Dancing Together in Isolation
Dancing Together in Isolation is based on the film Exquisite Corps (42 Choreographers, 1 Dance) by Mitchell Rose Films. It was submitted to be part of a nationwide project titled CORontine Corps that will be housed on YouTube. We are extremely thankful to Mitchell Rose for his clear instructions, and to Heather Castillo, MiRi Park, Elizabeth Kattner, and Lizzie Leopold for creating the CORontine Corps project.
The Mt. San Jacinto College Dance Department prides itself on inclusivity. As a community college, we believe in the idea of serving the community and providing a safe space/place for any person who chooses to explore dance. Our dancers are representative of the folks who live in our surrounding area, and they are diverse in terms or age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and experience level. Our project, Dancing Together in Isolation, is the first film ever developed in the department and includes dancers from our Dance Performance class. These students, some of whom are in their first dance class and have never choreographed before, were thrust into a new online-digital-dance environment due to the Covid-19 quarantine. Finding their courage to participate in this dance film, the student dancers persevered and recorded videos of themselves dancing in living rooms, backyards, parking lots, or wherever they could find a little space. MSJC alumni and dance faculty also made creative contributions. To complete this process, Tracie Scherzer, musician and professor at Norco College, heard about our project and volunteered to create original music based on the dancers’ movement.