I came across The Sand Dance Project while scrolling through Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/sanddanceproject/?hl=en
I immediately fell in love - stopped scrolling - beach and dance - two of my favourite things combined in one beautifully ephemeral swirl ... I had to find out more about this Sand Dance Project. I am sure I left some hearts and probably a comment before scrolling up and finding the website: https://sanddanceproject.com/
I wanted to be part of this Sand Dance Project. I thought, they should run a workshop during spring break and my family and I will drive down there. We always drive down the coast. It is our favourite thing to do. This would give us another reason to go.
I reached out to Holly at the Sand Dance Project and she was down to make a workshop happen during spring break. Awesome. What could go wrong?
It is the week before spring break. I am standing in my studio at Frank Hurt with my principal, Mike Stickley. (#stickitcancer) We were talking about Covid and Sars and how we didn't think it would be that big of a deal and everything would be the same after spring break. Well, as we all know, it wasn't the same. We didn't even go back to school at all after spring break. We all quickly got familiar with Zoom meetings and teaching from our living rooms. The borders closed down and non essential travel, anywhere was shut down. The farthest I got from home was a run through the Stanley Park trails each day. The Sand Dance Project plan was put on hold.
That isn't entirely true. I did get farther than Stanley Park. After an intense interview process, a husband who wouldn't go for two years, and an accepted contract change to one year, my family and I moved to Jeju, South Korea. North London Collegiage School had a dream facility. I met some amazing teachers, staff, and students. I said yes to every opportunity and made up my own projects to fill my memories.
After Covid chills out a bit. When I say that, it was probably once Californians started to get vaccinated, The Sand Dance Project started becoming more active on Instagram. Americans got their vaccinations before we did in Korea... actually we didn't even get vaccinated in Korea that year. We were first in line after our two week quarantine in Canada though. I am still waiting for my booster as I write this - it is December 29, 2021.
I digress... back to the story: I want to dance all over this school and this island. This school had everything. It even had a drone. It is on an island - there are beautiful beaches. BING! I had an idea. Holly was down with my idea. She was open to collaboration and sharing her choreography.
This was going to be a true international collaboration. We were learning choreography from California. We had dancers from Canada, Ireland, New Zeland, and the UK. We were dancing on a beach in Jeju, South Korea.
I was super happy that Stella, Natalie, and Caitlin were down with another of my crazy ideas. (Although, I was slightly more excited about it than they were.)
Once I got the choreography from Holly, I chunked it and started learning it on my own. Caitlin joined me when we had breaks together and we started learning it together.
I had one class with one year twelve student in it, Ginger. Ginger and I loved rolling around on the floor, so I taught it to her as well. We also played around with dancing it to different songs. We even used the NLCS collaborative song made with the students and teachers from all three campuses of, All Night Long.
Ginger and I also tried it to Oasis's, Champagne Supernova.
I taught some of it to Natalie and Stella, but they had different schedules and would learn it on their own time.
On Monday, May 31, 2021 we met in the morning at Gwakji beach. Stella husband, Jonathan had his own drone and filmed for us.
We filmed it once all together. We moved down the beach a bit and filmed it again. I think we had decided to slow it down a little bit. You can't tell from the drone, but the incline of the beach was steeper than it looks. The forward roll up the hill was a struggle. I think I was calling out and counting too so we could all be as the same time together.
Really, this was our first time dancing it all together and it was our first time experiencing it in sand. All I can say, is thank goodness for the magic of editing.
Stella and Natalie didn't really learn the second half. They wanted to adapt the choreography and make changes. I am flexible but this bummed me out a little bit. I wanted it to stay authentic to the original choreography.
Since Caitlin and I knew the entire choreography, we filmed the whole thing again just the two of us. The drone ran out of power before Caitlin and I finished our set. Again, thank-you editing.
Sand Dance Project is textural dance. Let's talk about the experience of dancing in the sand. The sand gets everywhere. You have to be ok with getting dirty. It was like being a kid again. Swinging and rolling through the sand leaves tracings of the movements. Changing the resistance of your body weight, also changes the depth of the swirls and patterns. Your body melts into dry sand different than it does wet sand. The resistance of the sand makes it more difficult to keep the speed of the original choreography done in the studio.
When looking at the drone footage, it looks like we were farther away from the water line. It felt like, at any moment we were going to be in the water, or it was going to lap up and get us.
This first run with the dancers definitely required more rehearsal. I should have organized more formal rehearsals in the studio to make sure everyone knew the choreography. We should have taken more time with our filming. I imagined driving around to different beaches and filming all morning, maybe even multiple mornings. However, I am happy and grateful for the time that the other teachers did give me. They took time out of their work days to learn the choreography. They took time out of their half term break to meet me on the beach. For me though, this felt like the start of something.
After we were all done that morning, I won't ever forget running into the ocean with Stella. Running. The Irish girl and the Canadian girl racing into the water to wash off the sand. Soon we were all in the water. Stella's kids came out with us too. I swam and swam, smiling and happy that I got to be part of this project... that I was here on this beautiful island and having this experience that was so different from what I would have been experiencing back home.
Here are some reflections that we recorded right after our drone filming.
Jonathan sent me the drone footage and I made a first edit of the video. I found a really cheesey copyright free song. I did not particularly like that edit and I did mean to go back and make a different edit with a different song. I still haven't done that.
After this first experience in the sand with this choreography, I visited other beaches and danced in different sand. Each beach had a different texture, level of resistance, and slant to the beach.
June 6, 2021
There was no surf at Jungmun this morning. I took the trail and walked above the beach. I did ballet on the bridge and contemporary in the sand.
When the water would touch me and get me from behind and it was cold. I would forget my next move, lose my breath in surprise for a second. The water came up right when I did the swim move with my arms in a ball... that one didn't record. I remember that moment though be in time with the ocean.
The deep sand. Sinking in.
The steeper hill.
The realization that this is the beginning... not the finished product. Knowing that I am going to keep dancing this choreo ... getting into the sand... as many times as I can before I leave here...
Sagye Beach June 19, 2021
I am back in Vancouver now. It is winter. There is actual snow on the ground. That doesn't always happen here. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Snow dance? Brrr....
The studios and gyms have just shut down here in Vancouver again, this time for the Omicron strain of Covid. This virus is in its second year of disrupting life. However, I know that one day, I will make it back down the coast to California and I will join the Sand Dance Project in a real live collaboration.
Thank-you to everyone who made this dream idea come to life. Who knew scrolling through Instagram could change the pathways of your life in a meaningful and creative way?
Let's connect the world through art.
Global artistic collaboration.
