BODYTASKING. ANALYSIS AND PERCEPTIONS OF A DISTANCE DANCE EXPERIENCE.

To stop the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, the Italian government declared a health emergency, imposing the national lockdown. A year later, the pandemic still blocks the non-professional sports sectors, including gyms and dance schools, to reopen. The distance created with remote, online training session might deprive all the cognitive, emotional, social and communication development expressed in the embodied theories. To investigate the perception of distanced learning in physical education, the multidisciplinary research team used the novel, holistic, dance-based intervention named bodytasking. Eight sessions, one each Monday, were carried out by two teachers between December 2020 and February 2021. Five students aged range between 6 and 10 years old, all girls took part in the study. Qualitative interviews were collected during and after the dance intervention to report students and teachers perspective on distanced learning. The results showed the benefits and the deficits of carrying out a sports practice in distanced learning. We reported the importance of using Information and Communications Technology tools such as videos and music tracks to challenge and stimulate the students and the role that imagination plays in the learning process.