Hello dancers. We (the North Berkshire Community Dance organizing committee) met this week and decided that, beginning with our September 16th dance, we will not require dancers to wear masks. 

We do continue to require that if you have any symptoms or have been exposed to someone with Covid, that you stay home, recover, and come back next month!

Combined with our earlier decision to stop requiring proof of vaccination or any kind of registration, this eliminates most of our official covid policy for our dances – for now. As always, we are prepared to reevaluate our policy as public health circumstances evolve.

Discussion:

We made this choice recognizing that Covid is not over, neither objectively nor subjectively. Far from it! 

Objectively, the rate of covid infection is as high as it’s ever been. However the rate of hospitalizations (and death) are at their lowest since tracking began, and continue to decline. Because of this decline, we feel that it’s not necessary for us to continue to act in the role of public health authority or turn away dancers who are unwilling to wear masks.

At the same time, we cannot ignore how people feel about their own safety, on the one hand, and their eagerness to (for lack of a better term) “move on”. A beautiful thing about social dancing, and contradancing in particular, has been its willingness to change itself, devising codes of safe conduct and language and practices designed to ensure that every one of us feels safe, seen, and included. It hasn’t always been easy(!), and much work remains, but still, it’s genuinely wonderful to see all that we have done. It is in this spirit of social enlightenment that we ask that you have compassion for those among us for whom joining a line of unmasked dancers is still a little frightening. Personally, I plan to continue to mask, and I hope that you will too if you are even just a tiny bit more comfortable doing so, or just to show solidarity! At the same time, I want every dancer to know that I want them here exactly as who they are – with or without a mask, with or without a vaccine card. Dancing is about the magic of trust and even love among friends and strangers. It’s magic that we all create together. Let’s always remember that!

Pat Dunlavey, president North Berkshire Community Dance, on behalf of the rest of the organizing committee: Doone MacKay, Eric Buddington, Kate Abbot, Nick Adams.