An Open Letter to the Dance Community: Stay Strong—the Light Comes with the Dawn

These uncertain days of the coronavirus pandemic, loss, grief and change, civil unrest and subarctic weather bouts feel like a dark veil being drawn over our world. After the start of these traumatic events there was a virtual pause in life, a disturbing, yet reverent stillness that hung over the country.

It is the unknowns—how long it will last, how bad it will get—and the loss of physical freedom that is so terrifying. We are in an odd form of stasis trying to find our own new normal. There is so much happening, and yet most of our lives are on some form of pause. We are forced to hold our space, be still and wait.

Stillness for dancers is one of the most difficult things to master, the hardest thing to do on stage, and for most, highly uncomfortable. Extended periods of stillness can feel unproductive. Stillness is something that seems antithetical to our practice, and yet it is in spaces of stillness where some of our greatest learning happens. Dance is a physical discipline, if the body cannot be still, it cannot learn. The mind tells the body what to do, and if you cannot direct the body to be still, how can you hope to train it to master the layered complexity of dance? Stillness allows the body to record the information that you input.

Movement is the medium through which dancers expel energy and express emotion, our ability to move is a core component of our identity. We often don't feel fully alive if we are not in motion.

Know that you are not alone. You are not the first nor will you be the last to make personal sacrifices for the greater good. "Safety first." But remember this: You are a dancer. You are adroit at shifting your weight, changing speed and direction. You know how to take corrections, make adjustments and you are all too familiar with discomfort and hard work. These are skills that you have learned in a dance studio and will serve you well in life at large. Right now, you don't know that you know how to do this, but you do. You will find your center.

Theaters and studios are just buildings. But when they go dark, the people who brought them to life, the artists and crews who created the magical worlds that allowed us to escape the harsh realities or banalities, go dark with them. The thing that we can hold onto is the fact that once the dark hours are over, we, the artists, will be called on to do what we do: Make magic, create worlds, and to bring the light and with it the dawn.

At Zoe Dance Studio we are also starting to find our “new normal”. For the last month students have been having fun with Zoom classes and recorded video classes. But with the start of August we are, with much anticipation and keeping all Covid regulations and protocols in place, returning to the studio. Our ballet students completed an online ballet exam last term with stunning results. Thus we are starting our new ballet year at Zoe Dance Studio. Our Hip Hoppers have been working hard towards the upcoming WX Hip Hop exam in August. New enrollments are now open. For anyone who is interested in joining our studio contact Letisha at 071 382 3209.