New Dance Floor!
Here’s a picture of us masked up, loaded up, and ready to make the trek back home.
This is a time of great change. A lot of things are changing in ways that are difficult and upsetting, however we’ve seen that we can take these changes as opportunities to learn and grow and build.
We’re seeing many businesses shut their doors - not just for covid-19, but sometimes forever. Our communities are going to look very different after shut downs end, and the places that have housed dance are no exception. Many studios and theaters are closing.
One such studio was the childhood home of one of our collective members, and in closing, they liquidated all of their costumes, props, stage lights, mirrors, flooring, and more.
While we don’t currently have our own space, we are visualizing that space and working towards making it a reality (seriously - if you want to help us do this we would love your help!). So a few of us collective members pooled our change jars and savings accounts to buy the dance floor from our dance friends.
Hopefully in buying that floor we not only invest in the future of Isthmus Dance Collective, but help to alleviate some of the hardships that come with shutting down a business that has been around for decades and has given many children the gift of growing up in the arts.
Wisconsin and particularly Dane County is in an extremely high spike of covid-19 right now, so we had to make extra sure to stay safe and distanced while picking up and transporting our new floor. Three of us did the 90 minute drive from Madison to the closing studio in our own cars and a rented moving van.
Together we made quick work of loading those heavy rolls of rubberized dance floor in to the back of the truck. All of our time rehearsing together, all of the partnering and training, really showed in the speed and efficiency of the work. We were told it would take 3-4 strong men to lift these rolls and we did it with 3 versatile dancers. I love working with dancers - we really get a lot of practice communicating, organizing, and collaborating in pursuit of our work, so we’re really good at getting s*** done!
For now, the marley (the name of this special kind of dance floor) is in storage in the spare bedroom of a collective member because it needs to stay in a warm, temperature controlled space to stay flexible and prevent it from breaking. In the spring, however, we’re making arrangements to loan the flooring to a dance friend with a marvelous event space who we’re building a relationship with.
We can’t wait to get our bodies on that dance floor and make some work to share with you!
