It's the heat wave of the 19th July 2022 and I've just got up after a long night in and out of bed, covers kicked on and off, kids waking because it's just to hot. 35° degrees and all the windows are open and the fans are on. I've got a spray bottle close by to spray myself and my kids down to lower the temperature and I've got frozen ice bottles under all the fans and guess what it hasn't cooled down the house much. So it dawned on me that although at one of the halls where I teach is fairly ventilated with lots of windows and theres two fans in there I definitely don't think it will be enough to teach a dance class safely. The hall is by the sea but so is my house so I don't think that the sea breeze is going to help either considering my attempts to cool down my own house after sunset and before sunrise was almost impossible, my class is a 7pm when the sun will be out beating on the windows of the hall. I know that even slight sunshine the blinds need closing and we have swapped the original upbeat warm up to a slow one. Several years ago I had done a course in dance safety with Sidi and it benefited me tremendously. Just a little knowledge in ventilation and safe temperature health and safety law provided me with knowledge of how to keep my students safe. In the past I had trained with different teachers (not just belly dance) in extreme temperatures and freezing cold temperatures both of which are not good at all. You can cause yourself more damage by practicing in temperatures that are to high or to low. Ideally 21° degree is suitable for dancers. Let's not forget that we attract students of all ages and many many have health conditions that may be affected by the heat not to mention anyone can get heat stroke and dehydration. As teachers we have a duty of care to ensure that we are teaching our students safely and although canceling a class could see us loosing money or having hall charges to pay. So what is the legal heat temperature we should be teaching at to ensure our students are dancing safely? Between 18° - 24° degrees celsius 21° being ideal and do take into consideration that indoor heat maybe hotter that what it is outdoors depending on ventilation ect. If the hall studio or place where you teach has air conditioning that's amazing but most places don't and you still have to make sure the temperature does not go under 18° degrees.
Here is an informative article about safe dance temperature here where you can read about safe dance temperature.
