Duke Dance Program Students Find Collective Resonance During COVID-19

Students enrolled in Dance 122: Intermediate Ballet this fall had the opportunity to collaborate with instructor, and MFA candidate, Courtney Liu to create a piece exploring the boundaries between classical ballet and contemporary styles: "Blurring the Lines: Finding Collective Resonance During COVID-19."

"The piece builds upon the classroom journey to find a collective way of being, dancing, and breathing--even when we are separated by physical distance." explains Liu. 

Students created phrases with an eye towards the future of ballet, worked with a nonlinear score, developed their capacity to attune to one another in both synchronous and asynchronous movements, explored various prompts for improvisation, and discussed and moved towards flow states.

Student dancers who participated: Claudia Chapman; Francesca Herrera; Lavonne Hoang; Lauren Mahoney; Nicole Park; Haley Snyder; Emma Steadman; Isabella Swigart; Caroline Tang; and Florence Wang. 

Duke Dance Program's John Hanks composed the music and sound collage; Emma Geiger, MFA candidate with EDA, did the filming and video production. 

You can watch the performance here.