“Dance Brings Us Together – The Resilience of Dance Through the Pandemic” (2021) is a fifty-six minute television special which originally aired on NYC Life, a Manhattan lifestyle channel, during the first day of NYC Dance Week from June 10th through June 19th, 2021. It acted as part of the continuum of a safe and virtual way to celebrate dance during the pandemic lockdown when public gatherings were legally prohibited. It also served as a part of an ongoing peaceful protest against outdated zoning laws which prohibit dancing in spaces with live music if there are fewer than two hundred patrons. Who knew that “Footloose” (1984) was a documentary? Now it acts as a visual, moving time capsule commemorating an almost forgotten time.
The TV special has the limitations of most local human-interest programming. Because of the time crunch due to the format, any of the covered dance troupes, artistic directors or other associated individuals do not get enough coverage and would be able to fill a standalone feature documentary. At most, this show devotes a few minutes to each dance troupe’s artistic director and a single dance as a sort of dance tasting so you can get a sense of what is out there with the implicit direction to dive deeper on your time after you finish watching. It aims for comprehension over detail so expect a lot of montages and expert talking heads. It may have been a good idea for that admonishment to be more explicit, but it does include a montage of classes offered though for people without happy feet, it was a missed opportunity not to use the platform to push ticket sales for spectators.
A TV special is different from a documentary because the latter adheres to a particular cohesive style, which does not possess an obvious agenda though there may be one, whereas a special can feel promotional or like an infomercial for dance. For instance, during the Dance Rising NYC‘s “NYC Compilation,” according to its producer Dance Riker, the featured music did not originally accompany each dance to create a uniform presentation instead of a realistic recreation. Specials are not creating the illusion of reality like a documentary but are aiming for a polished presentation which will appeal to the broadest audience. That creative choice may garner more viewers, but also risk detracting from the original intent of the dancers, who hopefully consented to this alteration.
Sound is not the only way that the dances are repackaged for home consumption. The camera often served as another unofficial dancer and choreographer. Each segment appeared to have a different cameraperson so while many dances were executed in front of the camera with the dancer knowingly facing the camera, other cameras weaved among the dancers or chose to focus on specific dancers to convey to the home audience what aspect of the dance should be considered important. In these segments, the dancers performed as if the cameraperson was invisible. The editorial work also performed a similar function.
The editor chose either few to no cuts or frequent cuts to emphasize the aspects of the dance that they thought were important. Some edits show split screens with lone dancers at home performing the same dance to create a constructed togetherness that did not exist in real life. Think of “Hollywood Squares” except for making individual dancers seem like a group despite being in different locations. I prefer the Fred Astaire school of filming dance: long uninterrupted shots featuring the entire body and moving seamlessly with the dancer so they feel as if they were one, which renders the camera invisible instead of feeling like a participant.
The dancers have varying levels of experience from adult and child beginners to professionals. “Dance Brings Us Together -The Resilience of Dance Through the Pandemic” challenges traditional images of what a dancer looks like by centering people with different body types, varying ages and physical disabilities. Cultural diversity is another important aspect of the program with Dance Theater of Harlem’s “Dancing Through Harlem” segment, which used Black ballet dancers in notable areas throughout Harlem with artistic director and 2021 Grand Marshal Virginia Johnson’s introduction. For people who yearn to see more traditional Chinese dance without worrying about whether you are supporting a cult, this program may provide a nice place to start because it features clips of dances from the New York Chinese Cultural Center.
It was interesting how each group navigated Covid protocols. Many of the dances occurred outdoors in venues which would ordinarily not showcase performances. The camera acts as a stand-in proxy for the audience. Some dancers wear masks. Some pieces were more ready for primetime such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s excerpt of a 2020 dance, called “Testament,” whereas others were more experimental in form like Urban Bush Women’s excerpt of “Wading in the Wobble,” which combined poetry, abstract visual presentation and incorporated the Zoom format as part of the choreography. The success of each segment relies on how good a speaker each artistic director is. One standout was Amalia Suryani of Saung Budaya Dance who performed a dance which originated in Indonesia.
There were four Grand Marshals in the 2021 Dance Parade, which includes Lisa Lisa of the Cult Jam, born Lisa Velez. While she is a New York icon from the 1980s. Lisa Lisa may be considered cheating because she is a musical performer, not a dancer, but as the most famous person in the special, and considering that the eighties were the best era for music, I’ll sign a waiver. Married couple H.T. Chen and Dian Dong of the Chen Dance Center stole and kept the spotlight in this “Dance Brings Us Together -The Resilience of Dance Through the Pandemic” because they discussed their history and struggle to keep the company going despite facing a tragedy—a fire destroyed their building at 70 Mulberry Street, New York, NY. Since airing, on June 12, 2022, Hsueh-Tung Chen died, but the legacy lives on with Dong and the next generation embodied in their daughters.
Because there was so much obvious creative input into this program, and the dances were shown in fragments, without the commentary from the artistic director, it would be hard for many viewers to deduce the story that each dance was trying to convey. If you just want to appreciate the variety and movement, then this “Dance Brings Us Together -The Resilience of Dance Through the Pandemic” is for you. Also it showcases a number of styles for you to note so you can search out and support these troupes in the real world or perhaps join one if you suddenly find yourself diagnosed with a case of dancing feet. If the TV special inspires you to act, but not dance, then anyone can sign a petition to eliminate zoning laws. I prefer a documentary but appreciate the grassroots efforts of dancers picking up cameras and cell phones to keep dance alive by using unfamiliar media.