Protesters gather for the National Day of Resistance Against Unsafe School Reopening on August 3, 2020 in New York City, United States. Schools around the country are struggling to establish safe protocols to bring students back into classrooms. Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP.
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Broken TV and computer screens lay piled at a garbage dump near a rice field in Vĩnh Phúc province, Vietnam. Photo: Kham/Reuters.
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The appeal of Alessandra Ferri: “Don’t let our bathroom’s sink be a dancer’s barre”
The ballet étoile hopes that soon dancers will be allowed again to do their rehearsals in the dance halls, even though in compliance with the distance rules and all safety measures: “In order to study safely and competently, we do need parquet floors, barres and mirrors”. [Read more]. |
The black curtain at last is lifted, revealing a stage behind the bars. Artwork © pionpi.
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Dummies replaced audience due to coronavirus at the first professional baseball league game of the season at 桃園國際棒球場 (Táoyuán International Baseball Stadium) in 桃園 (Táoyuán), Taiwan. Photo: 王騰毅 (Ann Wáng)/Reuters.
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A TV cameraman walks through spectators’ seats which are covered with pictures of fans at the Munhak Baseball Stadium in Incheon, South Korea. Photo: Lee Jin-man/AP.
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Due to the government-enforced lockdown over coronavirus, Sherazade Mami, a 28-year-old Tunisian dancer, performer and teacher at the Caracalla Dance Theatre, opted to continue practising on the roof of her apartment in the suburb of Dekwaneh on the outskirts of east Beirut, Lebanon just to keep herself in shape. Photo: Joseph Eid/AFP.
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After a month or so of national-popular rhetoric, pathetic hashtags, and online fictional dance classes, Florence’s dance schools suddenly realised that closed doors, blurred mirrors, empty rooms, and no music can’t pay rents. Yet not all schools were equal before. But now we’re all in the same desert. And, yet, we each of us always did our best to do “social distancing” from each other, and, luckly in art, we (most, but not all of us) have always managed to avoid rigged gladiatorial dance contests and all its intrinsic business model. But in the end, nothing helped. It’s all even in the end. We were not all equal, but we’re all equal.
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One thing is by now certain: most of the several thousands of dancing schools, de facto closed until further notice by the government-enforced lockdown due to coronavirus, won’t be able to reopen next September. Empty classes actually mean that dance students no longer have to pay school fees — whilst the rent of the place and the bills are yet running. On the other hand, dance, being an intimate art fundamentally based upon design in movement, passion and body contact, cannot be turned into a parody of skypers and whatsappers practicing jazz-funk-drum style in front of their webcams. After all, mainstream politicians can even afford themselves to simulate democracy through video conferencing and virtual reality. They are paid handsomely for having fun. A dance school — alas! — cannot afford itself to turn into a virtual, non-physical body. Let’s be honest with each other: online classes are not magical enough to charge for it. Virtual coins won’t cover rent costs — and so the question arises, then what are we fighting for?
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Social solidarity in the time of COVID-19 is not only an ethical responsibility of charitable institutions, but often it is also a spontaneous initiative by citizens and families, who fill boxes with food which will be left on the doorstep for those in need. People are free to go to the boxes at any time of day or night. The sign reads “Give what you can. Take what you need”.
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Homeless people sleep in a temporary parking lot shelter at Cashman Center, with spaces marked for social distancing to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Photo: Steve Marcus/Reuters.
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Dhaka, Bangladesh: A Dhaka City Corporation sewer cleaner at work. Despite a rise in the number of deaths of manhole workers, cleaners regularly go into the sewers without any protective equipment. Photo: Zakir Chowdhury/Barcroft Images.
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