BYB Keeps Everyone Dancing During Quarantine

The studio may be closed, but that isn’t stopping the Bluegrass Youth Ballet from dancing.

With local businesses temporarily closed in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many students find themselves unable to continue with their extracurricular activities.

BYB founder Adalhi Aranda is making sure her students are still exercising their craft, and she is offering some free online classes for the community as well.

Aranda said she is committed to continue training or at least maintaining the level of training of her students.

“As you can imagine, teaching dance remotely is a huge challenge,” she said. “Dance is very interactive and we are learning ways to keep our dancers active, engaged and moving.”

Current students can participate in live classes through Zoom, a video meeting platform. If a student can’t make it to the live class, it is later uploaded to a private website so students can view it at their convenience.

Aranda is also taking to Facebook Live every week for free community classes. On Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. she hosts a 30-minute conditioning class. The class is designed for dancers but Aranda said anyone with some level of fitness can handle the workout, which consists of yoga, pilates, Horton technique and stretches. An hour-long intermediate/advanced ballet class follows at 11 a.m. Past videos are accessible through the BYB  Facebook page.

“Our mission is to be able to provide these classes and engage the dance community doing something we can all relate to and love.

Find Bluegrass Youth Ballet on Facebook here.