A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021
Dancing: ‘A big lesson in using your body to be more expressive’
Continued from Page A1
Clatsop County, like
every county in Oregon,
is considered a “child care
desert” — a fact only exac-
erbated by the pandemic as
parents struggled to care
for children and continue
working while schools, day
cares and other care facil-
ities shut down or were
severely restricted in how
many children they could
accommodate.
Sweet had already run
a performing arts pre-
school out of Encore for
10 years and was famil-
iar with the state’s require-
ments for child care, as
well as the lengthy paper-
work involved. At the
end of the summer, she
shifted Encore’s operations
entirely, changing it from
a dance studio into emer-
gency child care. The fac-
ulty who stayed on became
certifi ed to work in child
care.
“I wanted to do every-
thing I could to help our
families through this year,”
Sweet said. “It was either
going to work or it wasn’t.”
Encore serves around
100 students, down from
the 275 to 300 enrolled in
dance classes before the
pandemic. Now, the stu-
dents do their school work
at the studio, whatever dis-
tance learning program or
school district-based curric-
ulum their families chose to
follow. Then, depending on
their age, they have one or
two dance and movement
classes.
Sweet is looking at devel-
oping a full Encore-based
academy next school year
— her own “Fame” school,
she likes to say, referencing
the competitive performing
arts school showcased in the
1980 fi lm .
Dana Jones’ daughter has
attended classes at Encore
since she was 5 years old.
Now, at 13 , the studio has
become one of the few
options she has to socialize
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Astoria School of Ballet director Maggie Wall sanitizes a hula
hoop that the dancers use in their routine.
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Emily Madsen teaches a ballet class at Maddox Dance Studio. All students and instructors are
required to wear masks while in the studio.
with her peers during what
has proved to be an iso-
lated school year for many
students.
Online school through
the Seaside School District
was a rough transition —
an alternate reality at fi rst,
Jones said. But being able to
do schoolwork at the studio
and continue dancing has
been transformative for her
daughter. She’s doing things
like running for student vice
president that she wouldn’t
have done in middle school.
‘Mind your spacing’
At the beginning of the
pandemic , there was little
talk about going virtual in
the dance world, Wall said.
“I think because nobody
thought it was going to be
for very long,” she said.
But over the past year ,
many of the studios have
relied on some virtual
component to supplement
classes or to deliver a type
of performance.
When the studios were
required to be fully shut
down, Wall would send
out links to her students
— videos created by other
professionals for classes
they could take at home.
It exposed her students to
a variety of styles, but it
couldn’t replace in-person
instruction.
Still, she added, fi lming
things like a small showcase
from “The Nutcracker” that
her students performed in
December meant even out-
of-town family could eas-
ily enjoy a recital without
needing to travel to Astoria.
At Maddox Dance Stu-
dio in Warrenton, Jeanne
Maddox Peterson’s young
students helped her nav-
igate Zoom so she could
teach one group in person
while other students fol-
lowed along at home. For
Peterson, these virtual les-
sons made it feel like she
could better pinpoint things
she needed to address with
dancers.
But there are logistics
of dance as an art form that
are diffi cult to overcome —
even with all the technology
in the world.
“So much of ballet is
speaking without words,”
Wall said, “and your face is
so expressive.”
Because of the corona-
virus, everyone’s faces are
covered in masks. When
her ballet students fi lm their
spring recital in April for
release in May, they will
all be wearing masks. Wall
and her students practice
being expressive with their
eyes and foreheads, but they
must rely on body language
even more.
“It’s a big lesson in
using your body to be more
expressive,” Wall said. After
all: “A person in the back of
the theater can’t read your
eyes or your face, but they
can read your whole body
language.”
At Maddox Dance Stu-
dio, large squares are
marked out on the studio
fl oors, designating where
students can stand and move
during lessons. In the center
of each square, a printed cir-
cle reminds them to “mind
your spacing.”
But even this limitation
has turned out to have some
benefi ts, Peterson said.
A dancer doesn’t always
Clam digs: State called situation a ‘perfect storm’
Continued from Page A1
In mid-January, one razor
clam came back with a test
result of 140 parts per mil-
lion, well over the state’s
threshold of 20 parts per
million .
The surge followed a
large, harmful algal bloom
in the fall, just after clams
fi nished a second, late-sum-
mer spawning and were gob-
bling up food in preparation
for the lean winter months.
Unfortunately, the food they
were eating — and stor-
ing for energy reserves —
was full of toxins, said Mat-
thew Hunter, the shellfi sh
project leader for the Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
A “stall” in ocean winds
and currents in the early fall
helped create conditions for
the bloom and essentially
held it along the Oregon
C oast. More normal condi-
tions during this seasonal
transition period would have
likely broken up the bloom.
The state called the sit-
uation a “perfect storm
of harmful algal blooms,
weather, ocean currents and
the clams’ own physiology.”
Now, fi shery manag-
ers are waiting to see what
an upcoming spring transi-
tion period brings. If there
is not the usual transition in
ocean conditions, waves and
winds, “we could see some
issues,” Hunter said.
To reopen beaches for
razor clam digs, the Ore-
gon Department of Agricul-
ture requires two consecu-
tive tests with results below
the closure limit.
Harmful algal blooms
have become a regular part
of fi shery managers’ con-
siderations when it comes to
both razor clam and Dunge-
ness crab fi sheries.
