Dancing to survive: Competitions help Stranahan Theater weather the pandemic storm

May 10—For the past 15 months arts venues across the country have had to metaphorically tap dance just to keep the lights on.

The coronavirus pandemic meant touring shows were canceled, social gatherings were discouraged, and strict audience limits meant the economic break even-point was nowhere in sight.

How do you put on a show when you can't put on a show?

At the Stranahan Theater on South Heatherdowns Boulevard in Toledo — best known for its popular Broadway in Toledo series — that dance marathon has become literal.

As with most event venues, the Stranahan had to cope with a slew of health guidelines in order to reopen, with space rentals for wedding receptions becoming a frequent occurrence in the theater's great hall.

Then the state updated it's health orders last fall that added dancing to the list of forbidden activities because experts feared it would spread the coronavirus. As a result, brides-to-be decided they would be putting their wedding dates on hold.

"If father and bride can't dance, or newlyweds can't dance, it makes the celebration somewhat lackluster," said Steve Hyman, executive director of the Stranahan. Just as dates for Broadway shows disappeared from the theater's calendar, so too did the wedding ceremonies.

But there was a loophole in Ohio's rules: while strutting your stuff at wedding parties became forbidden, the same didn't apply to youth ballet, jazz and other dancers who wanted to chassé across the stage during competitions.

With traveling Broadway productions on hold, the theater has become a weekly destination for hundreds of dancers, along with their coaches and families.

Income from these competitions not only helps the Stranahan stay afloat, but also brings more money into the community, Hyman said.

"The economic impact of these things is absolutely enormous and almost ignored or not even appreciated by the powers that be," he said. "These dance competitions have become a little smaller in the sense that they're on the weekends rather than 6-7 days, but they still have the same kind of impact economically on the community (because) most of these folks are coming from outside or traveling, buying gas, or eating at a restaurant."

It also works in favor of the competitors, particularly those from Michigan where stricter health guidelines nixed many competitions.

Elaine Nickoli, owner and manager of Dance Expressions Studio in Holland, said her students typically compete throughout Ohio — including at the Stranahan — and parts of Michigan. She's thankful that Ohio has more relaxed protocols that have allowed her dancers to continue practicing and compete, especially compared to Michigan where many competitions were canceled. Some fellow dance studio owners up north were forced to stay closed.

That doesn't mean everyone's happy with the health guidelines dance groups have to follow to compete.

Competitions have always been a flurry of activity, with dancers, coaches, families, and judges bustling about. Now dance groups have to rush and get ready to compete on specific days and at specific times.

As a result, judges no longer get to review dancers in one day who are all competing in the same category and score them accordingly. But with the health restrictions and subsequent block scheduling, Nickoli said judges have to score dancers in each school and track how they did in the various categories before tallying the results.

For comparison purposes, think of how gymnastics judges scoring participants one after the other in categories such as floor exercise and parallel bars before ranking the best competitors. Under these similar guidelines for the dance competitions, those judges would have to score gymnasts from each team for various categories on different days before determining a winner.

"If you dance on Friday, those judge's brains are getting tired by Sunday and are they going to remember how someone was scored," Nickoli said? "Especially if you go on the first block of the competition, you don't know if they're going to score you low in the competition if they don't have anything to compare it to."

She added that she and other dance studio owners she talks to agree that as much as they don't like it, "We're going to put up with block scheduling because that's the only way we're going to have a season."

Hyman agrees the guidelines are not always ideal, especially when recalling how these events and others would bring in more revenue through concessions. But like Nickoli, he'd rather have these events than nothing at all.

"There's one very simple way to look at it: when the building is dark, we make nothing. When the lights are on and there are people in the great hall of the theater — whether it's for a wedding or if it's for a dance recital — that means means we're making something," he said. "One hundred percent of nothing is still nothing, and any form of revenue or income that we can make will help offset the costs of running this building."

And there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Wedding events are expected to resume in May while Broadway and other shows are being scheduled beginning in late September and early October.

Even so, unless Ohio raises the audience limit from the current 25 percent capacity to 75 or 100 percent, Hyman believes those shows will likely be postponed further out, which means the wait for shows such as the Lion King, which was postponed again from this summer, might be much longer.

As it stands, Hyman said he couldn't tell audiences when Lion King would return, even if he had the exact dates.

"If I could, (Disney) would fly in that evening and assassinate me, so I'm not at liberty to tell you anything because I want to live," Hyman joked. "I can tell you it's in the works and they're working extremely hard to make sure we get and maintain those dates."

In the meantime, the continuation of dance competitions at the Stranahan, even with restrictions, and tentative plans for Broadway and weddings to return there as well, is viewed as a step in the right direction. Maybe even a two-step.

First Published May 9, 2021, 7:30am