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Danceworks co-producer Connor Muldoon’s last normal day before the coronavirus pandemic was the day of the spring showcase, the organization’s biggest event of the year.

The showcase, held in March, would be the organization’s last performance held in person.

Like most registered student organizations at SU, Danceworks, a student-run dance organization, has had to regroup for the fall 2020 semester and come up with an entirely different playbook.

Auditions, rehearsals and performances that would normally take place in person have become largely virtual, said Chandler Plante, director of Danceworks. She’s taking classes remotely and running the dance group from her home in Tucson, Arizona.

For any rehearsal or performance taking place in person, Danceworks will enforce mask-wearing, social distancing and strict limits on room capacity.

“Dance typically requires people to be in close proximity because of formations,” Plante said. “It sometimes involves partner work. So we’re, at this point, still searching for the safest options.”

During a normal fall semester, Danceworks would be busy planning SU’s Homecoming, an event that typically takes place in September or October.

(From left) KeAra Blanton, Tre Burrows, Asajahnique Collins and Kiara Rice are apart of the dance organization, Creations Dance Company. The four are dancing outside to maintain social distance. Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer

With in-person performances largely postponed due to state and university social distancing guidelines, Homecoming will likely be a virtual event. Other dance organizations will submit videos of dance numbers to be streamed online, Plante said.

“(With Homecoming) we invite all the different dance organizations on campus to perform,” Plante said. “So we’ve had to get creative with that, too. This is so different from anything we’ve ever done.”

The amount of communication between the numerous dance organizations on campus is also different this year, said Miles Johnson, co-chair of Raíces Dance Troupe, a Latin-based group that traditionally participates in Danceworks’ Homecoming event.

Johnson and co-chair Kaithlyn Atty have created “The Thinking Ahead Committee,” for all dance organizations on campus to share ideas and information throughout the fall semester.

Danceworks’ spring showcase in March was the organization’s last in-person performance. Courtesy of Erik Liu

“There are a lot of what-ifs,” Johnson said. “There is just a laundry list of questions that we had to answer. This year it’s very important that (the dance organizations) are unified in thought in some sense.”

Raíces has been in close contact with the Office of Student Activities, and SU administration has been transparent about what is possible in terms of in-person activities, Johnson said. Most rehearsals will take place outdoors, if weather permits.

The dance troupe plans to hold auditions online soon, Atty said. Raíces will provide videos of dances to auditioners, who will then tape themselves performing the choreography and send it back to the group.

Connor Muldoon (left) and Hayley London perform at a Danceworks event. This semester, Danceworks has had to regroup and come up with an entirely different playbook. Courtesy of Erik Liu

The collaboration between dance groups has been inspiring, said Asajahnique Collins, coordinator of Creations Dance Company, SU’s oldest student-run dance organization. The dance groups share a commitment to continue bringing dance to the campus community, Collins said, but she’s looking forward to the day when operations can return to normal.

“We are waiting for the time we can be back together,” Collins said. “The artform of dance is really about relationships. Your relationship with the music, your relationship with (the other) dancers. It’s difficult to have (that) with six feet between people.”

For now, the dance organizations are making the best of the options available to them. But the overall uncertainty leaves more questions than answers, Muldoon said.

Nothing will be able to replace the feeling of being in front of an audience and working intimately with other dancers, Collins said.

“For me, when I’m on the floor, I wanna feel the vibration of the music, I wanna feel the people who are next to me,” Collins said. “I want to vibe off of that, and really create something that can’t be done over Zoom.”

Published on August 30, 2020 at 11:18 pm