Dancers inspire motion via video classes
Asking ‘What can I give?’ led Marling to stay fit and connected
Terence Marling was in Germany when President Donald Trump made his Oval Office address instituting a travel ban from Europe. Marling, a Chicago-based ballet and contemporary dance choreographer and teacher, had been abroad for a month working on a freelance project. “It was the middle of the night, and my phone started going crazy,” Marling said recently. Within an hour of the news, he was on a train to Berlin to try and catch an earlier flight back to Chicago. “I couldn’t get anyone on the telephone at the airline that I was flying on. The website was jammed up, so I just went to the airport.” Marling flew to Stockholm before returning to Chicago on March 13, arriving amid a flurry of cancellations and postponements by arts organizations. On March 12, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker instituted a mandate limiting public gatherings to fewer than 1,000 people to try and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which has deeply affected the arts. In September, Marling had formed Common Conservatory, a post-secondary training program aimed at preparing dancers for professional careers as performers. Upon returning to the States, the CDC’s guidelines and city ordinances didn’t initially affect his program as deeply as they did larger arts organizations. Marling planned to take a week off. His studio space was still open so he reorganized Common Conservatory’s schedule so that dancers could continue working in smaller groups. He planned to livestream a ballet barre from the studio on Instagram live. As guidelines for public gatherings became more stringent, the community center in Lincoln Park where he rehearses was forced to close. Marling has now cancelled all of Common’s classes and performances until further notice, and moved the ballet barre into his living room in Evanston. He livestreams from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. weekdays and in the afternoons home-schools his two young children during statewide school closings. “All dancers need to take care of their bodies every day,” Marling said. “So it seemed like the simplest thing to put a barre out there.” Ashwaty Chennat is one of two salaried employees at Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, where she is a bharatanatyam teacher, performer and choreographer. “I feel grateful,” she said recently. “Our organization works to ensure that I and our director Pranita (Nayar) are safe.” However, Mandala hires a number of freelance teachers, performers and musicians for its programs. With all their upcoming events canceled, they won’t be able to fill those contracts. “I’m feeling for my peers, who do incredible work and are stuck at home,” said Chennat. “We’re trying to keep ourselves safe and active. It’s a tough time.” Chennat has been checking in with peers to stay motivated about practicing. “Dance is a group activity, and it’s very hard for me to be inspired to move without others,” she said. Chennat is also experimenting with keeping her children’s classes going via video conferencing from her home in Albany Park. “I’m trying to turn my second-floor apartment with very creaky floors into a classroom,” she said. Chennat is adapting her classical Indian dance technique, which uses ankle bells and foot stamping against the floor, by stepping lightly to avoid upsetting her neighbors.
Chennat was also due to begin a residency with jazz percussionist Alvin Cobb, Jr. in May, sponsored by Pivot Arts. It is yet unclear if Pivot Arts’ residencies and annual summer arts festival will go on as scheduled. “We plan on persisting,” she said. “I hope we can find a way to virtually create something. We’ll make it happen, regardless — I think.”
Danielle Gilmore, a modern dancer with Mordine and Company, REdance and Kelly Anderson Dance Theatre, earns the majority of her income teaching private yoga classes in corporate and residential settings. “Unlike working a gym, I had to make the decision to stop working completely on my own,” she said.
Gilmore set up a yoga mat in her Lincoln Park apartment and is creating YouTube videos for her clients to follow from home.
“I’ve gotten an overwhelming response,” she said. “There’s a ton of yoga videos out there, accessible to everyone, but they’ve appreciated that I took time to make a video on the stuff we’ve been working on.”
Gilmore is not monetizing her online classes at this point. She said her parents taught her to save up for emergencies, and Gilmore has an additional part-time job that is so far unaffected by the health crisis.
“I lost a job in the past, and feel like I’m prepared for situations like this,” she said. “This feels different, but I have already planned ahead. Some teachers are asking for donations for their classes, and I’m letting (my clients) know there’s other classes that they can pay for. For some teachers, this is all they have.”
Up to 200 viewers a day have logged on to take Marling’s barres. While he publishes his Venmo information and is accepting donations, he’s not viewing the classes as a moneymaking venture. He is wary of asking dancers to contribute while they, too, are unemployed.
“I’m hoping there’s some government support,” he said. “Huge sectors of the economy are completely gone. I’m not the only person in this situation. What can I give that will make a difference to people? I know I can give a barre every day.”
But as time goes on, Marling says, he’ll have to figure out a way to keep Common Conservatory afloat. “It’s a small enough business that I was running it on zero profit, but also zero debt. It was working. The whole environment of the dance world is in flux, and this is really going to have impact. When are people going to feel OK to gather in large numbers again?”