Disadvantages of Distance Schooling In Ballet

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the Slovenian school system which also includes ballet schooling was stopped overnight. Ballet education is held by music schools and the Conservatory of Music and Ballet in Maribor and Ljubljana. Until now distance learning in ballet seemed impossible. Teaching and learning through videoconferencing channels is, in given circumstances, in which schooling individuals are not allowed to acquire knowledge in appropriate institutions for schooling, the only opportunity for learning, which in no way ensures an appropriate way of schooling. The article discusses the disadvantages of distance schooling in ballet through the perspective of Jacqueline Smith-Autard’s midway model in which performing, creating, and watching dances are considered as main activities to develop aesthetic, artistic, and cultural goals of dance education as an art. The case study is based on descriptive and comparative methods. The learning process of the 2nd wave of the coronavirus epidemic is evaluated from the perspective of possible realization and development of skills and concepts among pupils of ballet. The findings are based on teaching practice in a ballet school through videoconferencing application. Inadequate conditions for dancing with the performance which cannot be directly musically verified, the isolation of pupils limited to their homes, deepening the differences between more and less capable individuals, the impact of family’s social status on the schooling process are accompanied factors that have become part of reality. Distance schooling shows that pupils are deprived of the opportunity for safe practice, quality, and equality in performing dance activities. The conditions where dancing is limited to a few square meters of space without adequate floor surface and with the presence of a teacher in the camera lens are putting the ballet education to the test of its existence. By learning from home, pupils are prevented from realizing and developing skills and concepts that pertain to the main activity of a ballet class – dancing – which is most often the main reason for attending ballet school.