Friday, October 29, 2021
The pandemic was the final blow for some dance companies. How do the survivors stay nimble?
The Washington Post: Sloan Pearson was expecting good news from the Zoom call with her director and fellow members of Taylor 2, the dance troupe she’d performed with for four years. With only six dancers, the group was an intimate, highly mobile offshoot of the celebrated Paul Taylor Dance Company, designed to bring Taylor’s beautifully made works to colleges and small towns.
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The way the dance industry functions in operation has, in all of its aspects, been made a vulnerability with the pandemic. This article highlights just how all aspects of the dance industry just could not adapt to the ever-changing needs of safety protocols and consumer demand. One of the biggest parts of this industry that I hadn’t really thought about was dance and rehearsal spaces. Unlike educational performance, most performance organizations actually need space outside of their performance venues to rehearse and conduct business. With the complete loss of demand due to the pandemic, I’m not surprised many of these spaces shut down for good. It is just extremely upsetting because smaller performance companies need these spaces to exist for their work, and without them, what will survive? It’s already hitting these smaller dance companies in the revenue loss and the wounds will only continue to bleed. I hope the bleeding stops soon, for the sake of the accessibility of art and the employment of artists.
The way the dance industry functions in operation has, in all of its aspects, been made a vulnerability with the pandemic. This article highlights just how all aspects of the dance industry just could not adapt to the ever-changing needs of safety protocols and consumer demand. One of the biggest parts of this industry that I hadn’t really thought about was dance and rehearsal spaces. Unlike educational performance, most performance organizations actually need space outside of their performance venues to rehearse and conduct business. With the complete loss of demand due to the pandemic, I’m not surprised many of these spaces shut down for good. It is just extremely upsetting because smaller performance companies need these spaces to exist for their work, and without them, what will survive? It’s already hitting these smaller dance companies in the revenue loss and the wounds will only continue to bleed. I hope the bleeding stops soon, for the sake of the accessibility of art and the employment of artists. (other comment had no name whoops)
It makes me sad to think about all the dance companies that have disappeared over the course of the pandemic. I spent a ton of time in a local ballet studio growing up so it's a medium of performance that has always been near and dear to my heart.
It must be rough for people that want to be professional dancers. A lot of the ones that I knew as a kid are now in their thirties and their bodies are a wreck due to the high levels of stress that they put themselves through during training. For many of them, the tradeoff is that, for a time, they are operating at their peak and deliver emotion through their movements. It must be heartbreaking to put your body through so much stress only to have a pandemic strip you of what one in that position must consider the peak of their careers.
It's a shame how this last year and a half has affected so many people.
Dance has to be one of the hardest-hit industries of the pandemic because live dance is such an intimate performance. While Zoom theatre sucks, it can still sell tickets. Dance needs the personal connection between audience and performer to make sense. Dance also depends on physical presence in respect to lessons, workshops, etc. I’m unsure exactly how the dance workforce will move forward. The use of dance to create impactful activism through the film is interesting and exciting. It utilizes medium to make dance more versatile in how it is consumed. I respect dance very deeply, but the difference between seeing a dancer physically and feeling the energy is palpable. I think to make dance as impactful in a digital medium, dance needs to be married with other art forms. Cinematography and editing can help create similar energy to physical dance. I’m interested to see how the industry innovates itself and moves forward after this catastrophe.
COVID-19 has destroyed many many arts organizations. However, until reading this, I hadn’t considered the unique situation of dance companies, which are generally much smaller and dependent on a full time company. I can’t imagine my entire life, which is spent on the road with a tiny group of people who I spend all of my personal and creative time with, being ended overnight. This article illuminates the crushing reality of the pandemic on small dance companies in the United States, and raises the question of how dancers can survive when the dance company model crumbles. There are creative solutions to find in this article: independent dancing for film and social justice work through dance are both compelling cases. However, these are one off creators who found their niche this way. I hope as in person performance comes back on larger scales, dance companies are able to regrow and give dancers a home and livelihood again.
The NYC dance survey results are even more shocking than the survey that was done about women working in theatre in the UK. I guess there hasn’t been a lot of press about how the pandemic has effected dance just has much as theatre. It makes me wonder if there has been any government funding for dance companies or if it has all gone specifically to theatre companies. Reading about how dance companies models are I would agree that there may need to be some shifting for them to continue on. Interests of the 21st century have been leaning away from live performance with the increase in technology. With how theatre has been hit, I can imagine that dance has taken an even greater hit in the interest of the masses. It is sad for me to hear about the struggles of this art form because management in dance is a place that I was hoping my career would take me one day.
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