Gary dance studio ‘a hidden gem’
Despite pandemic, the beat goes on
The studio dance floor is less crowded now as the Beachfront Dance School adapts to a 2020 remote reality.
The nonprofit school, at 427 S. Lake St. in Gary’s Miller community, is typically home to more than 100 students. The lights have dimmed a bit and the numbers are down, but the beat is still going on at this venerable studio run by a mother and daughter team who have introduced legions of children to the grace and athleticism of dance.
Beachfront is completing its 17th year of instilling a love of ballet to a diverse student base, whose students come primarily from Gary, but also from Lake and Porter counties.
“It’s like a hidden gem,” said parent Karen Edgington, of Gary.
In all its years, 2020 has been the roughest at Beachfront.
Enrollment plunged with the COVID-19 closings and subsequent restrictions.
“It’s been a very interesting year,” said artistic director Alia Hawkins, who runs the school with her mom and school manager Lennie Hawkins. “We’ve learned to adapt. Arts in general
does what art does best — i n n o v a t e ,” said Alia Hawkins.
Beachfront Dance recently received one of six statewide grants from Minneapolis-based Arts Midwest’s U.S. Regional Arts Resilience Fund.
The group is investing in h i s t o r i c a l l y u n d e r- r e - sourced arts and culture organizations to help them make it through the pandemic.
“As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the nation, smaller arts and culture organizations are deeply hurting,” said Torrie Allen, president and CEO of Arts Midwest. It cited an estimate financial loss of $14.5 billion for the country’s creative sector.
“We are hopeful that these funds will help organizations across our region weather the storm so that they can keep serving their communities for years to come,” Allen said.
Hawkins said the school will use its $15,000 grant to assist with COVID-19 protocols to keep kids safe. “We pay for Zoom and have to update our website and we create little short videos for children to watch,” she said.
The school quickly dove into e-classes in March, just after Gov. Eric J. Holcomb shut down schools across the state.
Instead of teaching in front of a class of students, Hawkins and other teachers stand in an empty studio facing a flat-screen TV. “The teachers can see the students and they can see them,” said Hawkins.
In recent weeks, the school began bringing small numbers of students back and is teaching classes hybrid-style with masked dancers. Each dancer has a color-coded spot and the wall-mounted barres are marked 7 feet apart.
The school has five teachers who instruct in the required ballet, and also in hip hop, praise, jazz, and modern dance. There’s a program called “Can-Do” for special needs students.
One remarkable 11-yearold dancer is blind, and a younger one has cerebral
palsy.
Teachers also showed students how to create a home studio in their rooms or in a space in their house.
“It’s been a lifesaver during the pandemic,” said Edgington, whose t wo daughters, Kennedi, 13, and Kayli, 10, are rabid dance enthusiasts.
Edgington said the remote lessons allow her kids to continue with their strengthening and exercising while also getting to see their friends. The school’s parents videoed their own child’s dance and the school put together a virtual performance, in place of its annual show.
Taylor Spotwood, 13, of Gary, said learning ballet played a big influence in her life. So much so, she’s aiming for a medical career in orthopedics based on her experience in pointe shoes that allow ballerinas to dance on the tips of their toes.
Taylor, an eighth-grader at the Discovery Charter School in Porter, has been taking ballet and dance lessons since she was 5.
“She loves it and it’s helped her with self-confidence,” said her mom, Barbara Spotwood. “She’s very poised and she’s in so many different dances, she has to learn time management skills.”
Spotwood said there’s a f a mi l y a t mos p h e r e a t Beachfront, but kids also learn manners.
“They care about her. If she doesn’t show up, they call. It’s good to have a place to send your child and they love them also,” she said.
The school is also supported with grants from the Anderson Foundation, Indiana Arts Commission, Legacy Foundation, South Shore Arts, and various community boosters.
Thanks to the grants, master teachers from renowned programs like the Joffrey Ballet have taught at Beachfront and inspired students to follow their passion for dance.
“The grants sustain us,” said Hawkins. “Because of COVID, some parents lost their jobs. This lets their child come.”