Message from the CIB Board regarding the novel coronavirus, Covid-19

The board of Contact Improv Boston has made the difficult decision to suspend all jams, workshops and weekend events until further notice in response to the spreading Covid-19 pandemic.  We did not take this decision lightly.  As much as we all love to dance and come together, we believe that canceling our events is the appropriate public health response.

Let’s be honest … Contact Improvisation is just not compatible with the “social distancing” recommendations being promoted by the CDC, the WHO and other well-informed sources.  Hard to imagine a contact jam where we maintain a distance of 6 feet from each other!

We want to encourage each of you to find a way to keep your movement practice and your sense of community alive.  Dance in your living room.  Hang upside down from an easy chair. Go outside and take a walk, or have a contact duet with a tree.  We are seeing inspiring stories from around the world of ways that people are creatively maintaining connection while in physical isolation – you may have seen this video from Sienna of people in separate apartments all singing together.

We are lucky enough to live in the age of the internet, and have access to tools like Zoom and Facetime so that we can share conversations and activities across distance.  Perhaps we will organize a global-Underscore-like “small dance” practice we can each do in our own location, at a designated date and time; or a Zoom meeting for a shared somatic practice.

We are open to ideas for virtual dance events; please be in touch with any member of CIB if you have a proposal.  We will continue to use our listserv to announce anything that we feel is of interest to our community.

Given that there are dance teachers and other artists whose livelihoods are particularly threatened by the cancellation of classes, workshops and performances, you might consider donating to organizations such as the Boston Arts Relief Fund. They have converted their existing Opportunity fund to a Covid-19 fund, providing small grants to help Boston artists who have lost work, or anticipate losing work, to the pandemic. Let us know if you hear of other organizations with similar programs.

In the meantime, and for the foreseeable future, please follow guidelines from trusted sources about how to protect yourself, your family, and everyone else in the community. This is a time to act for the greater good.

 

Paul, Max, Derek, James, Annika