The New York Times: Bubble, part of the growing coronavirus vocabulary — the R-factor, zoonotic, sheltering in place — can be used as a noun (“My bubble with 25 other dancers”) or a verb (“Yes, 25! We were bubbling!”).
Either way, bubbling has gained traction in the dance world as companies and organizations try to find ways of bringing artists together to create work in a safe environment. That involves rules, medical protocols, tests and vigilance, and it requires a presiding authority to decide what those should be.
4 comments:
It sometimes so easy to forget that the theatre and film communities are not the only artists who are suffering from the pandemic. Anytime I see an article that a dance or opera company is finding ways to get back on their feet I feel so happy and proud of them. It might be safe to assume that many dance companies work on significantly less funds than the average theatre does, so to see that some companies are safely starting back up again even with all the obstacles and financial burdens thrown at them is truly an amazing feat. I love that outstanding safety precautions are being taken to keep everyone safe at the Dance Theater of Harlem and love that “bubbles” are becoming more and more common. I know that the Royal Ballet in England is taking very similar precautions and is also creating “bubbles”, which gives me hope that dancers everywhere will soon be allowed back in their studios again. If we think Zoom theatre is hard, I imagine live dancing on Zoom is ten times harder.
It makes me so happy to see Art and Science coming together like this to make a safe working environment for artists to continue making art during the time of theatre. Also the history of the doctor was really fascinating I think her insight of previously being a dancer made her the perfect referral for the expert on handling this sort of situation. Also who knew the Rockettes had a doctor, I did not but it does make a lot of sense in hindsight. I think modeling the process after the NBA’s protocol is a logically approach to the bubble situation since they have had a majorly successful result thus far. As happy as I am to see companies implementing this as the article mentioned it’s a really expensive protocol to have in place and because of that I don’t think it’s application will be able to be widespread in the arts industry.
I personally think it is so weird that sports right now can continue as somewhat usual whereas arts have been put on hold because of the accessibility of testing and funding. It's wonderful that this ballet has found a way to replicate the protocol of the sports world. I think it is also very good that the program is supervised by a medical doctor and the doctor has had previous dance experience so she has a very good understanding of how a ballet company functions. I think that this ballet company is very lucky. They are able to continue doing their art without much risk whereas so many other people are out of work or working in conditions that may make them uncomfortable. I wish that this type of testing and bubbling was more accessible to the performing arts as a whole. I wonder if with the hopeful increase of rapid testing it will become more accessible so those can continue their art together in person.
The amount of new vocabulary surrounding COVID-19 is notable, and bubble in its new context is really fascinating. While creating a bubble obviously demonstrates a significant amount of privilege, considering the extreme amount of financial resources it requires, it does seem that a bubble might become the way that performance that physically needs to be together continues. It makes a lot of sense that dance companies are working in bubbles now and investing in this expensive solution. I think it is really awesome that the doctor who is taking a leading role in this happens to be a former dancer herself, and this clearly gave her a deeper connection to making this work. I am curious to see if “bubbling” becomes the next new virus related industry, and if there will essentially be a hotel system where other people can bubble. For example, maybe companies who want to have a conference with a group of people might take to bubbling. It certainly will be interesting to see if this takes off.
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