Back to kitchen ballet, live streaming classes are not only fun but exciting because anything can happen: Facebook shuts, the iPhone crashes, a fierce jeté slams against a frying pan, the music skips to a halt in a warbling retreat, and Dekkers cat Bird ambles across the marley to do an unrehearsed pas de chat. Kitchen ballet is live performance at its best. Dancers imagining a reality greater than the four corners of a small space becomes its own form of collaboration—as it should be. After all, we are all moving through time together, transforming space at a dizzying speed. Deckers says, “It’s such a gift to dance. The connection among body, mind and spirit is essential for dancers to thrive, and when you come right down to it, drawing forth that connection is important for any one of us to thrive.” In the age of the pandemic, no one knows for sure how much longer dancers will be stuck dancing in place, but we can be sure that dance will keep happening.
Patricia Vaccarino has written award-winning film scripts, press materials, content, books, essays and articles.
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Photo by Natalia Perez sm
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