VB36 - Dance Anywhere - I Rez, Therefore I Am

TRAFALGAR SQUARE, 30 March — At exactly Noon PDT / 20:00 BST today, Vaneeesa Blaylock / Company & Gallery Xue / London joined groups large and small across 6 continents in the global dance project Dance Anywhere.

In 2005 choreographer Beth Fein asked a question:

What if, in one moment, the whole world started dancing?

For 8 years now Dance Anywhere has been the the answer to that question. For the Vaneeesa Blaylock / Company’s 1st year of participation we thought about how, on average, it seems like people dance more in virtual space than in the “real” world. Whatever it means, a lot of peeps seem to have their conversations across the dance floor instead of across the pub table.

In thinking about the spirit of Dance Anywhere, is it literally to move your body? Yes! But perhaps also to be in your body. To pay attention to yourself as a physical presence, as an embodied, corporeal being. The word “dance” might at times conjure visions of heroic movement or incredible rhythm, but stillness, calmness, presence, can also be powerful experiences.

And so for VB36 – Dance Anywhere, we chose to have it both ways. To be still for “Part A” and to cut loose for “Part B.”

In “Part A” we created an ambitious, gynmastic, tableaux vivant in the fountain at Trafalgar Square. A rather unique tableaux! 30 avatars joined their bodies to create a living, human dodecahedron. In “Part B” we did indeed cut loose and danced in the Trafalgar Square fountain.