COVID-19 DANCE COMMUNITY CHECK-IN

Discussing and Sharing Experiences During the Pandemic

DATE | Wednesday, August 12, 2020

TIME | 6:30-8:00PM EST

PLATFORM | ZOOM

We are, collectively, months into a period of time that has been described as “unprecedented,” and with no clear pathway forward, including the future of the performing arts. We are living through two pandemics. COVID-19 has impacted our community in every way: our health, our families, our friends, our work, our plans, our desires, our needs. The continued state violence against Black life is a simultaneous crisis, while white supremacy noxiously replicates and embeds itself into the foundations of the systems we move through. In the midst of these intersecting crises and movements, we at CSD wonder how to hold space for fellowship, weave threads of support, and open conversation in our dance community.

Please join us on Wednesday, August 12 for the first forum in a three part series where we hope to create space to engage with our dance community and work through these big (maybe even daunting) topics together, especially in a time that has felt so isolating.

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FORUM FRAMING

For this first forum we wanted to create a space to….honestly just say “hi” and hear how people have been doing. We’ve missed in-person dance class and seeing live performances. Those were the main ways we interacted with the dance community, and we wonder if other folks are craving to reconnect too. 

In this forum we are creating a space for folks in the community to be heard by their peers and share how COVID-19 has affected them. Really, share anything you want! This is a really confusing time for everyone and we wonder how to create a space for this kind of fellowship outside of the physical space. The framework for this forum will be simple:

• Welcome 

• Group Check-In

• Open discussion, loosely facilitated by CSD (see outline below)

• Group Check-Out

If you’d like to share your experience, here are a few prompts that could help organize your thoughts. We will loosely frame the conversation around the following three main points (bolded). Some questions may resonate with you more than others, and that’s okay! Participate in this conversion however feels best to you. 

• How has your dance practice changed?

  • How have you continued to engage with dance?

  • How have you disengaged with dance?

  • How has time moved (or not moved) for you? 

  • Has this [required] slowing down felt good or uncomfortable to you?

• What are you thinking about or desiring right now?

  • Really, what do you want? What do you need?

  • What would be helpful?

  • How are you thinking about your work (dance and/or otherwise)?

• How are you adapting or what changes are you thinking of making moving forward?

  • What revelations or ideas have revealed themselves to you?

  • What are your thoughts on resuming some kind of in-person dance practice?

  • What has or hasn’t been working in the virtual dance space?

  • How are you reimagining dance spaces/organizations?

This is our first time holding an online space like this. Please be patient with us as we are sure to encounter some unexpected hiccups and messy moments! If you have any feedback or thoughts after the event please email us at collectivesweatdetroit@gmail.com

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DONATIONS WELCOME FOR THIS PROGRAM

Thank you so much for your interest and attendance in this event. Please note that we do not require donation to ensure participation.

If you wish to support this Dance Forum program and many others by CSD, please consider donating through Cashapp ($collectivesweat) or Venmo (@collectivesweatdetroit).

We are still raising matching funds for our Knight Arts Challenge grant and you can read more about it and make a direct donation here. // https://www.collectivesweatdetroit.org/support

Thank you for your continued community support.