On the Making of “Every Breath: A COVID Dance”:
Working with these 16 dancers (freshmen through graduate school) has been a privilege. There were many ways in which they contributed to movement material, structural ideas, and commitment to the piece becoming a commemoration piece. I wanted to create a work about the virus, its ubiquitous power over the last year plus, and about the vaccine and the hope associated with it.
We made two phrases that literally used science texts about the virus and about the vaccine, as the score. There was also a series of 16 “poses” that I designed to articulate the space through and around each dancer, in every direction, to magnify the beauty of the human structure on a cellular to fully complex level. The entire dance comes from these original materials using many kinds of variations and development.
We wish for the dance to honor those who have died from the virus, those who have served on front-lines, and a reminder that we share the earth and the air through breath and movement. The energy of the dance traces the notion of “spread”, builds fortitude through the idea of community, and vigorously celebrates the arc of life to death.The music, “Messages” by Bobby McFerrin with composer Roger Treece, captured my heart with its ecstatic incantations reaching for the voices of “padres, madres, old compadres; Husbands, wives and all taken from us; Can they hear us calling through the air?” It seemed a fitting song and lyrics for feeling the despair of the times in order to move past it. “As goes the life, so goes the death; With every breath joining in a deeper song”.
We worked with the music in the course as part of the educational setting, but did not receive license for public performance. Therefore, when watching the film of the piece, for maximum enjoyment, please acquire your own copy of the piece and start it when prompted in the film. Thank you for supporting musicians in this way.
Every Breath 