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Collected Item: “Dancing on the Beach”

Give your story a title.

Dancing on the Beach

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Video and photographs

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

As Melbourne moved out of its second winter in lockdown, my Irish dancing classes moved from Zoom to South Melbourne Beach to take advantage of the rules allowing outdoor sport training in small groups. Having to contend with the sun, wind and rain was a new experience for a very indoor activity; so was training in full view of the fascinated public. It was a spectacular chance to post on social media in the setting sun, however. The beach was packed every weeknight with people like us enjoying their outdoor exercise, more than it had ever been before the pandemic. At the rules eased and allowed more indoor activities, people disappeared from the courts and walking paths. Eventually, we returned to indoor activities too. Submitted for University of Melbourne HIST30060, Semester 2 2021.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

dancing,exercise,outdoors,culture,beach,restrictions

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Patrick Gigacz

Give this story a date.

2021-10-23
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