With campuses closed and in-person activities canceled indefinitely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, teenagers at New Mexico School for the Arts are missing out on performances, exhibitions and other forums for showcasing their talent.
Students say they are managing the isolation and remaining creative through home recordings, video calls and plenty of solos.
“I miss my homies,” said senior Malachi Roberts, a drummer whose parents cut off his playing at 8 o’clock each night.
“But music is keeping my cabin fever in check. Not sure how else I’d pass the time.”
At the start of the school year, the state-chartered, arts-focused high school moved into a new campus in the Santa Fe Railyard with facilities for dance, music, theater, visual arts and creative writing classes.
Since the campus closed March 11, however, the school has been videoconferencing its visual and performing arts classes in large and small groups for an hour each day.
There are challenges: The lag time on videoconferences prevents musicians from syncing their instruments, bedroom carpets don’t absorb shock like the wood floors in dance studios and visual artists are separated from the school’s supplies.
And department leaders are still figuring out how to make senior projects work online rather than holding public exhibitions.
Students and staff say limitations during the pandemic are sparking ingenuity.
William Miglino, chairman of school’s dance department, said that if its 30 students want to dance professionally, “they are going to quite literally turn themselves inside out to create.”
Flynn Ericson, a junior who plans to graduate a year early to pursue a dance career, said without floors and bars to practice in ballet pointe shoes, she is spending more time on contemporary and hip-hop moves.
“When I stop dancing, it’s weird. It’s not good. I’ve been trying to keep dancing two hours a day. I’m using a chair as a balance bar and doing a lot more improv,” said Ericson, who has practiced ballet for five hours a day, six days week as long as she can remember.
“It’s been inspiring to see how students use this time as a source of creativity,” she added.
Avis Kerns, a senior visual arts student, said she has been visiting abandoned construction sites to collect project supplies.
Madelyn Kingston, a sophomore violinist who also performs with the Santa Fe Youth Symphony, said, “Music is like a conversation between two instruments, so when you’re recording, you’re part of the conversation without hearing the other part. There’s disconnect.”
But, she added, “At home, I’ve had more excuses to record myself and work on solos that I wouldn’t practice if I didn’t have all this time.”
Miglino said daily attendance for the dance department’s video classes has been about 95 percent.
In a recent workshop, his students practiced motions interpreting the pandemic.
Kerns, the visual arts student, made baked-clay earrings in the form of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
“They’re really cute but also kind of scary. Either way, they help me feel better about everything,” Kerns said.
“You can tell people are on edge and getting frustrated,” she said, “but I think I’ve been pretty relaxed because I can get into the zone and let art keep me sane.”
