I can remember the day RedX went into the first Lockdown like it was yesterday. We'd been listening to the news daily waiting to hear about Covid-19.
All week the reports were getting more and more serious and death rates in the UK had started to increase. Then on Monday 16th March the Prime Minister announced that it was ‘time for everyone to stop non-essential contact and travel.’ He went on to announce the first Lockdown in the UK and ordered people to ‘stay at home.’ from Monday 23rd March.
I remember us all looking at each other in disbelief. Was this real? That evening after our last Blaze class, we decided to close our doors. We couldn’t carry on if we had been told to stop non-essential contact and travel and felt that it wasn't right to wait until the following week.
It was a scramble to send out emails and phone messages to let everyone know that we had closed our doors and would let them know when we could return to dance. Little did we know that this was just the beginning?
Our initial reaction was to send out Videos of the dancers routines, so that the children could carry on dancing, but this proved quite difficult, so after lots of research we were up and running within a week on Zoom.
Over the year, we had a steady following on all the Zoom classes and even managed some quiz and games nights. It was all quiet surreal as the months ticked on.
Fast forward to 14th March 2021 after the Easter break, children were told they could return to group exercise and with all Covid measures in place dancers under the age of 18 yrs started to return to the RedX Dance Studio.
What a crazy year it’s been, between opening up and closing, hanging on every announcement to tell us when we could open and when we had to close. What a time.
Over the years, we were able to watch our dance family growing up, going from Primary to Secondary School, having birthdays and proms, and new babies joining the RedX families. But this opening reminded me that we had missed a year of the children’s lives. One thing I hadn’t accounted for was that the children were one year older and certainly a LOT taller!!
It’s been a joy opening our doors again and seeing the children return. Some older and taller and some new generation dancers starting out on their new dance adventure with RedX. And finally having our adults returning to class is definitely something we have been waiting for. We are genuinely grateful and blessed to be on this journey with so many lovely families.