Parents and dancers with the Diverse dance studio protest the Government of Alberta's new COVID-19 restrictions on indoor sports. Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

COVID-19 restrictions

Grande Prairie dancers, families not pleased with new provincial restrictions

Nov 17, 2020 | 6:00 AM

Families that frequent a Grande Prairie dance company are not pleased with the provincial government’s new COVID-19 restrictions.

The new restrictions put a temporary stop to all sporting activities for two weeks in regions listed under Alberta’s COVID-19 watch list. Those regions include Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.

On Monday afternoon, several parents, as well as dancers took to the street outside of the Diverse Dance Company studio located on 100 Avenue downtown to protest the new restrictions.

Lisa Bancesco has a daughter enrolled in dance lessons there. She says that these new measures aren’t fair and are damaging businesses.

“For me, I feel like the two weeks is likely going to turn into four weeks, maybe six weeks, maybe eight weeks. I don’t think it’s going to have the effect that they’re looking for in terms of slowing down the surge.”

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“In my opinion, I think maybe if they want to have a two-week shutdown, it should be for everything to really make a dent in what’s happening. I think just targeting the sports isn’t going to do what they’re hoping to achieve.”

Bancesco tells EverythingGP that based on the data she has seen, it’s not the fault of dance studios or sports teams that cases in the province are rising.

“The studios are taking so many precautions and extra measures to keep everyone safe. If you do look at the stats amongst all of the dance studios in Alberta, there is no evidence that there is community transmission within the dance studio, so the fact that they have been shut down makes no sense.”

While at this point, there is no sign from the government about lifting restrictions, Bancesco added that all they want is a conversation.

“We kind of want to get this conversation at least started, to see if perhaps a different type of measure is more warranted than targeting the studios and indoor sports.”

“For us, it’s not making a whole lot of sense, so we really want the government to engage in a conversation so we can at least understand why we’ve been targeted because it doesn’t make sense right now.”