From My Window to Yours is a working title of a Work In Progress based around the COVID-19 pandemic. I gathered the dancers for their first virtual rehearsal. We discussed a question to ask the public. We received many responses from people all over the world.
I was inspired by the people of Italy and Spain singing out of their windows and cheering the health care workers. Now, two weeks after this “beginning” every night at 7pm I too go out on my balcony and clap for two minutes. I developed these seed movements/ gestures based on this photo of a woman from Stamford, CT in TIME Magazine.
It became apparent that this was the new norm as people began social distancing. The box was also a theme.
I asked the dancers to learn the seed movements and record themselves in and out of their windows.
Vulnerable strength was everywhere! This is a snapshot of one of the dancers doing a back exercise I developed. They all learned parts of it and I linked them through their phrases. #alonetogether
A static or delay during our group meetings made it difficult to be synchronized. They began learning movements together with a metronome so when they were apart would be on the counts with the correct tempo.
I wanted to make sure we showed the sunny part of this or the silver lining and not make everything doom and gloom.
We have a very diverse company, representing cultures from Japan, Italy, Chile, Hawaii, Lithuania, and the United States. As this pandemic is a universal situation, I wanted all of their voices to be heard. We also have been collaborating with a guest dancer who identifies as a dancer of disability. This virus affects all people. The company dancers begin singing out of their windows in their native languages.
I hope this process will help people, as we are sharing our journey of the New Work, the good, the bad, and the ugly, process things and see there is light at the end of all this darkness.
Video link: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Agx6_oUW24pig6kACUasH2i2qOm8vw