Photo courtesy of Morgan Maccione
After an abrupt end to the Spring semester, resulting in the cancellation of the Dance Department and major capstone performances, Connecticut College dancers are more eager than ever to be moving again. However, with COVID-19 restrictions and a constantly changing world, how do artists reimagine what it means to perform? As Dance Club Co-President, I am realizing first hand what it takes to break the traditional rules of dancing to follow the new rules of health and safety. Beloved Professors Ellie Goudie-Averill, Shawn Hove, and Lisa Race all shared their experiences tackling the unprecedented challenge of innovating dance performance in a modern, pandemic world. Additionally, in response to the global racial justice movement, the Department is committed to creating anti-racist works and focusing academics on exposing and dismantling systemic racism in our dance community.
Professor Hove innovatively used technology to facilitate rehearsals and classes while preparing to choreograph his own piece. To ensure hybrid classes work for in-person and remote students, he acted as both professor and student, teaching and taking dance classes through Zoom to see what worked best. Wide-angle lenses, multiple camera angles, microphones, and other equipment loaned from the Media Service Department were just some of the many tools used to make movement classes seamless for everyone. Nonetheless, “There’s always something more,” he said. “I’m never satisfied.” This has been his philosophy for years, and his perfectionism and persistence lend themselves well to the constant innovation COVID demands. “I love to break rules and we have to break rules in art-making now,” he said, and it is true. COVID rules and regulations render the rules of traditional choreographing and performance irrelevant.
In addition to regular classes, the annual faculty repertory works have had to reexamine typical performance practices. In lieu of standard auditions typically held in the spacious, sun-filled Myers Studio, the Department decided to use a sign-up sheet online for upperclassmen interested in performing faculty Repertory work while providing a separate performance opportunity for first-year students. This format not only allowed rehearsals to begin during onboarding quarantine on campus, but also took into account remote students around the country and world, allowing them to still be included in the Department’s close-knit community. Rehearsals began over Zoom in dorm rooms, backyards, and basements, and when the college transitioned to Phase 2, Tempel Green and the Arboretum became the new go-to rehearsal spaces as the studios were strictly regulated with cleaning supplies, taped floors, and occupancy limitations.
Professor Goudie-Averill, whose choreography is inspired by Life in a Box is a Pretty Life by activist-poet Dawn Lundy Martin, looks forward to outdoor events that will make the campus feel alive. She is guided by the ideas of “movement as protest” and “the power of bodies in protest” as so much of the Civil Rights movement involves bodies refusing to move or moving together, such as bus boycotts and protest marches. She explores violence and sensuality, the collective and the individual, and the literal and the abstract with her work. Her 17 dancers gather twice a week in the evenings on Tempel Green, and the rehearsal process becomes a performance for those enjoying their dinner at dusk. The vast outdoor space provides both benefits and drawbacks. Although the dancers have ample room to move, Professor Goudie-Averill feels challenged by the scale and works to frame the choreography so that the audience will not feel overwhelmed by the sheer expanse of the stage. Nonetheless, she said, “Outside, it feels much more free and it’s much more clear that it’s ok, it’s safe to be together.” Her own experience performing in site-specific work proves invaluable during the rehearsal process, and she believes in giving homage to the location rather than treating it as just an available space. Though the karaoke machine and microphone invoke a music festival feeling during rehearsals, she recently began incorporating live music from alum Asa Peters ‘19 as well as poetry recitations from some of the dancers.
Professor Race has found inspiration in the Arboretum with her rehearsals running alongside the water. The wooden structures and sloping hills serve as a natural set for her work. Originally imagining a large cast spread across Tempel, she is now working with just six dancers due to COVID measures and the new modular schedule that made finding common rehearsal time difficult. Her choreographic style often involves contact and physical connection in duets or small groups which is also no longer possible. However, this allows the dancers to work more collaboratively in the creative process. Professor Race gives movement assignments in-between their three weekly meetings to allow for more efficient rehearsal time. In keeping with the Department’s commitment to anti-racism, she also assigns various readings and articles that the dancers infuse into their choreographic assignments. Unlike past years, she meets with the dancers more than once weekly which she said is a “good system” that allows students to be more deeply focused. Rehearsals first began on Zoom with Professor Race dancing in Myers studio using Professor Hove’s new teaching set-up, then the dancers later gathered outside. The karaoke machine proved too unwieldy to carry through the hilly Arbo, so the dancers contributed their own bluetooth speakers and phones to help facilitate the unconventional process.
Though Professor Hove does not begin his rehearsals until the second module, he is already taking note of what has been working best in classes and rehearsals. His cast includes both remote and on-campus dancers, so he is imagining ways to ship lighting materials and other technology to remote students to recreate a theater lighting experience on a much smaller scale. He is considering including spoken word elements, live music, and more technology than the other repertory pieces. Though he does not typically create political work, themes of anger and discomfort as well as recognizing the historical silencing of BIPOC artists in the world are on the forefront of his mind. Like Professor Race, his small cast size excites him, and the constant challenges that come each week breed creativity.
Looking forward, the Department recognizes that traditional performances will not return for a while, but in the digital age, unconventional theater and virtual showings are growing in popularity. For site-specific work, they want to question why those locations are chosen, and for filming, how can the camera be choreographed to complement and transform the dancing? Despite setbacks and less than ideal circumstances, optimism and enthusiasm prevail among the professors. In reflecting upon the trials and unexpected shifts everyone has experienced, Professor Race expresses her hope: “I just have to believe that it’s going to make you stronger in ways that you don’t know yet.”
