For Fall Terms 1 and 2, Dance Ensemble/ACTivate created video dances to speak to the experience of living, being present, and creating during these times. (These works are created for educational purposes only and are not available for distribution of any sort.)
Using single camera angles and basic editing techniques, we created dances that highlight the presence of the body in the present state of our world. The solo and group creations we made are collected here, arranged by the prompts that inspired them.
I – What does it feel like to be sheltered in place?
As an act of creating our community, igniting our circle. We began on the first day with each dancer creating a single movement response that summoned for them a response to the question: “What is your emotional resonance of being sheltered in place?” Each dancer learned everyone else’s movements. Spending the time to be inside of each other’s movement world. This first series of videos was created from that place. Restricted/not restricted to the shared vocabulary, each individual was given artistic license to arrange those movements into their individual response to the question.
Just Passing Through
Untitled
II – What are the things in your space?
Staying with the theme of the emotional resonance of being sheltered in place, the next series of videos shared the everyday of our world through the objects in our worlds. .
Doorways
A Seat at the Table
Upside Down
All Tapped Out
Monkey
Untitled
III – Exquisite Corpse
The process for creating this series is based on the drawing game “Exquisite Corpse” that originated with the early 20th century French Surrealists. Since then, variations of the Exquisite Corpse game have been used by visual artists, writers, and choreographers. Our version had dancers pair up and send daily video clips to each other over the course of ten days. The first dancer would start a movement, the second dancer would start their response with the last movement of the previous dancer’s clip. Each artist then edited the clips together to create their own individual arrangements of the shared video material. It was a way to make a conversation.
Collaborative Conglomerate
Alternative Amalgamate
IV – An Artist’s Duty
In an interview from the 2009 movie Nina Simone: Great Performances — Live College Concerts & Interviews, musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone talks about “an artist’s duty.” Working in collaborative teams, spread out across thousands of miles, our dancers responded to the text and sound of that interview, in light of their current situations.
V – Additional creations
Other works we’ve created include:
- a solo dance that Dance Ensemble/ACTivate Artistic Director Celeste Miller created based on Julia Alvarez’s “Pandemic Poem” from the collection “Together in a Sudden Strangeness,”
- a dance Anushka, Kayley, and Mira created in response to the poems “In the Time of Pandemic” by Kitty O’Meara and “Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda,
- and some movement improvisations that Lilith explored in their shelter-in-place location.
Pandemic Poem
We would love to have you join us December 14, 5:00 – 5:45 p.m. CST for a short conversation about our process.
Register for the artist conversation
We also welcome you to share any thoughts, reactions, or questions you have using the comment form below.
Jade McMahon
Dear Celeste & Ensemble,
It was so wonderful to watch your thoughts, emotions, hopes, and dreams come to life. Even though I viewed it through a screen, I felt transported and touched by each piece in a unique way. My favorite section was the first one; you all did such a beautiful job at conveying really complex emotions with your movements in a way that I identified with.
Derin, I loved your piece, “Whole.” The setting and your clothing gave the whole thing a really ethereal feel. I was amazed at how normal, every day settings and otherwise plain rooms were completely transformed by all of your energies, especially the way Mira used the bed in Into The Water. I also liked how Mira and Lilith used silence, rather than music to compliment their movements. Halvor’s movements were really fun to watch, especially the part where he is teetering on the windowsill, hesitantly venturing out, which is how my life feels in general right now. I found Misha’s window dance to be really interesting. Normally, when I think of isolation, I am on the other side of the window, sheltered in place and looking outwards. It was really cool the way you flipped the perspective., placing the camera inside while you are out. Clara’s use of the same room flipping between being in the shadows to a bright light with a green background was really powerful. It made me think of how rapidly our lives change, yet somehow all from our bedrooms and houses.
It feels so reassuring to know that while the world is in chaos, you all continue to dance and create! These pieces are all works of art, truly. Thank you for giving me something so beautiful and touching during these times.
