixie State University are trying new ways to conduct classroom social grooming to keep students in class.

The dance department decided to still attend all classes in person this semester. Throughout the class, the students danced six feet apart from each other and always wore masks. After each class, the professors also keep the dance floor clean and disinfected.

Sara Gallo, associate professor of dance, said: "If we use these poles, we wipe them clean and then spread sanitary sprays on the floor."

The ballroom is a high-contact dance that relies heavily on the connection with the partner. The Department of Dance has adopted a unique and effective method to ensure that ballroom students keep a distance from the social community during class, without contact.

Gallo said that she and her colleagues had to brainstorm and come up with various possible solutions, and she had to make a general decision that all banquet hall classes would use wooden pins instead of partners to dance.

"In order to follow the guidelines and maintain a distance of 6 feet without contact, the stick is a compromise," Gallo said.

When students are dancing with wooden pins, it allows them to practice some necessary ballroom skills.

Gallo said: "We are creative people, it just forces us to be creative in different ways."

The art department also decided to continue to attend the class in person, while maintaining a distance of six feet, and wearing a mask throughout the class.

The dean of the art department, Alex Chamberlain, said that teaching art classes is a daunting task while getting some students to join art classes remotely. He said, however, every day more and more students attend classes in person.

Dean of the Music Department Timothy Francis said that music students have realized the importance of in-person and remote classes.

"I think students recognize that face-to-face experience is the best experience," Francis said.

Francis said that this semester he has no students to take classes completely remotely, which is good news, because teaching music through Zoom is not an easy task.