Another Landmark Postmodern Dance Piece You Can Perform At Home

Last week it was one by Yvonne Rainer. This week it’s Trisha Brown’s 1971 Roof Piece, in which “dancers scattered themselves across the roofs of SoHo and played a dance version of the game Telephone.” Recently members of the Trisha Brown Dance Company got together on Zoom to do an adaptation they call Room/Roof Piece — and they recommend that you get some friends together and do the same. Here’s how. – The New York Times

This Ballet Company Is Sending Practice Barres And Special Flooring To Its Dancers In Lockdown

Says the Head of Performance Health at Queensland Ballet in Brisbane, “They’ve been using everything from bench tops, to tables to ironing boards as well as ballet barres, and practicing on surfaces that can be slippery. Keeping 60 company dancers fit and injury-free is challenging at the best of times. At least now we know they have a small surface and barre which is closer to their normal situation, where they can practice safely.” – Limelight (Australia)

How Dancers In The U.K. Are Pulling Together In The Face Of Uncertainty And Fear

The dancers, especially the freelancers, are facing terrible losses of income and camaraderie, not to mention fitness opportunities. “Self-training isn’t anything new to dancers, but in the absence of daily classes or a trip to the gym, that chance to continue to train alongside others, even virtually, has offered a vital form of connection during a time of sudden change; a reminder that we’re not in this alone.” – The Stage (UK)

Online Dance Parties Are The New Clubs, Workouts, And Social Life

Dance classes, “clubbing” from home, and other dance-related videos (and Instagram Stories, Zooms, etc.) are keeping loneliness at bay as nearly everyone has orders to shelter in place. Some are very much like in-person life: “Attendees often dress up for a night out, even if their corner of the party is located in their living rooms. A bouncer will eject party-goers who don’t follow the rules. Attendees can even make a donation via PayPal, an approximation of a cover charge that organizers use to pay the DJs and drag artists who perform each night.” – Globe and Mail (Canada)

Boston’s Principal Ballerina In Canceled Carmen Says ‘It Feels Like The Stage Was Pulled Out From Under Us’

Lia Cirio: “For a few days I was really in wallowing mode, just watching Netflix and not being very active. But then my mom sent me a quote on Instagram that said ‘Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems,’ and that inspired me to do something to help me cope. … I created some shirts to sell, and the profits benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank and the Boston Artists Relief Fund that they just set up. The design is just something simple— [they say] ‘Art heals, wash your hands.'” – Boston Magazine

How Dance Helps Me Think And Thinking Helps Me Dance

For most of my career, dancing and academic research were two separate but equally weighted spheres. However, over the years, I have become more and more aware that many people viewed dance as a less valuable way of thinking and working. Dance, in their minds, was a purely emotive activity consisting of uncritical, spontaneous movement or a purely athletic endeavour whose sole purpose is to defy our body’s physical limits. Part of the reason why this view of dance persists, I think, stems from a deeply rooted prejudice against embodied vocations. – Aeon