GREENFIELD — For the first time in its 151-year history, Stoneleigh-Burnham School is offering a co-ed dance class this summer.
The only catch — the class will be held virtually.
“Given the unique circumstances … it seemed like a really easy and obvious decision for the camp to be open to everyone,” said Cat Wagner, a dance instructor at Stoneleigh-Burnham on Bernardston Road, noting that in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school doesn’t have the logistics of boarding to consider.
However, also due to the pandemic, Stoneleigh-Burnham canceled all on-campus summer programs this year, including the Bonnie Castle Riding Camp, Animation Intensive and Dance Intensive.
The week-long online Dance Intensive camp is scheduled to take place from Aug. 17 to Aug. 21. Students between the ages of 13 and 18 years old will be able participate in the class, which will focus on contemporary, ballet and jazz forms of dance.
Students will meet via Zoom between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. that week.
With the exception of last trimester, during which time she was forced to go virtual because of the pandemic, Wagner said she’s never taught a virtual dance class.
“Part of the challenges in teaching dance virtually is the … rhythmic specificity in addition to not being in the same room as them,” Wagner explained. “One of the advantages is it really develops the autonomy of the individual dancer and allows them to hone their ability to … craft both their experience and also to really find the way movement works for them.”
Still, she said, a virtual class will never take the place of an in-person connection.
Wagner, who has been teaching for over 10 years — the last two of which have been at Stoneleigh-Burnham — said her primary focus when teaching is building community and creating a positive experience for students of all races and body types.
“Within the dance world, as within our culture in America, there’s a pro-western, racist … mentality,” she said. “You see it anytime you watch a professional ballet company — the race and body type that’s idealized, not to mention gender or sexuality.”
As someone who comes from pro-western ballet teaching, Wagner said she aims to teach in a way that is “critically reflexive,” helping to dismantle these practices in the dance world.
Wagner said she and Stoneleigh-Burnham alumna Claire Lane, who will help teach the class, have also built in time for reflection during the week.
“We’ll be looking for ways for our students to collaborate with each other via breakout rooms … just so they can get that bonding experience,” Wagner said.
By the end of the week, students will have created two “studies” or movements, she explained, one of which will be in the dance genre of their choice.
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263. Twitter: @MaryEByrne