Images by Matthew Grandy (https://www.matthewgrandy.com/?fbclid=IwAR3_Qy_ao_iKv45Pnfxf0uM3C8i5fSBFMrXUpHwTrFvx8UiM9O1LEdL2Xw)
COVID-19 has brought forth a time of incredibly isolating experiences that have turned lives and livelihoods upside down. Rising stress and anxiety levels have made it difficult to continue at times, but people push through. Part of what gets me through is art, whether that be music, pictures, or dance. I myself have been feeling less creative at the present moment, but I wanted to know how others were dealing with the present situation. I reached out to Gadria Conlan ‘21, a member of the group Dance Community Conversations, to see how the broader dance community was dealing with these uncertain times.
Dance Community Conversations began to create a community at all times, but especially during the incredibly isolating times of a pandemic. Anyone can join and post articles, videos, or thoughts on adult dance and movement. They also put on events, including Friday Dance Parties over Zoom, and Outdoor Improv Sessions.
The first time Conlan attended a Friday Dance Party was just after George Floyd’s death. From 7:30-8:00pm people can check in and chat. That night, it was focusing more on racism and the national protests. 8pm onwards is a time to dance, experiment, and let things go. Becky Zeh, a member of the community, usually DJs the event; she experiments by playing music from different types of artists and music from other cultures. The event is also open to those who can’t dance in a traditional sense, or just want to watch.
Conlan helped put together the Outdoor Improv session. She remembered that they wanted to find a way to get together in person and had not danced with others since she was sent home from her semester abroad in New Zealand. They ended up dancing in extra-distanced spray-painted circles near Haupt Pond, and limited the number of people that could come in order to make it as safe as possible. There were props available for the dancers, and a photographer took pictures at a safe distance. Conlan and the two other organizers, Denise McDonald and Becky Zeh, created prompts to inspire movement. They had mirroring and meditative exercises where dancers were encouraged to interact with each other in different ways. Conlan’s prompt was an emotional one; dancers would express a particular emotion through movement, and then notice how it complimented or contrasted the music that was being played. The entire improv process is incredibly creative, but not being confined to a studio with four walls inspired more creativity. The exploration of new spaces and movement has been “freeing” to Conlan.
The dance studio comes with a history of judgment, rigidity, and systemic racism. Conlan struggled under the pressure and felt that she was not creative, or was not “good” because she couldn’t move her body in the ways others could. She was constantly comparing herself, and she needed a break from this toxicity. She told me about a particularly emotional moment at an outdoor improv session (not put on by Dance Community Conversations), where she danced with a piece of rope for six minutes. At the end she did not feel like she did a good job, but the feedback she received was genuine and supportive. The community outside of the studio and stage was completely different, and she felt “more free in that moment, of being outside, dancing on a bridge with rope.”. There was “lots of value and validation,” and she had “never felt the way [she] felt in that moment in the studio.”
Isolation from the studios has allowed Conlan to “explore what [she] hadn’t been pushed to before,” and her creativity blossomed as a result. The things that she previously found uninteresting are incredibly prominent now as she experiments dancing with different parts of her body in new places, and with different camera techniques. She has embraced the fact that her movement is different from anyone else’s, because we are all unique. She has just started to discover her own style, and is being “more open, more caring, and more gracious with what [her] process is.”
COVID-19 and racial tensions have taken over in the US. They have been isolating, yet they have also led to the creation of groups like Dance Community Conversations. Conlan hopes that in the future more people will start to participate, because it can sometimes feel like she is shouting into the void. Many dancers have not been in studios, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Conlan has inspired me to continue exploring new spaces and be more accepting of my own dancing, and also fight for racial justice in Skidmore’s Dance Department. For the moment, we all have to follow Conlan’s lead; let’s be kind to ourselves and one another, and “rediscover what feels good.” Then we can share, change the culture of dance, and really be a part of something.