In 2015, a massive harm-
ful algal bloom shut down
razor clam digging in Ore-
gon from the spring into
the winter. In 2016, the
fi shery weathered another
bloom with a closure that
continued through 2017.
But the blooms remain
unpredictable.
The cells that produce the
toxin may be present in huge
concentrations in the water,
but not producing any toxin.
Then, if there is toxin pres-
ent, whether clams and crabs
accumulate domoic acid in
their tissues can depend on
the time of year, food avail-
ability and their need to hold
onto food.
Oregon does not have as
many razor clams as Wash-
ington state and the Clatsop
beaches account for the bulk
of the clams harvested in the
state each year. Unlike Wash-
ington state, which opens
digs at set dates and times
throughout the year, Ore-
gon’s beaches are generally
open to clamming except for
a seasonal closure from July
15 to Sept. 30 north of Tilla-
mook Head.
As of March 4, Wash-
ington state is continuing
to sample razor clams reg-
ularly. Fishery managers
are waiting for domoic acid
levels to drop to safe levels
before they announce har-
vest dates.
know what size of stage
she or he might be asked
to dance on. The social dis-
tance boundaries help rein-
force to Peterson’s stu-
dents that they can’t just go
“gallop into the wild blue
yonder.”
It has been a scary, long
and traumatic period, Wall
said, but coming back
together in classes has felt
joyful. Weird, yes, — danc-
ing in masks, sanitizing
everything — but joyful,
Consult a
PROFESSIONAL
Discuss Printer
Features
LEO FINZI
Astoria’s Best
Containers have tradition-
ally then gone to rural areas
of the Pacifi c Northwest and
have been loaded with prod-
ucts such as hay cubes, pota-
toes and lumber, before being
sent back for export, said
Peter Friedmann, the execu-
tive director of the Agricul-
ture Transportation Coalition.
But demand is high for
consumer imports, which
earn ocean carriers a higher
freight rate. The pandemic
and uneven economic recov-
eries around the world have
led to a shortage in contain-
ers and a dramatic increase in
shipping costs. Carriers have
opted to send containers back
to Asia empty to expedite the
import of more high-value
consumer goods.
“The steamship lines are all
private companies all around
the world,” Friedmann said.
“They apparently don’t care
about the U.S. exporter, and
they don’t really care about
the consumer either. They’re
just carrying the cargo and
maximizing profi ts.”
‘THE CONTAINER SHORTAGE IS
CREATING MAJOR SUPPLY PROBLEMS
IN THE U.S. IT’S A BIG FACTOR
LIMITING HOME CONSTRUCTION AT
THE MOMENT BECAUSE SO MANY
BUILDING PRODUCTS COME FROM
CHINA. SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS
A DOOR JAMB IS IN SHORT SUPPLY
RIGHT NOW.’
Kristin Rasmussen | spokeswoman for Hampton Lumber
The Federal M aritime
C ommission ordered ocean
carriers and marine terminal
operators to provide infor-
mation determining whether
legal obligations related to
detention and demurrage
under the Shipping Act of
1984 are being met. Wyden,
an Oregon Democrat, and 23
other senators wrote the head
of the commission, calling
for appropriate action against
ocean carriers.
“The need is urgent, espe-
cially with record container
volumes at the nation’s major
ports,” the senators wrote.
“These volumes, and the
resulting congestion, will
only grow as the global econ-
omy recovers from the coro-
navirus pandemic. Produc-
ers rely on competitive access
to foreign markets, and the
reported actions by certain
(container carriers) to under-
mine this access pose signif-
icant ramifi cations for agri-
cultural exporters and the
industry at large.”
A
representative
of
Wyden’s offi ce said the sen-
ator has not heard back yet
regarding the fact-fi nding
mission.
One of the exporters
affected is Hampton Lumber,
which exports premium wood
products to Japan through
Tacoma and Seattle. Kristin
Rasmussen, a spokeswoman
for Hampton, said the com-
pany is even more affected by
the carrier issues when trying
to import specialty construc-
tion products.
“The container shortage is
creating major supply prob-
lems in the U.S.,” she said in
a statement. “It’s a big factor
limiting home construction at
the moment because so many
building products come from
China. Something as simple
as a door jamb is in short sup-
ply right now.”
The Chinese government
has previously taken action to
control freight rate increases .
“We want the U.S. to be as
aggressive in supporting our
exports as the Chinese have
been aggressive in support-
ing their exports, ” Friedmann
said.
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Q: How does sensitive
toothpaste work?
A:
Imagine one of your teeth - it has
two main sections: the crown above
the gum line and the root below.
JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR
DMD, FAGD
L E I NA S S A R
DENTAL EXCELLENCE
503/325-0310
1414 MARINE DRIVE,
ASTORIA
www.smileastoria.com
People with sensitive teeth experience pain
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The layer of enamel may be thinner and the
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Q:
A doctor said
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Exporters: Demand is high for consumer imports
Continued from Page A1
and the students have been
resilient.
“As
dancers
we’re
trained to pivot and turn
and leap: Go to the fl oor, get
up, turn, go the other way,
change lanes,” Sweet said.
“It’s constant changing and
you have to be prepared.
You can’t get fl ustered when
the gear changes. You have
to adapt and you have to
adapt with grace and style.”
You have to make it look
good.
ASTORIA
CHIROPRACTIC
Alicia M. Smith, DC
Owner
A: Absolutely! We would
be happy to give you a
second opinion. Call to
503-325-3311
1490 Marine Drive schedule a free consult.
Suite 202
Astoria, Oregon
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