Last week’s announcement on the re-opening of dance classes was short lived. It would seem the politicians clamber to pat each other on the back was premature as Catherine Martin TD who is the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media clarified on Friday evening that dance classes per se were not allowed in level 3. Dance studios could open however only to allow 1 to 1 training.

Minister Catherine Martin’s Update on Dance Training in Level 3 as of Friday 4^th November 2020

While dance studios remain closed at Level 3, they are allowed to provide their facilities for use in individual dance practice or training.

Arts Council Ireland is in the process of preparing guidance however, until then, the Sport Ireland guidance for individual training may be used: https://www.sportireland.ie

Should you need any further information or clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact my office at Catherine.Martin@Oireachtas.ie

Until we receive guidance from the Arts Council, which is expected this week, Sports Ireland states

Training

Outdoors: Non contact training only in pods of up to 15 (for example: golf, tennis, horse riding, hunting, Gaelic games, soccer, outdoor basketball).

There is an exemption for professional and elite sports and approved inter-county Gaelic games.

Indoors: Individual training only. No exercise or dance classes (for example: no ballet, gymnastics, basketball, racketball, squash, zumba, drama).

In our opinion the guidance is clear and we will have to wait a little bit longer until restrictions lift before we can re-open the studios. Everyone’s safety is the most important thing right now. We can’t wait to see everyone and feel it is now close with vaccines on our doorstep.

Please stay safe everyone and we will be back to classes as soon as we possibly can and in the meantime we will continue our online Zoom classes.