Directors' Note

Thank you for joining us and welcome to DanceWorks 2020! Like so much else in this year, this DanceWorks is unlike any other in the history of our program. As the pandemic began to unfold this past spring, I was proud to see the dance community become one of the first to come together and find ways to adapt and to share, to keep us all dancing. Sites like Dancing Alone Together gave us access to classes. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Lincoln Center began streaming content almost immediately. Many others followed suit. And so we hunkered down and hoped that we would be through this by summer’s end.

Flash forward to the fall. Even as we mourn the ongoing losses and how not normal our lives remain, thanks to the pragmatic planning by the University of Minnesota leadership, we knew in late July that all face-to-face instruction would end by Thanksgiving and so had time to plan for how our concert would move online. Our students continued to show their resilience as they joined us in this grandest of structured improvisations, dancing and creating dance in the covid era. Our student dancers have adjusted to physical distancing and breathing through masks. Our choreographers have found new ways to create, new places to dance, and embraced the parameters imposed on their processes with grace and good humor. This includes our special guest choreographer, Bryn Cohn, who carried out the entire process for her piece via Zoom from the living room of her apartment in Los Angeles.

Much as we will all miss being together in the theatre for the sharing of these dances, there are silver linings to celebrate. Knowing that these dances would be filmed inspired several of our choreographers to venture beyond the confines of the stage and we are excited to share these different blends of dance and place. The aspect of filming also led to several wonderful collaborations with faculty, staff, and student colleagues that we would not have experienced otherwise. We offer our special thanks to Dan Fitzpatrick and Lisa Fitzpatrick of the MMAD Lab, David Cowardin of UMPR, and to Associate Professor Joellyn Rock and students Michaela Bowman and Jason Fredrickson of the Department of Art and Design for sharing their digital expertise with several of our choreographers.

Perhaps the biggest silver lining is the expanded reach this digital concert will enjoy. Thanks to the magic of the internet, DanceWorks will be available to family and friends, UMD alumni and supporters, far beyond Ordean Court and the Marshall Performing Arts Center. Recognizing that it cannot replace live performance, a virtual connection is still a connection, and we are thrilled and honored to get to share this event and bring people together to celebrate the power of dance.

-- Rebecca Katz Harwood and Matthew Wagner, Co-Artistic Directors