DANCING THROUGH COVID-19: Artists Adapting to Survive a Global Pandemic

Abstract

Amidst the radical and rapidly changing requirements of physical distancing and isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the dance community was forced to pivot in order for making art to continue. Through autoethnographic notes and interlocutor interviews, this thesis utilizes the virtual space to document the physical, mental, and social transformations of dancers, choreographers, and arts administrators during this extraordinary moment. Anthropological theories surrounding the shared liminality, bodily techniques, and habitus arising for movement makers contextualize the specific dancerly communitas created in the pandemic. Adaptation becomes a technique in and of itself, reworking ritualized embodied and social practices to survive creatively and financially. While all bodies have been affected, the pandemic’s disruption of marginalized populations also opened up broader structural conversations regarding the equity and inclusivity of arts philanthropy. Our movement, bodies, and social connections now all reflect the “historical and cultural moment” of COVID-19 (Foster 2010, p. 174-178).