San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘Now is a time when people need their spirits lifted’
Claudia Gomez is an expert at putting her best foot forward, as befits a skilled tap-dancing percussionist and yoga and dance instructor. But her usually impeccable timing was thrown off in a big way by the coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted her as a performer and as the owner and operator of Tap Into Yoga & Reiki, the North Park studio she opened in July.
“It’s not an easy situation,” said Gomez, who had to close her new studio after holding just one event there this summer. She was only able to reopen it this fall.
“I was hoping we could continue and not get shut down,” Gomez said. “But all of a sudden, everyone had to shut down again. I went from being able to teach a small percentage of people in the studio with limited capacity, to nobody, which was a bummer.”
“I was hoping we could continue and not get shut down,” Gomez said. “But all of a sudden, everyone had to shut down again. I went from being able to teach a small percentage of people in the studio with limited capacity, to nobody, which was a bummer.”
She decided to move her classes to Balboa Park, a few blocks away, even though doing so eliminated any potential earnings.
“I was like: ‘OK, let’s keep this going,’ ” Gomez said. “I took it as a positive thing and a way to safely create free classes, outside, to promote the studio once we were able to open again. I figured the shutdown would not be forever. And now is a time when people need their spirits lifted. They need to dance, make music, create art, do yoga and really get into the mindfulness aspects with everything going on.”
Health considerations are a key concern for Gomez, both for her students and personally, since her chronic asthma puts her at higher risk should she contract COVID-19.
“I’m a one-person operation, and — since my studio reopened — I can have no more than six to eight students at a time, instead of the 30 I could normally have per class,” she said.
“People have to pass a checkpoint and answer questions before they come in, and wear masks throughout the entirety of their visit. They can’t come in if they have sniffles or allergies. They have to be very healthy. Right now, I’m teaching three classes a week inside and three outside.”
Gomez’s finances have suffered because of the pandemic. It not only forced the North Park resident to shut down her studio for several months but also led to the cancellation of all her performances with Besos Jazz Trio and Trio Gadjo.
To further compound matters, as a dance instructor at San Diego’s Keiller Leadership Academy — where she has taught for nearly a decade — Gomez is not paid during the school’s summer vacations. That made the opening (and quick subsequent closing) of her studio all the more financially perilous.
“In the summer, I was not able to pay my rent, so I had to rely on help from others,” she said. “Plus, all the studios where I had taught as an independent contractor for the past 20 years were also closed. I had very, very little to work with and was barely scraping by. And my unemployment checks never arrived, so I’m still kind of behind. I’m catching up a bit. But now I have to pay my taxes, and I can’t push that off.
“It’s definitely been a struggle to make ends meet. But I feel it won’t last forever. I’m positive things will get better, somehow.”
Things began to improve for Gomez when she resumed her fall-to-spring job at Keiller Leadership Academy, where she teaches tap and jazz dance to about 200 students a week.
Because of the pandemic, all of her classes are now conducted online. This has required her to learn and utilize such teaching apps as Flipgrid and Wevideo, rather than teach as usual on campus.
“I feel very fortunate to be at Keiller teaching dance. That’s my love,” she said.
“Because tap is an instrument, my students are percussionists, and I teach them basic music theory. When they are learning a step, we count in measures and bars. I want them to be able to communicate with other musicians so they can have a call-andresponse when they perform together. Because eventually, as part of the class — when we’re back in person — they will perform with the school’s jazz band and improvise together.”
This summer, with no concerts or club gigs on the horizon, Gomez began leading weekly jam sessions in Balboa Park.
There, each Saturday, she and various jazz musician pals play informally — 6 feet apart, with masks on — for the sheer joy of it. Gomez brings a wooden board to tap dance on and uses her feet and body movements to provide percussive propulsion.
“It’s not a gig,” she stressed. “We’re just playing outside because we need to. It’s not a show. It’s very casual, and we’re doing it for free. We need a place to play, hang out and have fun, because it had been too long since anything was happening. It’s a perfect way to get together, outside, and make music.”
“It’s definitely been a struggle to make ends meet. But I feel it won’t last forever.” Claudia Gomez