danceGATHERING

Presented with the support of the UF Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship

DanceGATHERING is coming to you. 

The world as we know it has ended. But simultaneously, this end time has ignited the fire of a new possible future.

Given the contagious nature ‪the Coronavirus (Covid-19), it became impossible to continue with our plans, but instead of announcing a cancellation, we present to you an exceptional 24-hour livestream of a virtual danceGATHERING 2020‬, on April 18 & 19, featuring a careful selection of over 100 international performers and thinkers, engaging with our theme: THIS IS THE END: THE FUTURE IS BLACK.

Every year danceGATHERING examines its conceptual epicenter from myriad perspectives and muses. This year, we reflect the time. Almost every artist we know are at home at this moment, the object of our reflection is therefore, to examine what working from home means for many of us, how do we merge the home space with the work space? Defying the rules of social distancing isn’t what is radical at this time, but going in to collapse the space within one’s own confinement, to investigate how this new reality informs our practice, in a way that incorporates every obstacle that confines us to a place.

The virtual world is already a great space to collapse space and time, to escape and to re-connect, connecting the dispersed world through creative collaborations and a feeling of presence which defies distance. A Virtual danceGATHERING isn't an online festival, it isn't a webinar nor an e-conference. As systems collapse around us, this is an invitation to allow same to crumble in each of us individually, while seeking new kinds of connections as we rehearse the future together.

Traditionally, dance is an object in space and time. The object of dance in the time of Corona Virus however, is to eliminate space and time. Our desire to not totally cancel danceGATHERING, is borne out of our ongoing interest in finding ways to reduce our carbon footprints as artists in the age of the anthropocene, and also combining artificial intelligence with an immersive explorations of Yoruba conception of spacio-temporality, which equates the virtual with the spiritual, within a context that unsettles us, and places us as the subject of our own futures, pasts and presents?

On April 18th and 19th, stay tuned as we go live! 

The livestream begins at 7:00 a.m.

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