With love,
Jade
JT
Dear Team Alone TOGETHER –
I am just now starting to watch through your content and experience your blog site. I wanted to let you know early just how impressed I am with your work, your bravery, your willingness to share you ideas and responses to our current world.
Your work is already causing me to reflect upon my role as a professor and artist. What do I share with the world, or share with my students? Am I to be a rock, or am I to be transparent in my personal challenges during this pandemic? Is it both, or is it different?
I am blessed by your genuine and reflective work, your collaborations, and your dedication to process, from which you are creating new conversations and reflections amongst your audience.
Thank you Ensemble/ACTivate and thank you to your collaborative leader, Celeste Miller.
Zoe F
Thank you, Ensemble, for making this work and for sharing it so generously with our community! It is a joy to experience the rich, playful, textured, gorgeous art that you all have created, and to know that **this** was happening even while the world seemed flat and still.
Kathleen L Hurley
Thank you, Dance Ensemble for sharing not just your movement but also your personal space, head space, and heart space. I have tons of comments and these are not even all of them:)
— “Just Passing Through”: Halvor, I really appreciated your collaboration between music and dance composition. Very dramatic and riveting.
— “Whole”: Derin, the solo with the water background felt very joyful with very rich and full movement. Thank you for sharing.
— “Window Dance”: Misha, like we started to discuss in the talkback I was making meaning out of the objects in the foreground. The empty jar made me think of how some of us might feel stuck in an empty space in time right now. But the new candle gave a suggestion of possibility. And the plant was thriving in its spot and never moved, and seemingly, had no complaints about that. I loved the perspective of feeling like we were in your room looking out.
— “Untitled” by Clara, I’m sorry, this one wouldn’t load for me after several tries.
— “In Line”: Lilith, the double-handed point said to me literally “that’s the point” and the next gesture took that directly to your forehead. I enjoyed the confluence of the lines of the body, architecture of the wall, smaller lines of the bricks and trees.
— “Into Water, I guess”:, Mira, I’m sorry this one wouldn’t load for me after several tries.
— “Doorways”: Misha, I enjoyed seeing you wear clothing we don’t really get to wear during the pandemic plus mascara and heels. The heel click was my favorite moment:). Great job video editing.
— “Upside Down”: Derin, the backlighting was a nice element to really show the body design. The focus to kitchen utensils drew the focus to your living space and created an atmosphere and mood really describing what the quarantine pandemic might feel like in your world/space.
— “Monkey”: Lilith, I really liked your choice of camera angle, color bleed, and humor.
— “A Seat at the Table”: Maya and Elena, this was so clever! I loved the whimsical, playful, but also desolate nature of the choreography with devices as guests. Nice use of symmetry and asymmetry.
— “All Tapped Out”: Halvor, my favorite moment was when you embraced the keyboard but seemed to get no satisfaction. The specificity of hitting the letter “K” (as in ok?) was interesting. Good overall capture of how many of us are feeling.
— In the Exquisite Corpse section I really enjoyed seeing how different partners chose to edit video clips in different ways. The hat toss in Lilith and Elena’s duet was fun as well as the recurring water motif (waterfalls, dock). I enjoyed the video editing that Maya did with her duet with Halvor since it had a roller coaster, loopy feeling (not so linear) like some actual conversations.
— Of course I LOVED LOVED LOVED Celeste’s Pandemic Poem. Very moving.
Thanks to all!
Erin Howell-Gritsch
Dear Ensemble and Celeste,
Your work was emotional and reflective of our times. It is strange that we are so distanced from one another, yet your individual stories were clear and felt like windows into your souls. I’m not going to comment on individual works, but all were special and unique. I was able to get to know each of you in ways that I never would if we were working together in the theatre. Thank you for the gifts. Keep dancing!
Erin
Lauren S.
So inspiring to see how Grinnell dancers collaborate and innovate across time and space. Each dance felt like a gift, full of beautiful resonances, but also playfulness and joy. Thanks to you all for sharing your beautiful work.