By Jessica Micallef
Amy Citroen fears the future of her dance and cheer school is bleak without government funding to support the performing arts industry.
Signature Cheer and Dance Studio’s doors have been closed for 20 weeks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ms Citroen says it is unlikely they would open again in 2020.
“The Gisborne location we had to close for the remainder of the year because we hire a school venue and they won’t allow us into the venue,” she said.
“The Department of Health and Human Services has directed the school that only essential personnel are allowed on the property so they are not hiring out the space.
“With Sunbury being metropolitan, we couldn’t reopen.”
When restrictions eased for a short period of time in June, fitness centres including gyms and dance schools were allowed to reopen.
But Ms Citroen made the decision to wait until term 3 to reopen her doors.
“There was only five days left of the term for all the kids before school holidays so we decided … to open fresh for term 3 but those plans were squashed,” she said.
Due to the studio’s closure, staff have had their hours cut back and the business had taken a big hit financially.
“I had some staff doing five to 10 hours now only doing one hour,” Ms Citroen said.
“Only one of my staff qualified for JobKeeper … and our student base has been reduced to about 30 per cent of what it was at the start of the year.”
Ms Citroen has transitioned her students to online classes, but she says the switch has not been easy.
“We have kids that do not necessarily live in town, they live on the outskirts and tend to have poorer internet so there are days they cannot get on,” she said.
“We have been getting floods of emails of people telling me they are going to come back next year [but] it’s at the point where I don’t know if I am coming back next year.”
