SPECIAL PRO/MOTION VIRTUAL EDITION AT A TIME OF SOCIAL DISTANCING

VIRTUAL DANCE EXPERIENCES AND RESOURCES
FOR THIS TIME OF COVID-19 SOCIAL DISTANCING

Dear Boston Dance Alliance community,

We are all reeling.

To safeguard our own health and the health of our neighbors, and to protect the capacity and resilience of the medical infrastructure, we are dealing with cancellations and postponement of performances, classes, auditions, and long-planned gatherings — including the 2020 BDA Gala.

If you haven’t familiarized yourself with the stages of grief, I think you will recognize some part of your feelings here.

As people who love and work with the nature of physical embodiment, we know that going “virtual” through screens isn’t always as rich an experience as we would like. But we can take this difficult time as an opportunity to explore new, creative ways of communicating, enlarging artistic practice, and — despite it all — having some fun.

This is the first of what I expect will be a series of intermittent communications from BDA. Feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues; it’s easy to add them to our list. Our commitment to serve as a vital guide, advocate and cheerleader to arts activity across our community (and now, across the globe) is not faltering.

Take care of yourselves. We will get through this.

Debra Cash, Executive Director

Covid-19 and Freelance Artists

An amazing, global directory of virtual music events is here  and includes a comprehensive listing of livestreaming tools for you to use for your own socially distanced performances and classes — whether you are doing a tiny dance in your kitchen or gesturing across wide open spaces like Trisha Brown back in the day.

Moving your dance classes online.  Some teachers in our community are already doing this as a one-of or on an ongoing basis, so contact your favorites! While liveness is often an integral part of performance-based curricula, The Dance Studies Association compiles a list of resources for moving teaching into the digital sphere. When in-person meetings are not possible, online tools, content, and protocols can offer new approaches to technique, choreography, performance, and collaboration.

Artists Relief Fund for Boston artists The Mayor’s Office for Arts and Culture is reopening its Opportunity Fund as the Boston Artist Relief Fund, which will award grants of $500 and $1,000 to Boston artists whose creative practices and incomes are being adversely impacted by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Artists who have lost or anticipate losing income can apply through June 30.

Explore the Useful Links page on the Boston Dance Alliance website.  Haven’t had time to think through your business model? Now is the pause when you can spend some time dreaming and considering how to make those dreams a reality when things are more manageable.

Apply for Grants and Residencies! Since many organizations will be working remotely, the deadlines for online grant and residency applications may not change.

Browse the BDA list, organized chronologically by deadline, and then confirm deadlines with the funder by email.
Currently, the Boston Dancemakers Residency, a project of Boston Dance Alliance in partnership with Boston Center for the Arts, still has a deadline of Friday, April 10.

Want to be in touch with Boston Dance Alliance?

The office will be closed for the time being, so please send email to dcash@bostondancealliance.org

(Please note that info@bostondancealliance may not be read during this time.)