The new year is here and has brought with it uncertainty for all people, especially those in the dance industry. California Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) dancers have worked through these challenging times, coming up with solutions such as Zoom classes and filmed performances.

These alternatives allowed for dancers to perform and continue training, but the reason most of us dance is to perform on stage in front of an excited audience with bright lights shining on our sparkly costumes. This year, dancers finally got to perform the holiday classic The Nutcracker on stage with masks. Now that the annual performance has officially passed, all dancers can think about is the June Show, which features a piece from every class CAPA has to offer, from kindergarten to seniors. The question at the forefront of every dancer’s mind is will the show be performed with masks?

Dance isn’t solely about the movement – a large part of the art form is the expression and performance that a dancer brings to the choreography. With masks covering half of the face it is difficult to execute the performance element that completes a dance. Like most people during this time, dancers have adapted to the new normal of expressing only with their eyes and smiling underneath the mask, hoping that the expression will translate through the cloth.

Freshman Maggie Mandell described dancing in masks and said, “1 difficulty I find when dancing with a mask [is] the ability to breathe. Especially when I danced on stage for Nutcracker, I was nervous and I was definitely breathing harder than in rehearsal which made me [get] tired faster.”

Junior Mira Shah agreed, also highlighting the endurance she has built from dancing in a mask and said, “I think it’s difficult when you’re dancing for a long period of time wearing a mask just because it’s harder to breathe. I’ve also noticed that now that I wear a mask for dance during some of our classes that are very long, the endurance that I’ve built from doing that for over a year now makes it so easy for me to wear KN95 masks at school for a long time, [since] I’m used to working out in a thick mask.”

Senior Adriana Colon said, “I think since we’ve been masked for so long, my endurance has drastically increased, but coming back from break or even being off for a couple days dancing with a mask on, it’s very suffocating and it’s actually really difficult. But if that means that we’re going to stay safe and we’re going to stop the spread [of COVID-19], then I’m all for that.”

With the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, it is totally understandable that putting on the June Show without masks is a safety issue. 300 audience members in one theater sitting closely together may seem like a recipe for disaster. But hopefully with increased safety restrictions for audience members, the dancers on stage can freely perform without masks.

Shah said, “I think that it would be awesome to be unmasked but safety comes first. It sucks for our longer pieces to have to wear a mask but I’ve gotten used to it. If it is safe enough and all of the dancers are vaccinated or can be tested, then I do think that we should be able to be unmasked, but that’s only if it’s really, really safe. Obviously it’s frustrating, but we learn how to deal with it. It’s also cool because we’ve been able to incorporate the masks into our costumes. I wouldn’t say that they’re fun to dance in, but we have learned to deal with masks. It’s not the hardest thing that we’ve been through.”

Mandell expressed her excitement to perform again one day without masks and said, “I hope that COVID cases are lower because I really look forward to a show where we can dance without masks and really perform again.”

Colon shared her perspective as a senior performing in her last June Show and said, “Ideally, I’d love to dance without a mask for the June Show. It’s my senior year and I’d love for my family to be able to see my face during my senior solo, but I understand that safety reasons can prevent that from happening.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

CAPA photographer

CAPA dancers performing the Nutcracker concerto in masks.