Indoor group recreational activities such as dance and gymnastics classes for youth can reopen, but similar group activities for adults remain closed as the province develops COVID safety guidelines.
The province released updated guidelines for sports and recreational activities on Thursday that gave the green light to extracurricular activities for youth under 19, including educational programs, music, art, dance, drama, recreational programs, outdoor fitness and social activities.
However, performances, recitals and demonstrations are not allowed. On Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced that all adult indoor and outdoor team sports are banned.
Taylor Green, manager of Victoria Gymnastics, said both the downtown Victoria and Colwood locations will reopen on Sunday for youth programs. Green said the gymnastics studio will continue the COVID safety measures it had before the closure, including requiring masks at all times, smaller class sizes, physical distancing during classes and symptom and temperature checks beforehand.
“Luckily for Victoria Gymnastics, everything they have [in the safety guidelines] we’ve been doing the whole time,” Green said.
Green said the gymnastics community is thrilled the facility can reopen.
“The parents are super happy as well, and the kids are excited to come back,” she said.
Dance studios, martial arts classes, gymnastics clubs and yoga studios were told to close on Nov. 24, a few days after provincial restrictions shut down high-intensity group workouts such as spin classes and bootcamps.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of a week,” said Kim Breiland, artistic director of Stages Performing Arts School. “The ups and down, the emotions, the stress.”
Breiland said she was told just after 1 p.m. on Thursday that youth dance classes could resume, and students — masked and physically distanced — were back in the studio by 3:30 p.m.
“It was like Christmas for us. It was a wonderful moment,” said Breiland, who is a board member of B.C. Dance Educators, which represents dance studios across the province.
While the dance studio was closed, Breiland received messages from parents who said they feared their children were starting to slip back into depression. Students were elated to return to the studio, Breiland said, and she watched them literally bounce back into their classes.
The dance studio will continue to check dancers’ temperatures and symptoms upon entry, require masks for anyone older than three, prohibit any spectators and enforce a one-way system for people coming and going.
Low-intensity group fitness activities for adults, such as yoga, pilates, light weightlifting, adult dance classes, stretching or strengthening and Tai-Chi, remain temporarily suspended while the province develops COVID-19 safety guidelines.
kderosa@timescolonist.com
