I first heard the overture to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake when I was seven years old, sat in the stalls of London’s Royal Opera House with my grandparents. As many children did, I was attending weekly ballet classes at a local school in London and seeing Swan Lake onstage was an absolutely life changing experience. I have not stopped dancing since then, therefore when I moved to Catania in September for the first leg of my year abroad, the first thing on my priority list was to find a ballet school. Yes, even before I had a list of potential apartments I had a list of Catania’s ballet schools in order of their online ratings.
A week after arriving in Catania, I had begun training three evenings a week with a highly rated dance school very close to my flat (and yes, I chose the flat due to its proximity to the studio, not the other way round). After getting over the initial shock of not understanding anything for about two weeks in my class, it’s safe to say that my Italian has drastically improved from going to ballet. I thought my Italian was good before coming. Then I had to refer to individual parts of my foot and absolutely tiny muscles that never came up in an Italian language textbook. Dancing with a group of people who do not speak English at all has also done brilliant things for my confidence speaking Italian. I was learning the language as well as ballet, so I was absolutely devastated when the Italian government announced that they would be closing gyms and dance studios across Italy for the second time.
While I had lost a huge part of my year abroad experience, my teacher had lost his income for the second time this year, and my friends who are training to be professional dancers had lost their education again. The Sicilian dance community was not having any of this. In response, ballet teachers in Catania, mine included, organised a COVID-secure protest within 24 hours, entitled ‘Danza = Distanza’ (‘Dance = distance’ in English, but the Italian definitely sounds better). We met outside Teatro Bellini, Catania’s main theatre, dressed in black, wearing masks, and with pointe shoes around our necks. The signs that read ‘Danza = Distanza’ and ‘Ci hanno rubato la nostra futura’ were tied to the theatre’s closed gates. We were positioned in evenly spaced lines; COVID-safe and typical of a ballet class. The protest begun with the Italian national anthem, which I do not know. Hidden benefit of the mask, nobody had a clue that I did not know the words. Afterwards a dance teacher spoke about how these lockdowns are killing the futures of aspiring dancers, teachers and choreographers. The rest of the protest was almost set out like a funeral. Among various chants about how dance is important and can be taught in a COVID-safe manner, the teachers who organised the protest created a playlist of famous pieces of music from ballets, such as the overture from Swan Lake. While this was playing, we stood in complete silence, feet together, arms by our sides, heads down. Many of us have the same memory of hearing the overture of Swan Lake for the first time. We all had memories of seeing a ballet onstage for the first time and for many of us, performing in one ourselves. For us dancers, we were mourning the loss of our art. For onlookers who recognised the music, we presented a jarring image; the music should be accompanied by the choreography, alone, it is almost ghostly.
The result of this protest did not quite go to plan. We hoped that it would be understood that one can take a dance class in a COVID-safe way; however, studios currently remain shut. Nonetheless, we continue to train in online classes, and we hope to all be back in the studio stronger than ever before. But this was definitely not a loss in terms of my year abroad experience. I am not the only dancer to say this; your dance school becomes an extension of your family. In this class in Sicily, I was welcomed into the Centro Studio Danza family immediately. And in difficult times, you do not turn your back on this chosen family. From the minute dance schools closed, I was meeting the dancers in my class every day. I spent many afternoons with them in Catania’s outdoor spaces, namely Villa Bellini and the Lungomare. Having made the effort to see these girls even when I could not dance with them has done wonders for my Italian, and I’ve even been able to pick up a bit of dialect. By a bit, I mean about three words but it is more dialect than I came to Sicily with. So while I did not quite get to live the dream of dancing every evening in that beautiful studio, being part of the ‘Danza = Distanza’ protest has given me my reason to return to Catania.
Ava Siena Cohen
Comments