Watch Three Dancers Grapple with Quarantine Isolation Through Movement
Dancing alone at home during quarantine can make you feel trapped, in multiple senses. You’re probably in a small space, unable to use your full range of movement; you might also feel creatively stymied, unable to draw inspiration from the more varied experiences of non-quarantine life.
This video from Cubique, a collective that creates art addressing socially relevant topics, gets inside those kinds of feelings. “Alone Together” features three dancers based across Europe: Roki Lionel Tanaka, in Germany; Venance Gwladys, in Switzerland; and Gee, aka Lil Sniper, in France. Each performs self-choreographed movement from inside a small cube-shaped space, delineated by strings of lights. They express frustration and despair with the limitations imposed by isolation—but also, ultimately, hopefulness about the future.
As explained in the making-of video, this project originally had a different focus: Cubique wanted to film dancers performing inside cube-shaped frames set in picturesque landscapes. After the pandemic made that impossible, the creative team rethought the concept, and chose to make quarantine itself the subject.
