MADISON, WI — As some colleges abruptly shift to remote learning in the wake of coronavirus outbreaks this fall, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) stands poised to reopen, offering a hybrid of remote and face-to-face instruction. The hybrid model would pose a challenge for any dance studio, but the UW Dance Department has created a detailed plan that they hope will be safe and beneficial for returning students.

What is self-identity? Is self-identity synonymous with humanity? Perhaps the two have a relationship in which self-identity defines one's humanity and humanity influences one's self worth. Either way, Adedayo Liadi, founder of Lagos-based Ijodee Dance Company, searches for the answers to these questions in “Aye Asan (Vanity).” Ijodee, performing alongside Durban's Flatfoot Dance Company, presented this work as part of the digital ‘Legacy’ platform hosted by JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience.

“Delicate Hold” is an apt title for Jane Jerardi’s dance video project in fulfillment of her 2019-20 Lab Artist grant from Chicago Dancemakers’ Forum.

Jerardi describes her process as “observing the ordinary and even awkward” in life, and from it, sorting out “the unexpectedly beautiful.” Calling her video installation “a meditation,” she seeks to look at ways in which women “articulate our desires,” filtered through the lenses of Buddhist and feminist writings and dance improvisation. Heady stuff. And a tall order to represent visually.

I wish I was capable of telling the Black story, but it requires the translation of many tongues due to its complex histories and multiple traditions usually penned by others … those who othered us. Dances composed with Black bodies offer a plurality that should attach itself to dialogue with the dancers, the music and the audience, because the rubric for interpretation is never singular.

During her welcome address for the digital 22nd annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, artistic director Dr. Lliane Loots highlighted the importance of memory as not mere nostalgia but as a roadmap for our collective future, particularly as we navigate the isolation of this new COVID-19 world.

She claws at the empty air, attempting yet failing to pull herself out from the inside of the kitchen freezer. She kicks the bottom door of the fridge open, knees slowly swinging beneath the bar separating fridge and freezer compartments. The camera lingers here, slowly panning along her legs, pelvis and chest. Her face is no longer visible. She is a body dangling in a dark, confined corner of her home--at once a reminder of the most mundane spot I visit daily in quarantine (looking for sustenance and boredom snacks) and at the same time a vivid portrayal of something dark.

Building a supportive network of global connections is at the core of Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. I was hired at Deeply Rooted in May 2020 as the company's individual giving manager, and have since come to hold the principles of the company as my own. We are a company dedicated to re-imagining the aesthetics of contemporary dance by uniting modern, ballet and African traditions in dance and storytelling. The company’s participation in JOMBA! has been critical to their achievement of that goal. 

Until Saturday, I hadn’t seen a live dance performance for five months and 14 days (not that I’m counting or anything). I would say it’s like riding a bike—in fact, a lot of things about attending Ballet 5:8’s new outdoor dance season were wholly ordinary. But the renewed novelty of live performance, which was so briskly and completely taken away last March, is not lost on me. Settling into an old routine with pen and pad, all I could really feel was an enormous sense of gratitude.

In normal times, Natya Dance Theatre (NDT) performs multiple times a year in various theaters in the Chicagoland area and teaches hundreds of students the art of bharatanatyam— in person—from studios in Chicago, Naperville and Downers Grove. These are not normal times. How does one of the most “critically acclaimed Indian dance companies in the United States” deal with a global pandemic? Like everyone else, they go virtual. “I’m not very well-versed in technological things,” said Hema Rajagopalan, NDT’s artistic director. Luckily, her co-artistic director (and daughter) Krithika is.