365 Days of Dancing Through Covid

I’ve been thinking…

About how the one year anniversary of the pandemic hitting the US is this month.

How life has changed, and how it has stayed the same.

I’ve been thinking about all the things I want my students to know, the things I want my fellow Educators to know, what I want the dance industry to know.

I want to start by talking to the students; you’re the reason most of us became teachers, and you’ve had to bear so much of the burden of this past year. So it seems fitting that I start with you.

I am amazed by you.

The world has asked so much from you, and you’ve shown empathy, responsibility, and resilience beyond your years, and beyond what’s fair of us to ask for some of you who are still very young.

I know it hasn’t been easy. I know how hard it is to feel like so much is out of your control. I see your frustration and confusion, and want you to know those feelings are fair and justified.

Those feelings of frustration, disappointment and anger are like waves; they keep coming - hitting and pummeling, relentless in their consistency. Yet, you’ve stayed in the boat. You’ve found ways to weather the storm, find moments of calm and peace, and hang on tight to the things that make you feel good. Things like dance, your friends, teachers and family. You’ve navigated these rocky waters with a grace and strength that I’m in awe of, and I want you to know that while this hasn’t been easy, the skills, tools, and resilience you’ve learned will serve you, and your life, for many years to come.

To my fellow teachers I want to say…

I know you’re tired. Bone weary. I know this kind of tired is like nothing you’ve ever felt before, and the thought that it might never go away keeps you up at night.

Yet, onward you still move. Because that’s what you do. Because while studios, classes, and the arts are being shut down left and right, the responsibility we feel to our students can’t be shut down. It lives inside a place of us that we guard fiercely, even when it feels like we have nothing left to give.

I see you. I know a year in, it still sucks. I also know how capable you are of adapting, creating, and staying positive. And if you ever doubt that, look at all the evidence of this past year as proof! We’ve created brand new realities, perhaps out of necessity, but to be sure, its cornerstones have been built with love, care, and generosity.

Your students will look back on this time and remember YOU. They’ll remember how you made them feel, the security your classes gave them, and the example you set for how to do hard things.

To the dance industry, I want to point out all the opportunities we’ve been given to learn this year.

From racial inequality to body shaming, verbal abuse and self serving manipulation, there’s a lot of work to do. Wonderful leaders have lit torches for us and encouraged us to pave a new path. Individually, many of us have taken steps to change harmful behaviors, dialogue, policies and traditions found within so many dance hierarchies.

We have to keep going, and we have to do better.

We need to leave dancers better than how we found them, not worse. We need to stop perpetuating the harm, shame, hate, and strain built into so many of our practices. The curtains have been pulled back, and the issues that are harming our art and artists, placed center stage.

Now’s the time to decide what we, individually, and as an industry, are going to do about it.

Let that be the thought that you take with you as we recognize a year of living in a covid world. Let not only your wins and survival be appreciated, but pondered as well. Let’s ask ourselves, ‘what can we do better at?’ and meet the answers with action.

I don’t know what this next year will bring, but I’m positive it will be full of more invitations to learn, to listen, and to appreciate. How will you respond to the invitation?