*SCAPEdance On Beat is a dialogue platform where we invite leaders, collaborators and youth to discuss topics relevant to Singapore’s dance scene. In our second webinar on 13 June 2020, in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic titled Off the Street, *SCAPEdance invited the founders of leading Singapore street dance companies, JJ Chan from EV Dance, Kenny Low from O School and Felix Huang from Recognize! Studios to share their experiences and thoughts. The panel was moderated by youth dance leader Juliette Chia, a Yale-NUS College alumnus and also one of the past dance captains of NUS Dance Blast!.

A screenshot of Zoom webinar *SCAPEdance On Beat: Off The Street on 13 June 2020.
From left to right top row: Juliette Chia, Moderator. Kenny Low, O School.
From left to right bottom row: Felix Huang, Recognize Studios. JJ Chan, EV Dance

Through this dialogue, the audience understood how COVID-19 had impacted the street dance companies, how they had been coping and adapting to the situation, and their plans for the second half of 2020. The session was thought-provoking and perceptive as the founders shared their thoughts from the very beginning of COVID-19 (DORSCON Orange February 7) till today, and how they were currently functioning as a dance studio.

Some of the discussion topics included:

Impact of COVID-19

• Impact of COVID-19 and how it has changed the community and the industry
• Possibility of dance as a viable career path post-COVID-19
• Cancellation of events and its impact

Adapting to restrictions

• Different approaches towards adapting to the circuit breaker
• Types of reliefs received and types of support that they wish to receive in the future
• Programmes that they are currently running

Changes moving forward post Circuit Breaker

• Lasting impact on the dance community and industry

The disruptive circumstances as a result of COVID-19 was brought to attention when the panelist spoke about their programmes, classes and events planned being placed on halt or cancelled completely. This led to a lack of income for these dance companies and independent dance instructors who became unemployed. However, there are certain reliefs provided by the government of Singapore, such as rental relief, job support scheme and self-employed person income relief scheme, which are able to help sustain the dance companies and independent instructors to tide over the difficult period. The uncertainty after the government support ends remains a source of worry for the local dance practitioners and businesses.

During this period, the local dance companies are also rolling out various online classes (either free, pay-per-view or at a low cost) on Instagram Live, Zoom or as videos-on-demand to keep up with the engagement of dancers at home in Singapore. This brought up an interesting take on online dance class where youth can now attend multiple back to back classes conducted by their favourite dance instructors, both locally and internationally, with the convenience of clicks and switch of applications.

Within the webinar, the audience had the opportunity to shape the discussion with the panelists by answering the questions posed via the poll and question and answer functions within Zoom.

From the responses of the panelists and audiences, it is understood that dance might not return to how it was before in the near future. Dance classes and events may resort to implement public health measures such as wearing a mask and with safe distancing. There may be less dance events with large gathering and will need to host a mix of both physical and online dance-related activities. As a youth organisation that engages youth dancers through dance programmes, the impact will also change the way *SCAPE curates our programmes to stay relevant and up to date in the new normal.

*SCAPEdance would like to thank the panellists, JJ from EV Dance, Kenny from O School and Felix from Recognize! Studio, Juliette for moderating, and all who attended the insightful webinar.

To find out more about ongoing dance events : https://www.scape.sg/whats-on/?category=dance

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