The numbers have gotten smaller because you have whole cohorts who haven’t been introduced to Performing Arts programs from Year 7.” The musical we’ve been able to delay, while the orchestras and choir have just not been able to run. “Ordinarily we have the school musical, Drama ensemble, Theatresports, choir and a variety of orchestras.

Secondary school Drama and English teacher Courtney Cassar experienced the first-hand effects of Covid on his cohort of Performing Arts students. Even mingling in foyers to greet friends after a show is considered high risk. Opening night parties and cast gatherings are a no-go zone. Kids must be double vaccinated to perform in some theatres and venues and if you’ve ever tried to act or sing in a mask, I can tell you it's tough. Weekends are now spent taking Rapid Antigen Tests and learning choreography on Zoom. The once confident and excited young teenager now shrugs when I ask her how rehearsals went. She has lost faith in anything being a certainty. Dance classes reverted to Zoom and after successfully auditioning as a principal vocalist for the NSW Arts Unit, her engagement in the arts initiative Pulse Alive also came to an abrupt halt.įortunately, most have now been rescheduled, but when I asked her recently what she was most looking forward to this coming year, her response was “nothing”. My daughter’s school musical production of Annie closed after one performance and in the same week, a youth production of The Addams Family she was in had also been postponed. Music and band rehearsals ceased, dance prac exams converted to online and school musicals were cancelled. Once school returned, the first casualty of Covid was The Arts. When Covid hit our shores in 2020, kids everywhere had to adapt to home schooling with very little social interaction and extra-curricular activities. According to the authors of the book Creative Leadership: Skills That Drive Change, during group problem solving sessions, teams which had some form of formal creativity training were able to devise 350% more ideas and were far more original than their counterparts. Many academics argue that creativity is the single most important skill in the world. Delve a bit further and the research also suggests that the effects on a child’s mental, physical, social and emotional development will stay with them for years to come – on and off the stage. Various studies have shown that engaging in a performing arts curriculum has positive effects on a child’s academic performance and emotional wellbeing. I mage: Courtes y of Pennant Hills High School Ten years later, the dancing has taken a back seat, but her love of music and theatre remains strong. I tried soccer, 7am netball games, art classes, but nothing piqued her interest until she found singing and dancing. But when my daughter started belting out Frozen at three years of age, I knew this was going to be a “thing”. I never wanted to encourage another performer in the family.

This is where like-minded kids come together, preferring to spend hours singing, dancing and rehearsing the school musical after hours, rather than engage over TikTok.

As a parent of a 13-year-old daughter who enjoys her creative outlets, it’s easy to dismiss her extracurricular activities as “just a bit of fun” when the reality is much different. It's one thing to ponder the long-lasting effects of Covid on our industry, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact on our kids. The hard knocks are barely a grazed knee these days. It’s a bit of a double whammy, but resilience is in our DNA. Unfortunately for our family, my husband works in events. The ‘no singing, no dancing’ rule has also devastated the corporate events industry, with large events now on their third or fourth postponement. For those of us working in The Arts, putting on a show from home just doesn’t pay the bills. Throughout the pandemic, most of my friends continued to work from home. For most, this means a simple disruption to the social calendar. In her latest Behind the Scenes column, Debora Krizak looks at how tough the pandemic has been on school performing arts.Ĭancelled.

Its a hard knock life