10 Jan
2023
10 Jan
'23
3:47 p.m.
Thank you all for such a thoughtful and lively discussion! I have nothing much to add but,
as one of the organizers of the Lenox, MA monthly dance series, I thought I'd simply
report on our policy and what we've observed since restarting our dance last July. For
2022, our COVID-19 policy had three possibilities based on the COVID-19 community levels
in our county and one neighboring county as indicated by the CDC COVID-19 tracker. If both
counties were low (green), the dance would be unrestricted (requiring neither proof of
vaccination nor masks), If either county was high (red), the dance would be canceled. And
if either county was medium (yellow) but neither red, the dance would require masks. Of
the six dances we had in 2022, five were unrestricted and one (in October) required masks.
None were canceled.
Starting this month, we have modified the policy to be a binary one: either the dance
would be unrestricted (neither county red) or canceled (either county red). For those who
may be interested, here's a link to our COVID-19 policy and the rationale for it:
https://lenoxcontradance.org/Restart_Policy.pdf
To the best of our knowledge, there has not been a COVID-19 outbreak resulting from any of
the dances in Lenox. In fact, no one has reported testing positive for COVID-19 after
attending any of these dances. I would guess that maybe 20% of our dancers wear masks,
nearly all of them over the age of 50. We really don't know anything about the
vaccination status of our dancers as we've made it a point not to ask. I would also
guess that our attendance is down 15 to 20% as compared to pre-COVID dances. Our poorest
attended dance was the one in October when we required masks.
There are two other dance series in our area that have adopted very similar COVID-19
policies: a monthly series in Chatham, NY (Cococontra) and a bimonthly series in
Sheffield, MA. They both started back up recently.
I think I speak for many people here in the Berkshires when I say that we are very happy
to be back dancing!
- Jon Greene