Reviving the recital
Willow Street Dance Theatre hosts socially distanced performances
Seven girls, age 5 to 7, stood 6 feet apart, dressed in powder blue dresses with tutu-style ballerina skirts. Well before the start of theme music from the recent Mary Poppins movie, “In the Place Where the Lost Things Go,” and well before the girls took a single step, about 60 parents, grandparents and siblings offered an enthusiastic round of applause for the performance.
Willow Street Dance Theatre in Frankfort will reopen Sept. 8, as Inner Visions Performing Arts Center, but Willow Street’s final recital Aug. 1, achieved special significance due to the coronavirus.
“We usually have this at the end of May, but couldn’t this year obviously due to the pandemic,” said Jayme Radeke, who worked at Willow Street for several years and took over as owner in 2017. “I think parents and kids are especially glad to be here today.”
The performance was not at the dance school’s regular location, 20517 S. LaGrange Road. Instead, the young dancers performed at CD & Me, a special events and reception venue a few miles south on LaGrange Road.
Radeke began studying ballet at age 3, and she has worked with some of the world’s top choreographers. She pulled off the socially distanced dance recital by renting a space with large openings which allowed fresh air to circulate. A cash bar enabled parents to buy drinks and refreshments.
Radeke also divided the recital into five phases for students in different age categories, ranging from preschool to high school. Each age category performed several dances involving costume changes, and each performance involved 10 or fewer students.
Audience members assembled in familial groupings at appropriately spaced tables. Most people wore masks. After taking a few photos on a nearby patio, families quickly left to make room for the next group.
During the temporary closing of Willow Street, students managed to keep up with their ballet, tap, hip-hop, lyrical and modern dance lessons via Zoom. While technology made a world of difference, Jamie Harris, one of the school’s dance educators, insisted the love of dance and the family friendly atmosphere was what really kept things moving.
“I love my students. My kids even participated in the Zoom meetings,” said Harris, the mother of a girl, 5-year-old Lila, and a boy, 3-year-old Killian. “It was important for students to focus on stretch and strengthening because, as the saying goes, ‘If you don’t use it you lose it.’ That goes for any age.”
Saturday was a third annual recital for Emma Kane, 6, of Tinley Park. Like many of the other students, she started as a
preschooler. She said she was happy to be with her friends again.
She also appeared to appreciate her parents handing her a bouquet of flowers.
“For all the hard work they put in, it’s great to see even though times are so very different, that everyone found a way of making it work,” said Patrick Kane, Emma’s father.
Emma’s mother, Heather Kane, was thrilled for another reason. She got to see Emma perform along with Charlotte Fowler, 7, of Mokena, the daughter of a dear friend from her days at Providence High School.
Heather Kane and Ginny Fowler both insist dance has deepened their friendship.
“Dance offers a nice way to express yourself because the activity involves a group but also the individual,” Ginny Fowler said. “It’s a good confidence booster and it gives kids a chance to make lifelong friends.”
With reopening, Inner Visions Performing Arts Center plans to observe Centers for Disease Control guidelines. It will assign students to groups of 10 or less, according to age. The studio also will eliminate dance moves requiring physical contact, such as lifts, and require parents to drop off enrolled children rather than enter the school.
“This was more of a celebration than a performance,” Harris said. “For us, it’s been important to believe, ‘We’re not going to stop dancing!’ ”