Senior Gavin Kimmel has been dancing since he was in third grade, and has had to acclimate to different settings since then, moving to different studios and exploring different styles. But he has never experienced an acclimation like switching to dancing online.
“I moved to a different studio, TU Dance on University, last year, so I only got about a semester of dance there before we had to dance online,” Kimmel said.
Dancing online consists of clearing a space in your home, and logging into a Zoom call with your peers and instructor to dance.

“It’s very similar to dancing in person, we stretch, go through choreography, etc. But it’s really weird to dance at my house and not in the studio,” he said, “It was definitely a learning curve.”
That was during the summer. Now, Kimmel’s group has been in person since September, save an interval in November and December when Governor Walz made a stay-at-home order.
“That was weird because it was near the end of the semester, when we usually have a performance. We’ve been recording our performances and having a live stream instead of performing live, but we had to record the performances super fast after Walz announced the order,” Kimmel said, “[Walz] announced it on a Wednesday for it to start that Friday, so that Thursday we had to quickly record [the performance].”
When dancing in person, Kimmel’s studio has been really careful in order to stay safe in a pandemic, which has some downsides.
“[In the studio], we have these taped off boxes that the dancers have to stay inside. I think they’re 8 by 8,” he said, “It sucks because We can only fit 8 boxes in the room, and my level has around 10-11 people in it, so every week a couple different people have to be online.”
Kimmel thinks it’s more fun when all the dancers are together, whether online or in person.
“Honestly, it was still fun to be completely online, because we were all doing it together. When some people are online, and some are together, it feels really awkward,” Kimmel said, “And of course I miss all being together.”