Learning Dance in the Age of COVID-19

 

Merryn McKeough performs with Emory Dance Company

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

This semester, only first year students and selected others are on campus at Emory. Dance and movement studies majors and minors were invited to campus because of importance of in-person dance training. Studios have been modified to accommodate safe physical distancing and to comply with Emory’s health and safety regulations. In addition, class sizes have been reduced. The Dance Program is also offering several online classes to serve students who are not able to take class in person.

Merryn McKeough is a third-year student majoring in dance and movement studies and psychology. She is taking primarily in-person dance courses this semester. Although McKeough’s technique courses mostly feature the same material as before the COVID-19 outbreak, one element that she finds valuable has been altered. With the omission of contact specific material such as partnering work and physical feedback, McKeough misses how working with a partner would draw her attention to new sensations. Social aspects of class have also been hindered such as talking in groups while warming up. McKeough feels that “It's harder to foster that kind of connection while six feet apart.”

McKeough’s has adjusted her approach to technique courses this semester. She now must divide her attention between the course material and spatial awareness. Before the pandemic, she would transition into what she calls her “movement headspace” and connect to her body by closing her eyes during somatic exercises and warm-up. Now, she finds herself having to be cautious of moving outside of her square (taped on the floor to maintain distance between dancers). She says that “Learning combinations require a heightened spatial awareness, as I don't want to get too close to another mover.”

Continuing to train in dance while following social distance protocol is a challenge we must experience until it is safe again to engage in physical contact. These times will not last forever, but when asked if there are any components of socially distance technique courses that McKeough would like to remain post-pandemic, she answered: “The boxes on the floor are helpful in ballet class for learning the positions of the body. I also like the additional space provided by smaller class sizes, although I do miss getting to know more people through dance classes."

Emory Dance Company Choreographer Julio Medina

Photo from Medina's Fall 2019 EDC piece form & fragment

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

This fall, Emory Dance faculty member Julio Medina is creating a dance film with dancers in the Emory Dance Company that addresses the issue of racism in our country. As a starting point, he analyzed poetry that looks at racism, by poets such as Rita Dove, Langston Hughes, and Jericho Brown, who is an Emory faculty member in the Creative Writing Program. 

Medina decided to create a dance film since the pandemic does not allow for a live audience. In the film, Medina wants to convey a sense of connection and community between his dancers without physical touch and with distance. Medina stated, “This is going to be the most difficult, especially with a topic like racism, where a way to combat this is by showing bodies that can support each other, respect each other, and take care of each other. How do you do that when you can’t touch or hug or hold a hand? That will be a creative limit to explore in this piece."

 

During rehearsals, Medina encourages his dancers to create their own solos, duets, and trios from prompts that he provides through their exploration process. Medina believes that there should be a balance between the choreography that he teaches and allowing the dancers to share their own creative input; he wants to develop a very open and collaborative space to create. Dancers gain inspiration and challenge their ideas through free writing, poetry reading, and sharing, which effectively leads them to create movement. In addition to creating movement, Medina must also decide how to frame the bodies in shots, how to manage the lighting, and how to choose locations to create context for the choreography.

The main takeaway that Medina would like for his dancers to obtain from this process is that “dance-making and art-making can be a healing process and that we can have fun while doing this.” Medina is not quantifying the success of his film through views or going viral; instead he wants to reflect on the process of exploring such a difficult and complex topic like racism in a productive way. He hopes to inspire his dancers to make their own art or to make sense of the things that happen in this world.  

Teaching In-person and Online: Jazz Instructor Tara Shepard Myers

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

Tara Shepard Myers is an instructor for the Emory Dance Program who primarily teaches jazz. This semester, she is teaching Jazz II and III in person and Jazz IV online. Although the physical format of these courses is different, the way the class is taught for all three remains the same. For both the in-person and online courses, the dancers start class with a warm-up, followed by strengthening and technical exercises, and end with center work. The only major difference Myers has found between the two is the limited ability of online dancers to perform “across the floor” movements, due to the smaller amount of space available for them to execute larger movements such as leaps. 

For Myers’ in-person courses, she has noticed a few challenges. She stated that “Of course, there are always challenges when using a space in a different way, or adapting to a new way of teaching, especially if you have been doing it one particular way for a while.” Initially, there was a challenge with wearing a mask through the physical rigor of a dance course, but Myers stated that you eventually get used to it. Having to shift material to fit into socially distanced boxes and lines (taped on the floor) has also raised unique challenges within the course. With these new boundaries, Myers has had to amend some of her material and the way she teaches it. Students have also had to adapt how they learn to these constraints. 

This semester will be Myers’s first full semester teaching online, following the quick transition to virtual learning in March. In the spring, Myers presented more asynchronous material due to the limited time to adapt a movement course to an online format. After having the summer to fully plan and adjust course material, most of her class meetings are now synchronous. She has noticed that through continued use, her Canvas* skills have improved, and she has added new methods for assessing students’ progress in her courses. 

While the adjustment to new teaching and learning formats has been a challenge at times, Myers and her students are working diligently to adapt. When asked how she felt her students are ultimately adjusting to these new formats she commented: “The students have been awesome! They have adapted with, it would seem, no [major] problems!”

*Canvas is an online learning management tool.

Emory Dance Company Choreographer Lori Teague

Photo from Teague's Fall 2019 EDC piece the optimistic body.

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

This fall, Emory Dance faculty member Lori Teague will set a series of site-specific works on the Emory Dance Company. Her first work in the series is “capacity,” which is inspired by current protests. Teague wants to shed a light on the many people who are “...fiercely standing their ground, walking in solidarity, and all of us who are expecting results.”  The pieces in the series following “capacity” will capture qualities of beauty and whims, which are two things Teague believes are needed at the moment.

 

Teague approaches the choreographic process by creating core material that is explored both in rehearsal and by the dancers during a performance. She creates a structure that allows the performers to know the intention and general structure of the piece well, while still allowing space for improvised movements. In the group’s rehearsal process, they discuss topics such as the protests, then explore the meanings of their gestures and actions that emerge from their conversation. These movements are then shaped, refined, and moved into performance mode. Rehearsals take place in the dance studio and at the performance sites. 

 

Teague describes the rehearsal process as follows: “In a recent rehearsal, on the road between the hospital and Candler Library, the dancers felt the power of stillness, the challenge of dancing on an incline and a hard surface, the heat, and more. We are bringing these things into the creative process and allowing them to influence the performance.”

 

The pandemic has impacted Teague’s decision to present works over the course of the semester rather than waiting until November, when the Emory Dance Company normally performs. Social distance influenced her piece's movement elements such as spatial composition and interaction between dancers. However, Teague has discovered that this is not so much a restriction, but a chance to discover creative ways to communicate something important to the audience. Through solos, duets, and trios, Teague is striving to “...capture the compartmentalized way we have had to quarantine and mask our bodies.”

Teague has a few things that she would like for her dancers to take away from this process. She wants them to begin to discover the potential of spaces outside of a traditional theater. By relating to these spaces intentionally, instead of randomly, this can strengthen works. She also wants them to know that “We can bring art to the people sometimes!”

 

Once the pandemic subsides, Teague believes that there may be more site-specific pieces due to how the Atlanta dance community has adapted to this format. She notes that although many festivals and performances were shut down in the spring, dance companies came back and discovered new ways to present their works by taking to the streets, parking decks, backyards, and open-air venues. As Teague put it, “If there is a will, there is a way.”