Tour de Force
Shortly before the new dance season was to start — it was just a little over a week away, actually — the director of the program contacted everyone involved to let us know that it was canceled.
The dance program Tour de Force is a joint venture between Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Ballet. Both organizations felt it was in everyone’s best interests to cancel for the season. This is disappointing news, but not altogether surprising, given the speed and breadth of how the coronavirus has spread across the country. Considering also that many of the children enrolled in Tour de Force are immunocompromised — Namine included — canceling dance in favor of social distancing is in everyone’s best interests right now.
This Is How We Roll
We were just about to announce Namine’s participation in this year’s This Is How We Roll Fashion Show. But no longer: the Bryon Riesch Paralysis Foundation, which sponsors the show, has announced its cancellation.
Of course this only makes sense. Even if entire cities were not being closed, many of the individuals participating in the fashion show are medically fragile and immunocompromised, much like Namine’s friends in Tour de Force. They hope to have the show once more next year.
School is not canceled
Parochial and public schools in Wisconsin are being mandatorily closed, by order of the governor. This includes the home-school co-op Namine attends, but it does not affect her full-time school, Rural Virtual Academy.
You might ask why, and you would be right to do so. I have mentioned before that it is a public school, complete with a physical presence; Namine simply attends virtually, through our (mostly Jessica’s) teaching and online attendance. This is all true, and after Tony Evers’ announcement that all Wisconsin schools must close, there was much internal discussion and debate as to whether that also affected RVA’s online students. (Whether it did or not, Jessica and I never planned on stopping Namine’s schooling. Since we’re her main teachers — except her science class — there was no reason to.)
The good news just came from RVA’s administration that online education would continue as normal. In-person activities are suspended for the time being, but online classes like Namine’s science class will continue. As Wisconsin’s schools transition to online learning, we are fortunate that RVA already has that infrastructure in place.
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