Virus can't stop show, teachers say; masks, distance pose special challenges for state's choirs, bands

FILE — Lauren Holliman, a senior snare drum player with the Farmington High School Marching Band the Crimson Regiment, helps keep time Monday as the band works with coming to attention and standing at ease during practice at the high school in Farmington.
FILE — Lauren Holliman, a senior snare drum player with the Farmington High School Marching Band the Crimson Regiment, helps keep time Monday as the band works with coming to attention and standing at ease during practice at the high school in Farmington.

Performing arts educators around the state are expressing some trepidation and uncertainty about how to move forward.

Their concerns follow an announcement Wednesday by Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key that most schools must offer five-day-a-week, in-person instruction when classes begin the week of Aug. 24.

"We had been made aware that some districts were making plans that were for fewer than five days [a week], and we felt like that clarification was needed today to make sure that districts understood we do have a state responsibility," Key said Wednesday during Gov. Asa Hutchinson's coronavirus news conference.

The state Department of Health issued guidelines allowing community and school bands and choirs to resume practices and performances, with requirements for participants to wear masks even while singing or playing and for all performances and practices to be held outdoors.

Some instructors and professional organizations for performing arts -- which includes band, orchestra, choir, dance and theater -- expressed concerns that state guidelines do not adequately address the needs of all of those classes.

[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]

In a letter dated Aug. 6 addressed to Hutchinson, Key, Dr. Jose Romero, and the High School Sports Advisory Group, the Arkansas Choral Directors Association said, "The current Arkansas guidelines for choir are unmanageable, overly cumbersome, and unwieldy, making it blatantly impossible to successfully teach the subject at all. We desperately need to reevaluate this list of directives."

In an Aug. 1 letter from the Choral Directors Association to the Governor's Advisory Group for Advising High School Activities, the group wrote regarding comments made the previous day during Hutchinson's daily covid-19 update that there was confusion around the state regarding whether the High School Sports Advisory Group would be issuing guidance for the reopening of performing arts classes, or if it would only address sports.

"Some have said that the group is specifically going to be addressing sports, but then others have added, almost as an afterthought, 'but they'll look at other classes too,'" the letter said. "In the live conference on Friday, choir was not mentioned until a reporter asked about it towards the end of the conference. Our members noticed that there are no music representatives on the Advisory Board. Many choir and band directors were left having more questions than answers after the broadcast."

The letter went on to request that research regarding how to safely hold choir be included in the scope of the organization's report and that guidelines for choir and theater issued by the National Federation of State High School Activity Associations be distributed to schools throughout the state.

That report is available at https://bit.ly/31BkaGw.

LEARNING FROM OTHERS

Christen Pitts, the dance instructor at North Little Rock High School, said she has been in communication with other dance instructors around the state and has also reached out to national dance education organizations for guidance, but she said that so far she has received little guidance from the school district.

Among the steps Pitts said she will take are taping 6-foot squares off in her classroom space that will be assigned to each student and within which each student will be required to stay, having students attend class in street clothes rather than changing into dance outfits at the school, spacing chairs at 6-foot distances along the classroom perimeter to provide an assigned space for each student's belongings while in class, and using what would normally be dressing time to have students sanitize their spaces before leaving class.

"This is not per my school. My school has not given me any directives," Pitts said. "This is all what I've been looking at from national guidelines for dance and then just us as dance teachers communicating with one another."

Pitts said, in addition, classroom work will not involve physical handouts, all students will maintain adequate distance from one another, and masks will be required.

Haley Greer, a general music instructor for K-6 in Monticello, said even though her classes involve music education with little emphasis on performing, precautions that must be taken will have an impact on how she moves forward with her classes, but not to the same degree as the higher grade performing arts classes.

"Our classes do include singing, partner work, sharing instruments, movement like folk dances and the like, so it greatly affects us as well but in a different sense than those performance groups who are clustered tightly together and singing or playing for the entire class time," Greer said. "We have other activities to fall back on, and they do as well, but when your core purpose is performance, it makes it pretty difficult."

ONLINE BENEFITS

Greer noted that although school is scheduled to begin Aug 24-26 with in-person instruction, just over two weeks away, a lot can happen in that two weeks to further disrupt the resumption of classes. For elementary music instruction in a pandemic, she said, virtual instruction holds some distinct advantages.

"If I had to drastically change my class to accommodate covid guidelines, with no singing, no partner work, no sharing instruments, cleaning or modifying instruments, I might as well be a virtual teacher," she said. "At least when they are sitting with their device at home watching me on video, they can sing along with me, grab a family member to do partner work. To me, all of that is better than sitting inside of my classroom not getting to do any of that."

A choir instructor, who asked to speak anonymously and not on behalf of a school or district, said the guidelines for choirs are unrealistic and are inconsistent with guidelines for other activities.

"The Arkansas directive only allows for choirs to meet outside, spacing of 12-feet between all students, and has everyone wearing masks. Imagine a middle school choir of 75 students... all spaced apart 12 feet outside... singing in masks and having any level of success," the instructor said via email.

"How is it that football players can be in each other's faces, yelling and grunting, but choirs are only allowed to meet outside at 12-feet apart? I saw volleyball players this week playing inside with no masks and occasionally yelling out something. There seems to be two different sets of standards. Of course we want to keep our students safe, but we want to be given parameters that have room for success."

In a text message, Kathy Robison, an elementary music teacher at Newport Elementary School, expressed concerns about how she would adapt the guidelines in her classes.

"I have no idea how to teach elementary music without singing," Robison said. "I have taught for 37 years and I literally teach in my sleep. I will teach. One day at a time. But part of my joy in teaching is gone."

Tara Raney, a music teacher in the Stuttgart School District, said via text message that she plans to lean heavily on technology to help her student create and experience music in a new way.

"I love my students and want them to have a great music experience so I have been thinking outside the box and doing a lot of research," Raney said in the text. "Fortunately, different companies have really stepped up and provided a lot of resources to help out."

In an anonymous text message, a band director said technology will also come into play via online resources.

"I am planning to flip the bandroom when needed (such as on days when it rains and we can't play outside) using Google Classroom, Sightreading Factory, and other online resources. I also plan to play together as much as possible using the guidelines for band instrument [personal protective equipment] and social distancing," the director said in the text.

Pitts said that for all of the challenges and uncertainties the coming school year will have, she is optimistic that performing arts teachers throughout the state will be able to adapt and to find creative methods to foster a positive learning environment inside their classrooms, regardless of the actual form that classroom may take.

"This is what we do. We are performers and we will not let this be a lost year for our kids," she said. "We will learn from this, we will grow from this, and we will figure out a way to perform."

Upcoming Events