ACT AND ART OF DANCING DURING COVID-19 ERA; THE HEALTH APPROACH

1.1 Introduction

The Corona or Covid-19 virus has influenced all areas of human life, including the life of choreographers. WHO has determined that all countries must break the transmission chain by staying at home, staying away from the crowds and stopping all activities outside, all activities outside are moved at home, starting from studying at home, working at home, and praying at home.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

According to Art (2021), Dance a sequence of movements, someone moving their body. The ART of Dance is a performing art form. It transmits culture, emotions, tells stories and can be a testimony of a historical moment or a place of origin. Energy exults out of the performance of a succession of gesture. It has been performed and has inspired artists for as long as the humankind has been in existence. Archaeological findings have discovered records of representation of dance, in India, that are more than 9 000 years old. Egyptians have created illustrations of dance, more than 3 000 BC ago. Many historians have suggested that dance has played a crucial role in transmitting history before the invention of written languages (Art, 2021).

Dance is also a form of art that often calls on others to support its intention, be it music, stage decor, costume and more. Still, it also stands on its own and can be performed as freely or as carefully choreographed as possible. From ballet to square dance, many forms of dance exist from belly dancing, from yesterday to today and tomorrow, from duo, trio, troupe performances (Art, 2021).

During this pandemic, the dance works that had been produced by choreographers was performed through digital media. The form of dance works which are generally supported by art space such as stage layouts equipped with lighting. During the pandemic, they only relied on media movements with limited space in the environment around the house. It means that the form of movements has become the main element in dancing during the pandemic. Digital media is a new medium that is used to support the dance performance. This is a new concept of workmanship dance method, thus it is interesting to study more deeply.

Moving away from the crowd means not doing activities that involve a lot of people meeting and gathering. Organizing a show is one of the activities that causes people to gather. Therefore, organizing shows is an activity that should not be done during this pandemic. The process of work starts from the process of seeing, exploring, and realizing (Hawkins, 2003). The media to express the meaning and to deliver the dance work is a performance space (stage).

When the space is limited or closed due to the pandemic, this caused tremendous pressure for the choreographers. It is physically clear that when people are only stay at home, what activities can be done in a limited house space. A choreographer may only be able to carry out the process of contemplation or develop imagination, but how can ideas be expressed both physically and spiritually.

As what has been known, there was a big event in April for dance artists and choreographers, namely the celebration of World Dance Day, which was precisely celebrated on April 29th. Besides, there was also Earth Day, which should be there are dance performances to honor the earth. However, during the limitation in the Covid-19 period, it has a psychological impact on dance artists, especially choreographers. Choreographers cannot inspire, explore, express and create dances. Moreover, the obligation to stay at home was clear has the hardest impact for the choreographers. The only way to keep expressing and exploring for the dance artist is to create dance works to be expressed through the mass media. Fortunately, there is an event that offers to make a joint show via YouTube on Earth Day and the celebration of World Dance as a place to express the creativity that has been fossilized during the covid-19 quarantine time. This essence of the show will change when the performance of this dance work uses virtual media. When this dance work is performed through social or virtual media, there are boundaries of space and time.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Act and Art of Dancing during Covid-19 Era using Health Approach.

1.3 Statement of Problem

Investigation reveals the following problems of the Act and Art of Dancing during Covid-19 Era using Health Approach research work;

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant talent management challenges including;

• Hiring freezes and layoffs;
• Salary freezes, canceled bonuses, and pay reductions;
• How work is done (i.e., teleworking); and
• Increased employee stress and burnout.

COVID-19 has made it evident that many organizations do not implement state of the science performance management systems and, instead, have just performance appraisal systems that typically involve a once-a-year evaluation and review, little effort to provide feedback and coaching on an ongoing basis, little alignment between employee performance and the organization’s strategic goals, a focus on past performance only, and ownership by the human resources function instead of those rating and being rated.

Thus, the lack of value contributed by the usual performance evaluation and review process is the reason why so many organizations are postponing or even completely discontinuing performance evaluations.

The drastic escalation of coronavirus did not only affect learning, it compounded the pre-existing education inequalities in institutions, with vulnerable and disadvantaged students at the receiving end. To curb the widening of the existing education inequalities, there is a responsibility on the institution management to put in place measures to ensure continuity, inclusion and equity for all learners during this pandemic. Observation shows that higher institutions either postponed or cancelled all campus events such as graduation ceremonies, workshops, conferences, sports (both intra and inter universities), and other activities. The COVID-19 Pandemic also led to the suspension of the academic calendar of higher institutions.

There is no doubt that students were held on a spot for a period of time. This affected the smooth running of educational sector in the institutions. This study aims to show the impact the Online teaching/learning had on the educational life of students.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the research work is to examine the Act and Art of Dancing during Covid-19 Era using Health Approach. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To investigate the mediums of dancing used as a medium of expression by dance stylists in their dancing during this pandemic.
2. To examine the impact of creating dance during this pandemic.
3. To investigate the dance works created during the pandemic have a new aesthetic form, namely virtual dance aesthetics.
4. To assess the art creation activities during this pandemic are not only producing dance works, but also maintaining body immunity.

1.5 Research Questions

The following questions will be addressed to examine the Act and Art of Dancing during Covid-19 Era using Health Approach:

• Does Act and Art of dancing negatively affect students in theatre art during COVID 19 Era?
• What are the health safety approach adhered to during COVID 19 Era?
• Does COVID-19 significantly affect Act and Art of dancing among students?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant effect of COVID 19 pandemic in the Act and Art of dancing among students.
• H1: There is significant effect of COVID 19 pandemic in the Act and Art of dancing among students.

1.7 Significance of Study

The art of Dance is proven to nurture important life skills, such as discipline and focus. Dancers naturally display confidence, self-esteem and poise. These skills are developed through participating in dance performances. This research work will be of immense importance to the researchers, since it is a practical requirement for the award of Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in Science Technology of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu.

Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of this research is focused on the act and art of dancing during COVID-19 Pandemic Era using safety health approach.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definition of Terms

COVID 19: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infection which is as a result of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus.

Education: It is the process of giving systematic instruction especially at a school or university.