By Dana Hess

For the S.D. Newspaper Association

Just like high school sports, fine arts are feeling the effects of the pandemic as oral interp contests and the high school journalism convention have been moved online and All-State Chorus and Orchestra has been postponed to next year.

Those actions were taken Thursday, Aug. 13 as the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors met in Pierre.

According to a proposal from SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Brooks Bowman, 85 percent of journalism advisers preferred holding the journalism convention online.

“Virtual workshop sessions can be easily administered,” Bowman’s proposal said.

Oral interp coaches and activities directors were split 50-50 when asked if they preferred in-person or virtual oral interp contests. The association’s speech advisory committee voted 6-1 to move the contests online.

The National Speech and Debate Association has developed a platform for virtual performances, according to Bowman’s proposal. If it proves to be viable, district, region and state oral interp contests will be held there. If not, video-recorded performances may be used.

“Although we would all prefer to provide in-person activities, the ability to move some of our fine arts activities to a virtual format still allows us to provide performance and competitive opportunities to our member schools,” Bowman said.

Just more than 50% of music directors and activities directors voted to postpone All-State Chorus and Orchestra. The Music Advisory Committee voted unanimously to postpone. The event will be held April 19-20, 2021, in Sioux Falls.

Chorus auditions will be held locally and vocal directors must submit their quartets by Oct. 9. Orchestra auditions will be video-recorded and must be submitted to SDHSAA by Oct. 15.