'We had to adjust very quickly'

Online fitness and dance classes have been an invaluable outlet for many people over the past year. For businesses, it has enabled them to continue to provide a service to their clients, but it has not been without its challenges. We spoke to a local gym owner and a dance school owner about how they handled the move online and what the future holds for their respective sectors.

For Mullingar dance school owner Anne Marie Bentick, the decision to move to online classes has led to plenty of “hilarious moments” over the last year.

“I have met every dog in town, every cat in town. There have been a lot of comic moments, brothers that can’t stay out of the fridge and mums that have to put kettle on during class. We quickly learned that we had to make the kids mute.”

The founder of Energy Plus Dance School, one of the best known and longest established dance schools in the midlands, Anne Marie moved her classes online within days of the first lockdown last March. It has been challenging, but it has provided her students with a physical outlet and a distraction at a time when they have needed it most.

“We really thought it would be for a few weeks. The kids have been great. Most of the kids who started the Skype classes have stuck with it. Once we got used to it, it became a valuable tool for us. The kids have continued to train, continued to work really hard and continued to progress.”

“We are a quite a small school. We deliberately kept it that way. We are not a school that piles in 40 or 50 kids to the studio. We have small numbers. Every school has its niche. For us it is all about their training – that is a core value. We have a core group of kids who do a lot of hours and work really hard. Their training is so important to them.

“A lot of them would go off to dance college and all of that has been stopped because they are not actually going away – they are doing it online. I have kids that were away in college in England they are now back and doing their college courses online. It is one thing for someone studying English, or whatever it is, online, but studying for a practical course like dance online is a nightmare because you need space.

“There are fantastic parents who are moving every stick of furniture out of rooms to give them a place to dance and they do it twice or three times a week. They are just fantastic. Some of them have converted rooms. They have put up mirrors and bars. They are hugely supportive of them continuing to dance.

“We have also had a lot of parents, though, who have said that they don’t have the space or the internet coverage. So a lot of kids have lost out as well. We also haven’t been able to take newcomers since this started. I feel that this [online classes] is a really difficult way to introduce them to what we are. I have chosen to wait until we are back to introduce newcomers.

“We have had some really encouraging things happen as well. When we got back in December for three weeks it coincided with an online festival that our examination board was doing. It all depended on us being able to get back into the studio to film them to do their solos, which they had been working hard on.

“We spent two weeks filming them, one at a time. We were lucky we got that three weeks back in studio. They were just fantastic. The fact that they kept working showed their solos were in great shape. We did brilliantly. Out of 27 competitions in this event, we got 16 first places and lots of seconds and thirds.

“I was so proud of them. They were up against schools from Northern Ireland and their lockdowns were different to ours.”

Over the year, dance schools such as Energy Plus have spent huge chunks of time closed. Although unsure when she will be able to reopen her studio fully, Anne Marie hasn’t given up hope of hosting her popular summer school, or a version of it that adheres to public health guidelines. Last July, held classes with small groups of students of five or fewer on her front lawn.

“We put a dance floor out on my lawn and danced outside. We had a marquee with a roof but it was completely opened up. We had four or five at a time and they loved it. It gave them a chance to get off their screens.”

While grateful to have been able to conduct classes online, Anne Marie is looking forward to the day when she and her students return to her studio on the Lynn Road. However, it will be quite some time until pre-Covid normality returns.

“Nothing will ever replace being the studio. You have to be able to able adjust the children and help them physically with what they are doing. It is a hands-on sport.

“I don’t know when we will get to do that again and help the kids with their alignment, but being in the room with the kids, the fun they have and the chat. It’s not just about what they learn, it’s the friends they meet and the fun they have and the confidence they gain.

“I have kids who started at the age of three and they are still with me at the age of 25. You watch them grow up. You love them.”

David Gavigan - 'Exercise is key to a person's mental health'

Tyrrellspass gym owner David Gavigan's first year in business has been eventful to say the least.

A well known physical therapist, David opened Elite Recovery Ireland in June when Ireland came out of the first lockdown. Things were going well but he was forced to close ERI in October when we entered lockdown number two and after a brief respite in December has been closed since.

He says that gym owners were left with little option but to take their business online. However, being based in rural Ireland meant that this posed another set of challenges.

"When things went the way they went gyms across the country had to adjust very quickly. We were no different.

"We went with Zoom classes and they were successful but it depends on the sort of internet you have in your area. There was an appetite there. We focused predominantly on pilates classes but we did have a fitness class. They went well.

"When the next lockdown came, people had had enough of lockdowns. The focus had moved to preservation and keeping the head right. There was a bit of a drop in the numbers doing the Zoom classes so we looked for an alternative that would give people an opportunity to keep themselves fit and help the mental aspect. We knew people were struggling mentally, through my own business as a physio and talking to people on a day to day basis.

"We went back to the drawing board and developed a YouTube channel. The reason we went with a YouTube channel was because it gave people the advantage of having us available 24/7. It gave people a pilates class at four o'clock in the morning if they felt they needed it. We put as much emphasis into the quality of the production and gave as much detail as we could so that people who did them felt they got something out of it. We got good feedback."

Given the unreliability of broadband in many rural areas, David feels that setting up a YouTube channel was a good move for his business and his clients.

"I know there is talk about the net getting stronger [in rural areas], but we did have a case where it dropped one day five minutes before a live class was scheduled to start. It was very stressful to fix on the spot.

"You had people waiting who had paid for it. We want to be able to provide a good quality product at all times. I literally fixed it 30 seconds before we went live. I had everything running off my phone, lap, lights, net. We got through it and every day you learn a little bit more, but for us, YouTube was a very attractive option. You pre-record it and YouTube requires very little internet."

Looking ahead, David believes that there will be a significant number of people who will be fearful to re-enter society when the current restrictions are lifted and online classes will continue to be a invaluable release for them.

"With the pandemic we've learned that people's minds have to be cared for and looked out for. A lot of that comes from physical activity and just having an outlet. I feel we made a good move when we went online and it gave people that outlet."

As for what the future holds for his sector, David feels that even with the roll out of the vaccine, "there won't be much happening in gyms this year in this country".

"I am on forums with gym owners and there is a lot of uncertainty," he says.

For gymgoers, he says that there is "nothing like" exercising with other people to help push someone on.

"It is something that gyms have thrived on. If there is a busy environment people like that. I don't know how they are going to get around that and at this moment we don't have answers."

Whatever the short to medium outlook, David says that the events of the last 12 months have shown just how important regular exercise is, for both the body and the mind.

"They can never argue again about the link between mental health and exercise. You go into any village or town in Ireland and the amount of people out walking or running within their 5k. That is mind's way of telling you that you need to do something. You need to clear the head. That is the big thing out of this. People now know that exercise is key to a person's mental health."