Dancing in a Pandemic
I can’t say the past several weeks have had my toes tapping. Living in the constant ambiguity of what will happen next, anticipating various if-then scenarios and blundering through each day has been less energizing, more exhausting.
Of course, we’re all doing our best to remain hopeful. We’re doing our best to remain healthy and keep our families safe. And then we’re trying to imagine and prepare for whatever comes next in our lives and in our work. As schools and programs embark on the varied Fall scenarios, I’ve fallen in step with other colleagues saying, “If we just had a little more information, we could at least make a plan.”
People in our field like to plan. We like the cyclical and predictable nature of youth-serving programs. We feel reassured knowing what each season will bring. Staff hiring. Staff orientation. Student recruitment. Student enrollment. Program launch.
Yes, there are programs that do know how they will be expected to operate this Fall. But they do not know actually how to plan or prepare for the remote, hybrid or in-person scenarios they’re being asked to deliver.
This not-knowing is difficult. On top of being hard. And in addition to being nearly impossible.
“How are you with ambiguity?” was the question posed in my first job interview to become an education specialist for a citywide summer program initiative. The committee laughed when I responded, “What do you mean?”
The truth is that in our field, we have long lived in ambiguity: Will we have funding for next year? Will my staff return? How will I add 25% more sites in this short of a time period? We’re comfortable with that level of not-knowing. But COVID-19 has just upped the ante on us. To continue to move through this space, I’ve found myself relying on my dance education.
Dance and other creative arts teach processes and ways of being that are especially helpful now. Namely:
Improvisation. We know about improvising day-to-day: Swapping staff members around at the last minute. Using tape instead of glue. But the modern dance practice of contact improvisation offers guidance on a broader level. Dancers pay attention to themselves and to each other so they can meet the constantly changing physical reality with appropriate placement and energy. Analogous to our current reality, we wait to see what the other movers (school district, the city, the government, etc.) will do and then we shift our energies to keep the balance.
Transition. Transitions can be difficult as we all are experiencing. Getting from where we are to where we are going. From what we know to the unknown. But for dancers, that’s what we do. Moving from here to there. That is the dance. My mentor always said, “Life is in the transitions.” In our current lives, what if we are not stuck in ambiguity? What if we are dancing? From where we have been to whatever the next thing is.
Critique. Different from criticism, critique is a process of reflection. We are open to receive critique, to learn from ourselves and those around us what is working and what is not working in our dance. We then have the opportunity to revise, change or restart—all with the aim of improvement—to better move through the space. That might mean getting from here to there more efficiently, but also might mean moving more interestingly—adding some flourish or a turn. What if in our current realities, we are not being criticized for all the things we are not doing? What if we are actually receiving critique to help us navigate our situations better?
If we allowed the idea of dance to frame our current days, what would look different? If we thought of ourselves as dancers, what would feel different? What would be different? Maybe you did not officially study dance or maybe you did. Either way, we are dancing through this.
