Approaching Life
During a Pandemic
COVID-19 and the resulting restrictions placed on individuals, events,
and businesses definitely affected everyone in some way. We reached out to
many of our friends in the dance community and asked their thoughts and
life during the pandemic, and we wanted to share their responses with you.
Amaya
New Mexico
www.amayadances.com
My life during this pandemic has mostly taken a turn for the better actually. My crazy life of
projects, travel, marketing, shows, etc., has mostly stopped. There is little urgency in the things
I do. There are few deadlines to meet and no dance shows to fret over. My husband is so happy
to have me home and he loves the home cooking. The dogs, parakeets, hummingbirds, and
even the squirrels, love that I feed them so well. Financially I don’t have too many worries since I have never accumulated
debt and have a savings account. I have a cushion to wait this out.
One of the negatives, though, is missing my dance people, which have been a huge part of my life for 40 years. Students
and colleagues alike, not seeing them in person leaves a hole in my heart. I also worry that this virus may have retired me!
Will I ever perform again??? Am I done? Another issue is that I now have more time to notice aches and pains, wrinkles here
and there, and can be more introspective. All these internal negative, hypochondriac thoughts can be so annoying and also
sort of narcissistic. I don’t like having the time to self-contemplate so much. I am optimistic that these times will change, but
we will have a new “normal” at the end of it. As a dancer, I must stay flexible both physically and spiritually.
Ayperi Al Jawahir
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
President and Creative Director of Aalim Dance Academy, Inc.
www.aalimokc.com
We had our Spring Showcase on March 7 th , and then took our usual week off. That’s when
things started to look serious, so I already had it in my mind we should do online classes in case
we had to close. Other cities were beginning to shut down. Jahara Amar and I brainstormed,
researched, and decided to hold live online classes and offer prerecorded classes. We officially
canceled classes beginning March 17 and started live online classes the next day. With the
cost of new Zoom and Vimeo accounts, plus most of our teachers needing time to figure out
navigating the pandemic, we had to condense our usual 17 classes per week into 6 live classes
July 2020 � The Belly Dance Chronicles 27