Teaching to keep Kanopy alive

Without live performances, the contemporary dance company is involved in creative online collaborations

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Local contemporary company Kanopy Dance was halfway through its season of performances at Overture last spring when the arts center was forced to “take an intermission,” closing to the public through the end of 2020 due to COVID-19. Kanopy co-artistic director Lisa Thurrell remembers the moment in mid-March when all her plans suddenly changed. “We were planning our next season. We had already spent two glorious weeks in rehearsal for our upcoming concert. All the directors were meeting regularly, collaborating with the local improv group Are We Delicious?, getting ready for our Far Out Prophecies of Nostradamus show. Everyone was so full of ideas.” 

Then, like every other performing arts organization, Kanopy shifted from making long-term plans to brainstorming short-term possibilities, as the ability to gather together in a shared space — either as artists or as audiences — became more remote.

But the cancellation of concerts did not mean that the troupe was idle. Fortunately, Kanopy Dance has a full roster of classes for young people and adults that are normally taught parallel to the performance season. Adjusting to the restrictions of COVID-19, Thurrell and her staff of dance instructors took to the internet, conducting their classes virtually, at a safe distance via Zoom. “The transition was tough, but all in all, it’s gone very well,” says Thurrell.

Total enrollment for the Kanopy Dance Academy is down from previous years, and Thurrell acknowledges that many parents are reluctant to sign their children up for extracurriculars until things return to normal. In addition, the courses themselves are not “normal” — summer intensive classes, which usually include eight-hour days for several weeks, had to be shortened and modified. But she sees both the students and the instructors rising to the challenge of translating a communal, collaborative art into one conducted in isolation.

“The dancers are excelling,” Thurrell says. “I was skeptical at first about how we could take our very hands-on courses and filter them through screens, but it’s working.” Instructors can still make corrections, working with dancers one-on-one. Students are doing solos instead of ensemble pieces, and recording and editing final projects on video for private watch parties instead of group showcases. “It’s not the final product that we are training them for, but the process is still creative, exciting and enriching,” says Thurrell.

Kanopy Dance Academy’s fall quarter started Sept. 15, offering nearly two dozen weekly classes including creative modern dance, ballet, choreography and improvisation, and dance history, as well as intensives in principal modern dance techniques in the styles of Lester Horton, Anna Sokolow, Doris Humphrey, Erick Hawkins and Martha Graham.

In addition to Zoom sessions, the curriculum also includes written projects that students can complete independently. “Our students will be journaling more on their own, writing down thoughts about composition and choreography, observations from nature, from people watching, and their thoughts on how time, light and space are used in dance,” says Thurrell.“This notebook is a sacred place for their dance artistry. It’s a place to record thoughts on costumes, music, environment, all the things we can’t physically experiment with right now.”

Artistically, there are a few silver linings to teaching dance in the era of COVID-19, Thurrell says. Kanopy normally brings in instructors from Chicago and New York for some of the summer programs, providing housing and transportation as well as teaching fees. Now the instructors are available to teach via Zoom. “It means more of our students are learning from masters from across the country,” says Thurrell.

Kanopy Dance Academy students will also participate in a national project, creating a virtual performance of Anna Sokolow’s signature work “Rooms.” Appropriate to the moment, it is a piece about loneliness, featuring music composed by Kenyon Hopkins for a jazz ensemble. Kanopy dancers, along with others from select companies and colleges across the country, will rehearse virtually throughout the fall with the New York City-based Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble. In addition, the pre-professional company Kanopy 2 and Kanopy Company dancers will revisit Thurrell’s “Ciaconna,” rehearsing remotely and ultimately compiling a film adaptation of the piece.

On a practical level, the Academy is also fundamental to Kanopy’s financial viability. “Now more than ever, when our stage is dark, it’s keeping the lights on while we’re trying to keep our dancers active and engaged,” says Thurrell.

Although she is unnerved by the uncertain future of live performances, Thurrell has resolved to keep Kanopy Dance Academy functioning as usual, for as long as possible. “I’ve always loved mentoring and trying to help make artists, whatever their age or background,” she says. “And this is a way for us to move forward. We can still dance and train our students, even though it’s not in person. We’re doing the right thing,” she concludes. “We can do this right now because we have to. We all want to continue to move and dance.”