DST - Sydney Branch share their lockdown story

Trish Nicholls, a member from RSCDS Sydney Branch shares the story of 107 days in lockdown and how a brief conversation led to a nationwide online class...

'Last July, may seem a distant memory to you all, a time when the UK/Europe/Northern Hemisphere burst into their summer months with optimism and ‘freedom’. Meanwhile at the other side of the world, those of us living in Sydney, Australia were about to start our winter season and what would unknowingly be 107 days of lockdown, with strict mandatory ‘stay at home’ orders.

From a brief conversation with a fellow Club member, one thing led to another. How could we could keep up our strength for dancing now being locked indoors?  Unaware of how long we’d actually be in lockdown we thought about doing some ballet barre style exercises together on Zoom, taking advantage of the free 40 minute time limit. The conversation broadened to the idea of videoing ‘something’ and inviting Club members to join us. Thus, the first 30 minute exercise session, accompanied by recordings from various Scottish Dance bands was recorded and ‘screened’ on Zoom on July 21st. These sessions soon received the label; Mini Fitness Session (MFS). Our last session ‘screened’ on October 20th, 2021.

The program was simple and designed for small spaces; a walking warm up circle dance, a gentle heart rate raising routine, leg strengthening and balance exercises, another heart rate raising routine, 32 bars of a dance, twice through, once from the woman’s side and once from the man’s. The dances contained the more energetic formations; petronella, poussette and double triangles, to keep our heart rate up. We then did another routine and lastly a cool down – all in 30 minutes! The MFS were recorded on an iPhone and ‘stitched’ together in iMovie to make a QuickTime movie.

The email distribution list numbered 36. 12 people joined the first session which was repeated the following week with a few more followers. The project gained momentum and by Week 3, two Unit 5 candidates agreed to prepare and present one of the segments.  Week 3’s session was repeated in Week 4.

By Week 6, our third session, we were allowed to meet one ‘exercise buddy’ within our 5km limit from home. Fortunately, Andrina, Anna and I live within this boundary, so I could meet each ‘buddy’ separately and record a one segment in a park. By the fifth video, we were allowed to exercise with more than one person, so the three of us met in a National Park to record the last session. All up, we presented 14 weeks of MFS, with sessions being repeated. By the end, the email distribution list had grown to 76.

Our walking, introductory, warm up included these dances; The Ferry Boat, Wednesday Welcome, a modified Sailor’s Hornpipe, Circle of Cheer and a circle dance we made up ourselves, which remains nameless. Dances used to raise the heart rate included, Petronella, The Thistle, Haymakers, Lord Rosslyn’s Fancy and our routines progressed from those akin to an old fashioned aerobics style class, to quite complicated routines encompassing Highland steps used in Scottish Country Dancing; Pas de basque coupé, Huntley’s Step, Rocking Step, Glasgow Highlanders, Highland Schottische and Shake and Travel,  all progressively taught in the previous weeks to lead up to this grand finale routine – absolutely designed to get the heart rate sky high after weeks of relative inactivity. Our ‘ballet’ style exercises and balance segments remained fairly similar each session.

After the second week, we advertised the classes on our Dance Down-Under Facebook page as ‘fun, fitness, friendship’… and free. It was after this that dancers from other cities around Australia joined us. ‘Melbourne’ by this stage had earned the unenviable reputation of being the world’s longest city in lockdown. The sessions were a great way to compare notes about the different Australian State government’s restrictions, the weather (!) and how we were all coping.

80 dancers from different parts of Australia joined in one or more MFSs; dancers from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Hobart, Canberra and regional NSW. We were thrilled when Lorna Ogilvie agreed to join us for our last session. A great time to share with the time difference in October being favourable to both – 10am in the UK and 8pm in Sydney. As would happen, the gremlins decided to destroy the broadcasting of this MFS but Lorna tried her best, along with 40 others, to follow the rather disjoined rendition of our MFS. We tweaked a few settings on our computer and repeated the last session the following week so we could actually finish off on a happy note and sent Lorna her own private copy to try again in the privacy of her own home.

The project kept the three of us connected through our 107 days of lockdown. Several useful teaching skills were reinforced for the candidates and many laughs were had to the extent that we were also able to produce a couple of short, (of course), blooper reels. Being recorded outdoors had its challenges, including screeching Cockatoos drowning out our instructions, Brush Turkeys walking through our dance space and Kookaburras trying to steal our morning tea. Such is life in our National Park, here in Sydney.

We are happy to report that two weeks after the last MFS went ‘to air’, most Clubs in Sydney resumed classes, albeit slowly and ours in particular felt that the MFS definitely helped us return to class with some confidence.'

Many thanks to Trish and all at RSCDS Sydney Branch for sharing your story.  If you'd like to feature in a future Dance Scottish Together newsletter, email lyndsay.walker@rscds.org.