Dancing on the Grid
Dancing on the Grid
Artistic Director: Debralyn Press; Assistant Artistic Director: Léa Ono; Creative Team: Debralyn Press, Albert Guerzon, Wadi Jones, Léa Ono
Dancing on the Grid
Artistic Director:
Debralyn Press
Assistant Artistic Director:
Léa Ono
Creative Team:
Debralyn Press
Albert Guerzon
Wadi Jones
Léa Ono
"Do You Need Me” by Son of Cloud
Choreography: Léa Ono
Shot and Edited by Léa Ono
Class: Senior Dance Artists Company with Léa Ono
Dancers:
Emelia Sikorsky
Kate Fishman
Max Motta
Bella Ruiz
Layla Carter
Sasha Carter
“Let There Be Light” by Ian Miller
Choreography: Albert Guerzon
Filmed and Edited by Wadi Jones
Dancers:
Albert Guerzon
Kate Fishman
Emelia Sikorsky
Matthew Anderson
Sasha Carter
Samuel Smutek
Max Motta
“Let There Be Light” by Ian Miller
Choreography: Albert Guerzon
Filmed and Edited by Wadi Jones
Dancers:
Albert Guerzon
Kate Fishman
Emelia Sikorsky
Matthew Anderson
Sasha Carter
Samuel Smutek
Max Motta
“True Feeling” by Galantis
Choreography: Albert Guerzon
Shot and Edited by: Anika Manchanda
Dancers:
Albert Guerzon
Emelia Sikorsky
Max Motta
Kate Fishman
Matthew Anderson
Bella Ruiz
Sasha Carter
Artist Statement
Westchester Dance Artists ("WDA"), formerly known as Sleepy Hollow Performing Artists, is an Ossining-based 501-c-3 organization dedicated to creating a safe space for artists to collaborate with the mission of creative works for the social good as we educated, elevate, and inspire through the arts.
What do artists do when tragedy and the unacceptable happen? They create. They transmute the unacceptable into digestible, human pieces of art food, a way to feed ourselves through the trauma.
When COVID hit we were faced with a unique situation… how do we create our art, if we can’t be together?
The virus was personal for our Artistic Team. We suffered tragic losses and struggled to find our voices and ourselves amid a time of outrage, fury, despair, and grief. But the sense of obligation to our students and to each other – took over, and pushed us through to our highest creative selves – to create a Spring performance, no matter what, in any way we possibly can. The loss inspired the work. The art form did its job – it lifted us above.
About Dancing on the Grid
Dancing On the Grid is a virtual performance that started with our learning to teach dance on Zoom as we adjusted to the horrors of the pandemic. We created choreography without a studio, rehearsed in our living rooms, designed lighting without a theater and communicated without being near each other. We poured over footage on Zoom meetings for hours every night, friends and family held lights and cameras. The result was an ambitious, scrappy, emotional show whose format became part of the story in itself. It is a raw exploration of living through the Coronovirus: the isolation, the anxiety, the coming together in completely new ways and the getting through this challenge together, as artists and as a community. These two pieces were the opening and closing numbers of our virtual performance, Dancing on the Grid. The show itself was conceptualized by Wadi Jones and Lea Ono. Our artistic team Debralyn Press, Albert Guerzon, Wadi Jones, Lea Ono and our community collaborated on this project from March through August. The project is a complete collaborative work that features the talents of many.
Email: contact@westchesterdance.org
Facebook: westchesterdanceartists
Instagram: westchesterdanceartists
YouTube: @westchesterdanceartists
Website: www.westchesterdance.org
SONGWRITER IAN MILLER @musicianmiller