East Aurora Advertiser

Outdoor Dance Recital Set for Early August



In a few weeks, a parking lot near Whaley Avenue and Main Street will transform into an outdoor dance studio as a series of dance recitals are hosted throughout the day.

Janeen Cole with Hoffman School of Dance is going to put on small dance shows on Sunday, Aug. 2 – Sunday, Aug. 9 is the rain date – to give her dancers a chance to perform for close family members and display the talent and dedication the students have put into the work. 

“We’re trying to give them something to look forward to,” Cole told the Village Board at its July 20 meeting. “We wanted to give the seniors their last hurrah on stage.”

The event will be next to her current facility at 577 Fillmore Ave. Because of restrictions in New York State about gatherings with large numbers of people, especially indoors, Cole has been working on something that acts in place of a full recital. She’s calling this “The Show Will Go On.”

The board approved her temporary use permit to hold the dance number on those dates, and also said she could do it on another date if those are both rained out. 

It will be an eight hour event, with each show lasting 30 minutes. The idea is to host a show, recognize the work, then move along for the next dance. 

“We want to get them in, run through their dances, celebrate their kids, then they go so we have enough time for the next group to arrive and they do not meet,” she said. 

There will be no “backstage” where dancers can change outfits. For dancers who have multiple dance routines, they would be able to go home in between sets and change and come back. 

Families will be told to wear masks while on site, and they will be advised to remain in the parking lot lines to remain socially distant. Dancers will not have to wear masks. 

The board said they had some concern for the number of people who might be on site at one time. A dancer could have up to five guests, and with 30 possible dancers a show there could be at least 150 people in the parking lot for one show. 

There will be volunteers on site to keep people in order, Cole said, and she noted that she would routinely remind people they have to obey the rules of wearing masks and staying distant from others. She would be emailing people about the plans and said if people get unruly they would be told to leave. 

“I will have a microphone…I’m not afraid to use it in a kind way,” she said. “If people don’t follow the rules, we can’t have stuff like this. Our people are really responsible.”

Cole said she got the idea while picking up mail on a Sunday and noticed no one in that area is open at the time. 

“It was a ghost town,” she said. 

Trustee Ernie Scheer said his daughters have gone through dance lessons and felt it was important the students have a chance to showcase the hard work they have dedicated to the craft. He said he was supportive of her plans. 

“I know from my own daughters, how much time they put in [to dancing], every week going down there, and to not have that exposure, to have that ability to do the performance… and have your family see all the hard work that goes into it, it’s heartbreaking,” Scheer said. 

Trustee Michelle Schoeneman said her daughters had been through the school and thought the shows had been conducted in a professional manner in the past. She just asked that Cole follow New York State guidelines related to social distancing and mask wearing with the pandemic. 

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