Making Art In The Middle Of Madness: How We Created A Dance Film During Sip That Became A Historic Timepiece Reflecting The Reality Of Covid-19 And The Black Lives Matter Movement

When sheltering in place orders hit, and it looked like dance studios and public theaters were shutting down, I started to wonder how were we going to be able to make art in the middle of all this madness? And so in a moment of inspiration I decided to gather dancers from up and down the West Coast to join me in creating a dance film based on the Exquisite corpse creative format - one dancer would pick up where the other left off - in this way we could each film our pieces on high quality smartphones, and work separately but at the same time create something together.

The rules of the project were simple: each dancer would film their 10-20 second part in their own home or surrounding areas with a quality smartphone camera; and the movement had to be drawing off of what the dancer before them did (a creative format also known as the Exquisite corpse) - picking up with the same movement, pose, posture and momentum.

In this way, the piece would be collaborative yet also have a lot of room for freedom: each dancer could choose what they did after the initial “pick up” from where it was left off as well as their scenic location: images were captured in forests, beaches, tunnels, backyards, as well as in front of the Golden Gate bridge, murals, messages of protests, and more. As the director and facilitator, I would receive each new video, edit it onto the end of the entire project and then pass it onto the next dancer. Each participant only had two days to create, film and turn in their dance video.

And in order to tie it all together, to really underscore the pandemic times in which we were living, we decided we would all wear or use masks.

As a performance and creativity coach to hundreds of artists over the years, I've seen other dance on film projects similar to this one, but had never seen anything that showcased the multiculturalism associated with the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene and so I really wanted to highlight the beauty in the diversity of the Bay Area and the West Coast. I was so pleased to see that the resulting film did end up including a wide range of dance styles: African dance, flamenco, hip-hop, contemporary, and American Tribal Style bellydance just to name a few.

The dancers, recruited into the project through my social media network, are all women: some, like May Yang, Nicole Maria Dance, and Kellita Maloof are currently working full-time as professional dancers: May Yang tours with the world famous band, Beats Antique; Nicole Maria Dance won the Group Champion Award in the Bellydancer of the Year Competition in 2019; and Kellita Maloof, who has won numerous awards including Queen of Carnival, now also mentors artists through her program, Showgirl Awakening. Other dancers, like Bernadette LaNoue, Renee Naleppa, Gigi Ferrozzo, and Shelley Davis Roberts are life-long dancers now finding themselves immersed in other careers: respectively, a teacher and coach to OUSD teachers, interior designer, real estate agent, and project manager and designer with Designing Justice Designing Spaces. The dancers include several entrepreneurs as well: Kysha Mitchell, who used to study and perform African dance, is now a certified success coach who advocates for women to live and own their truth. Rose Nisker is the program manager for Gamelan Sekar Jaya, a renowned Balinese music and dance troupe as well as Artistic Director for Les Aerielles, a youth aerial arts company in Oakland, CA. Laura Elan is the Founder, Acupuncturist and Herbalist of the thriving clinic, Golden Summit Acupuncture.

I loved that this film was inclusive - some professionals and some not so much - but all mature women to whom dance was an important part of their lives.

About halfway through the project, as I edited together the dancers, I started to get a little sad that we didn't get to see their faces. I mean, it was kind of dramatic and sobering that we were using masks, but I found myself longing to see them.

So I had the idea to do "mask reveal" shots as the ending credits, where each dancer takes off their mask - this created a pretty epic (and lengthy) ending that we joke is almost a it's own special piece unto itself.

As the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement began to surge, many of the dancers got directly involved in supporting the movement in various ways: marching, protesting, driving fundraising events, and so some of the later pieces in the film reflect that. And the final "mask reveal" shot lingers on the tearful face of dancer and contributing editor, Kimeiko Rae Vision, ending the piece in a poignant and moving finish that dares you to look away.

We started with the question, "How can we work together when we're apart?" but as the project progressed and we witnessed the murder of George Floyd and the resulting protests, a more sobering question surfaced, "How can we heal from the spaces that already exist between us?"

And so we offer this film not only as a reflection of the times, but also with the hope that it sparks conversations and provides a catalyst for change at the unconscious level.

About the Author

Holly Shaw, author of the Amazon bestseller, The Creative Formula, is a life-long artist who has not only performed in film, TV and on stages all over the world as an actor, dancer and now stand up comedian, but has also coached and helped thousands of performing artists, some of them Emmy Award winning and Grammy nominated. Before becoming a coach, Holly was a professional flamenco dancer for fifteen years. Now she coaches artists through creative "laboratory" workshops, hosts the Performers & Creators Lab podcast, and makes dance whenever she can.

Find out more about this project and its creators at http://www.dancingtogetherapart.org

More info: dancingtogetherapart.org