Junior ballroom dancing club Alaudo, like all professional team sports in Latvia, has been affected by a new rule from the health ministry banning group trainings indoors and competitions until the 13th of November.

At the same time of introducing these measures to sports trainings, the Latvian government allowed up to 300 people to gather in public events, both indoors and outdoors, as long as they keep socially distanced.

With an all time high number of cases recorded this week the government has announced that this will stop tomorrow when all restaurants, bars and cafes are forced to close.

Children training ballroom dancing are finding these restrictions very difficult as for the past month trainings could only take place individually or remotely.

The dance club SDK Alaudo founder and head trainer Kristaps Cīrulis said that the uncertainty has been the most difficult to deal with.

“Now even the trainers ask the question, what are we training for? The trainers are also losing some motivation. That’s the hardest, the uncertainty, what will be and when,” said Cirulis. 

Cīrulis says that it is very hard on the students no matter how advanced their dancing is. The students who come just for fun or their parents who make them find no more joy in the trainings.

However, the students who take it seriously are losing motivation as they don’t know what they are working towards.

With all competitions canceled it has left the dance community clueless whether they will resume in a month, in March or only after a year.

Not only is the student’s motivation struggling with the restrictions, but the trainers are finding the new rules very hard to grasp because this is their primary source of income. If the trainings are forced to stop then so does their income.

(Quotes have been translated from Latvian)