After I was injured in 2009, I barely danced for two years. I didn’t even want to watch a dance performance. I felt so heartbroken, so betrayed by my body. The only path forward I could see was for dance – the love of my life – to cease to exist (which was pretty difficult to achieve as the director of a performing company, but I digress.)
In 2011, with the discovery of Dance for PD® and the inception of Reconnect with your Body, my relationship with dance was reborn. By witnessing the Reconnect dancers fall in love with dance and find new ways to move, trust and honor their bodies, I found my path forward. This dance turned out to be my true love, the work I was put on this earth to do.
On March 11, 2020 we had our last in-person Reconnect class and announced we would be suspending classes for two weeks in order to keep our community safe. Here we are 11 weeks later and we are still unsure of the path forward. As some people start to venture out and business start to reopen, most of our dancers do not have the freedom to consider this risk. They continue to stay home and our dance company must continue to do what we do best: adapt.
Without understanding how we got here – we dance.
Without knowing when we will be able to hug each other again – we dance.
Without seeing a path forward – we dance.
We overcome technological irritations.
We fight the inertia of quarantine.
We release perfection and expectation.
We show up with our uncertainty
and we dance.
I never knew a life without dance until injury made me believe it was gone forever. My Reconnect dancer family gave me back my love of dance, and they renew my faith in its magical powers every time we have class – even now as I teach through a computer from my living room. The dances we have shared in our virtual classes are a safe space to feel all the frustration and fear of this unprecedented time – and they remind us what remains true.
In this most turbulent of times, we refuse to imagine our lives without dance. It lives in our bodies, our minds and our hearts, and we don’t know how to be in the world any other way.
We have had so many amazing humans contribute to our fundraiser so far. That energy fuels the behind the scenes work that makes the dance possible. If you are in a position to give, please help us reach our fundraising goal by May 31st. Your donation helps us find our path forward – and you can guarantee we will be dancing on it.
Yours in Art and Action,
Sarah Leversee
Founder and Artistic Director of Art as Action