Finding stress relief in dance Movement 2 Mindfulness

THE Caribbean School of Dancing’s (CSD) principal Bridgette Wilson saw an increasing number of its students who were “just beyond stressed” even before the covid19 pandemic hit.

The lockdowns and restrictions Trinidad and Tobago implemented to deal with its rising numbers of covid19 infections exacerbated this.

The school, however, has taken a novel approach to address this issue, not only for its students but all of TT. It is offering a Movement 2 Mindfulness series which offers online, virtual sessions in yoga, mindfulness, fitness classes, dance therapy and more for children and adults.

The series began on June 12 and ends July 3.

Toward the end of last year, Wilson also noticed that there was a general lack of motivation.

“From a lot of the older students... (they) were either missing class, you could tell that they just rolled off their bed to come to class and were just like... they came to class because they really love to dance but they were really fed up with us online.

“The motivation was lacking. Normally, we would have the end-of-year show that would have been this year – that we are not going to have unfortunately. We would have Christmas performances, we would have the competitions, the competition team would have normally gone to Orlando.

“All of these things that these dancers would normally look forward to, just disappeared. And we saw that lack of motivation from everybody. ‘Why are we dancing?’”

Although the school held a virtual performance called Still We Dance on November 28, and it gave a slight boost in morale, it was not enough to keep students, parents and even teachers motivated especially through TT’s second lockdown and current state of emergency.

At the time, the school had started hybrid classes at its Dere Street, Port of Spain base, and some, particularly the older students, had a taste of what it was like to be in the studio again.

“They had maybe two-and-a-half weeks of that and then it started again and was taken away from them again.”

The school then saw an instant drop in students because they just could not deal with online anymore.

Even Wilson struggled with finding the energy to be able to push the students forward. She then spoke to teachers and the school’s board on what could be done to address this issue. She had also started going to therapy because she found that she could not manage.

“If I can’t motivate me, then I can’t motivate them?’’ she asked.

Wilson leaned on that perspective and asked how could she use that to help others around her.

The answer was the Movement 2 Mindfulness series.

The idea to host the series also fell in line with Mental Health Awareness month which is observed in May in the US (but in October in TT).

“We were able to look and see different things people were doing that improved mental health and read up on research about things that would help improve mental health.”

The school researched ways it could assist everyone and not just its students as it wanted to do something for all of TT.

The problem was not unique to the Caribbean School of Dancing but it was a national and global one, Wilson said.

While the school’s teachers have had some bit of counselling, they were not specifically trained to do that and so she reached out to professionals to be able to put the programme together.

Wilson reached out to yoga instructors, mindfulness practitioners, fitness instructors and psychological services company, Elders and Associates, for their assistance.

The school did all it could to keep costs down, taking into consideration the financial strain many people are currently under.

The programme costs $200 per family for all sessions offered.

Wilson said many of the programme’s instructors donated their time to the cause.

“Everyone has agreed that this is important and we don’t want anybody to feel they cannot come because they cannot afford it,” Wilson said.

The school hopes that the programme will offer people some kind of relief as well as coping strategies they can apply to their everyday lives especially through the rest of TT’s fight against the pandemic.

The series will end with a virtual dance party hosted by DJ Rawkus and there will also be a performance by Freetown Collective.

Going forward, Wilson said there needs to be a conversation on how the school can incorporate dance therapy into what it currently offers.

There were discussions prior to all of this happening to incorporate it into the school’s programme but it did not work out at the time.

She said dance on its own is therapy but exploring dance therapy as something separate is beneficial to those already in the dance system but also to people looking for different types of therapy to help them.

Dance fitness was also a part of what the school offered but it was stopped because the school did not have the turnout that it would be able to financially support it.

She said the school had not figured out the formula for adults to be committed to it, the way the children are but it was something the school intended on figuring out.

While there have been people subscribing to the series, Wilson would have liked to see more numbers coming in for the programme.

“We have lost so many students to the effects of what has happened, that they have not been able to come in to the dance class anymore. We lost that reach and that connection.

“The number compared to what we’re accustomed to in the school isn’t very high and so, therefore, the number that we have in a programme, that I know everybody is not going to sign up for, isn’t very high.”

Wilson said as it has been opened to the public, the school has had people send donations for families who may be in need and wish to take part but are unable to do so.

She said there are still some slots available and people can message the school via Instagram, Facebook and its other social media handles to take up the offer.

Come July 3 that won’t be the end of the programme.

The school plans to make Movement 2 Mindfulness an ongoing series that it does possibly twice per year.

And with everything moving online as the school did with its own CSD online and then CSD plus, there is a hopefulness with the use of the word plus.

“I don’t want to go back to only dance in the studio or online. I think there is a world of opportunity available to us that I am yet to explore,” Wilson said.

The school has already begun its exploration of that hybrid model.

In July some of its students apply to do summer internships across the world.

“Because they can’t go out in the world and do this, we are bringing the world to them. So we have reached out to different teachers and choreographers. We have some from the US, Iceland, we have made connections with people in the Philippines.

“Where if these people can come via a virtual summer internship, then we are able to give those children the same experience that they want to have of going out into the world from the safety of their homes.”

CSD’s future is a mix of apps, online and in-person.

“As stressful as it has been over the last year, there is a glimmer of hope in terms of the things that we are able to do from there.”

She added that the school hopes to come out in 2022 and have a big show at either Queen’s Hall, St Anns, or National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port of Spain, or wherever it maybe, not just for its upcoming 65th anniversary but for all of the effort put in during the difficult pandemic period.

“It is a tough time we are going through and humans are built to push through things. We are able to do this by moving, feeling and breathing again…”

The Caribbean School of Dancing’s Junior contemporary class in a November 2020 performance in the virtual show, Still We Dance.