The Social dis-Dance Project

isolated, together

Thank you to all who submitted their beautiful work.
You helped us build a better sense of the pandemic.

Social Dis-Dances from around the World

Click on the images to see their work.

Social Dis-Dances of Our Instructors

Social Dis-Dances of Our Student Dancers

As the coronavirus pandemic disrupts our daily life and forces us into isolation, many of us are suffering not only from limited physical communal activities but also from mental stress and anxiety. In order to help our dancers to cope with this difficult situation, Amherst Ballet is launching the Social Dis-Dance Project.

The Social Dis-Dance Project is a free program intended to provide Amherst Ballet and other dancers with a creative outlet, social connection, and feeling of unity and support. To participate in this project, fill out the entry form below and submit a video of no more than two minutes in length—shot at home, in a studio, or outside where no one is around—of an original dance solo (or duet). The theme of these short pieces of choreography can be: 1) the experience of the coronavirus pandemic; 2) the social distancing ordinance; or 3) the general circumstances and emotions this crisis has brought about. The submitted videos will be posted on our website after screening by the artistic director for appropriateness of content. The program includes the option of choreographic coaching and artistic mentorship by UMass professor Paul Dennis.

Touch Me Not

Margot Parsons

Presented by DanceVisions, Inc.
Choreography: Margot Parsons, Artistic Director of DanceVisions, Inc.
Poem: “Whoso List to Hunt,” by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), read by Marcia Karp
Dancers, left to right: Christine McDowell, Amane Takaishi, Marin Orlosky Randow
Video: Maximal Image ®

At Boston College and Boston University we were given a few days to figure out how to keep our classes going, particularly when they are for credit. I have a small room that houses my dance library and also has a barre. It quickly became my classroom for teaching. On the plus side I have all my books available to use as a visual to enlarge on points of discussion. I set up Zoom and contacted the students. I use my iPod for ballet tapes and three days a week my regular accompanist plays for the class from her living room in Brookline.

What is so amazing is the conductivity of the technology. We all see each other. The pianist and I can see each other and communicate and the students can follow the barre and center work. I can even make individual corrections I give a complete barre and an almost complete center. Movement for the center work is limited but tendus, pirouettes, adagio and waltzes are possible. When it comes to jumping, the combinations need to move more vertically than horizontally. Leaping and tour jetes are not possible. The class provides the development of strength, alignment, flexibility, musicality, and endurance within the classical form. We cannot feel the exhilaration of moving through space but at this point I am happy that the clarity of the technique is being addressed.

After a couple of weeks of teaching this way I became curious if I could choreograph using Zoom for three members of my Company, DanceVisions, Inc. The three were to perform at an event in March that had to be postponed. I wanted to give them something to do plus I did not want to lose the momentum of regular three-hour rehearsals on Saturdays. I had a friend who was a poet and so I contacted her and she suggested the poem for the dance. From my small room and each dancer’s limited space, we met on Zoom for three, two-hour rehearsals on three Saturdays for a total of 6 hours, to put a 1 minute, 45 second dance together. That is a long time for such a short dance. The problems that needed solving were: what movements to select for a two-dimensional viewing, how to make a dance that is not literal to the words but still evokes the feeling of “Touch Me Not,” how to sync up the movement for three people who cannot feel each other or breath together, how to have a meter to the spoken text that the three dancers could feel, what words to select as cues for the dancers to come together as a group, when to let go of unison and let the dancers do the same movement without syncing up, and finally what to wear. I did not want to get sentimental with the piece but wanted the movement to be abstract while still conveying the emotion of what is at the heart of the poem and is, at this moment, what each of us must hear and say, Noli me tangere (“touch me not”).

Margot Parsons: Contemporary ballet choreographer and teacher of ballet; Artistic Director and choreographer for her company, DanceVisions, Inc.
She has set her work on Boston Ballet II, BalletNY, Across the Ages Dance, and Harvard Ballet, Wellesley, and BU students. She teaches ballet at Boston University and Boston College, taught at The Dance Complex for 27 years and at Harvard University for 13 years, and is a substitute teacher at Boston Ballet and Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre. Her years as a performer in NYC included being invited to dance with, Agnes de Mille, and Pearl Lang, and perform with Yuriko, Maggie Black, and in the City Center Production of “The King and I,” and in Boston with Ken Pierce Baroque Dance Company and the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble. She was the first choreographer to be honored in 2018 by The Dance Complex’s, Living Legacy series. In 2020 she was awarded the Dr. Michael Shannon Dance Champion Award by the Boston Dance Alliance. She holds a BS from the University of Wisconsin and an MA with honors from the University of Utah.

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