International Dance Day 2020 had put out significant noise in the world for probably being one of the most creative during the time of COVID-19.
When every gym, dance studio, and public recreational space had to close down because of the said pandemic, athletic people, dancers, and performing artists had no place to go.
In line with the government’s efforts in conforming to social distancing rules, freelance performing artists took the hardest blow. Theatres closed. Cruise ships docked. And theme parks had to stop operations. Without even a month’s notice, some people lost their jobs in a blink of an eye. And this is to conform to government directions asap. But somehow, they find refuge in getting creative around these constraints.
Performers, being one of the most affected industry…
Almost all business blogs, documentaries, and shows mentioned retail and F&B, to be the most affected by the pandemic brought by the novel coronavirus. Entertaining and performing, being one of the fastly growing job sectors, were not considered entitled to being affected at all. This may be because of a lot of reasons, such as, not being considered professionals since many of them are self-employed and are freelancers. But, it’s truthfully sad that it’s still questionable whether they are even to be supported by the government in terms of subsidy and aid.
It’s amazing though that they didn’t falter as passionate human beings. They still found a lot of ways to dance. In fact, it’s mind-blowing how they came up with a masterpiece in the end. Here’s a very simple one, yet the message was clear as a blue sky.
Coping up…
I’m sure you had pondered a little (or a lot) if this will become the new normal in which people start to wear masks every time just to add another layer of protection when going to the public. You might be wondering when the travel bans will be lifted up. Or when could you actually dance again.
I want to look at it from a perspective that COVID-19 had brought a lot of lessons in terms of resilience, creativity, social responsibility, and faith. We were forced to see the deep connection in being present to where we actually are. Since most often than not, when COVID-19 wasn’t upon us, people were present more in social media rather than the dinner table. You come home from work that took more than half of your day, to your family. But then, only to give them divided attention because you were relaxing on the phone rather than with them.
People’s ability to prioritize as a nation or as a country was also shown.
Some leaders were thoughtful of focusing on their own, using their own resources, and protecting their locale, while others blamed everyone but themselves. And thought to know the number of deaths deserves time and effort rather than researching about the disease’s severity and concentrate what you can do now.
Health care will shift. Nurse managers will rise up. Those that seek medical assistance but are not critical or emergency or fatal won’t need to come to the hospital. A travel nurse or community nurse visits to attend to them from home. People will opt for food delivery, and online classes may be more hailed than the obsolete classroom setting. These are all just my opinion though. Which could be a good topic to discuss. So just let me know or give me your input through the comments.
Do the locomotion…
Still, dance continues to evolve. As it hails flow, here’s to a dance project that I participated in as part of my former group, Whiplash. Its objective was to cheer for the frontliners working in the hospitals whose lives are continuously at stake. Feel free to enjoy the song.
Performers being on lockdown is truly hard since their souls are fed by the energy they get back from the audience. Amazingly, likes, hearts, comments, and shares a social platform could do is a different kind of feedback, but equally effective.
So, dance celebs took advantage of the time they have and the internet to still connect with the dance community. Parris Goebel, Matt Stefanina, and Jojo Gomez were some of the active ones that encouraged their followers to learn their choreography online. The global reach of these efforts is insane. It just put up the calibre of how International Dance Day should be celebrated.
A personal take on the International Dance Day
I am just more than grateful to even have the chance. I got two working feet, I can still dance, and most of all, I am soooo privileged to have performed in front of up to 6-7 million visitors every year for 13 years at the happiest place on earth. 13 years of magic. And, it will always be something that I am proud to have done.
With a 15-year expansion plan, COVID-19 had been one of the events that will make it resilient more than ever. Now, expecting an increase to 10 million, I pray that their plans for serving more and more families from all over the world would ease back to how it was before. For the meantime, here’s something to look forward to.
