TRAP IST (COVID-19 Update)

The following is from our April FLDT newsletter. (Should you wish to be added to our company's email list, please send us an email with your contact information via our CONTACT page.)

This certainly isn't the newsletter I thought I'd be writing this month. I had planned on showing you some video of my collaboration with Jonathan Burkhardt, and wanted to introduce you to some short samples from the music we'll be using. But can you believe it? Just when it finally looked like "full speed ahead" for TRAP IST, we were hit with Covid-19!

Even for those of us in the dance field who are constantly barraged by meteor showers of unexpected obstacles, this was one that went way beyond anything we've ever dealt with -- or anticipated.

While as recently as a month ago we were charging ahead (having just been awarded our first grant from LMCC), we now find ourselves in this very unexpected and unwanted state of limbo. The logistics have become daunting! Will grants and residencies for this year be cancelled, and the grantees made to reapply? Or will funders extend the time we have to complete the projects? Will the theater in which we wish to perform -- forced to cancel its current season -- have such a huge backlog of shows once it reopens, that our own premiere will be pushed back months, or even years? (Not to mention the looming question of whether or not audiences will even want to attend live dance/theater anymore, having become accustomed to accessing it online.)

I was planning on beginning work on the choreography this month, but obviously that didn't happen, as all the dance studios are closed, and the dancers (and I) are trying to keep in some sort of shape by doing our barres (on 3 foot square pieces of dance flooring placed on top of the hard floors of our small apartments), as we practice social distancing. We long for the time (how many months in the future we don't know), when we can meet again safely in dance studios, and work in very close physical proximity to each other, without the fear of becoming seriously ill -- or worse.

So in addition to the basic challenges of just staying alive and staying put in very small spaces, there are many issues we'll have to face. While we're champing at the bit to get going, everything has been put on hold for the forseeable future, along with the rest of our lives. That is not to say this is all coming to a halt. NOT AT ALL! The one big advantage of having a very small non-profit organization is that we can be incredibly nimble. We will never shut down as long as I can sit at a computer -- or for that matter -- just think. Artists are used to long periods of isolation and working alone, so actually the creative work routine now isn't that much different from what it usually is. And thanks to technology, collaborations can be carried out online. Jonathan and I have been meeting via ZOOM; I've already received music files from several of the composers, and the others -- writing new music for the score -- will begin teleconferencing with me soon. As mentioned above, the choreography will now, by necessity, come last, though ideas are forming in my head all the time. So our plans are on track for TRAP IST (in fact maybe a little ahead of where they would have been -- had we not been confined to our homes with plenty of time on our hands).

I suppose the silver lining, if there is one, might be the chance to draw from our horrific present to enrich the work. (How would that change the characters? The plot?)

Eventually we'll all find a way out of this utter chaos, move beyond our current common struggle, and at that time TRAP IST will be premiered. In the meantime we'll send you updates when there's something to report, but please forgive me if they don't arrive on their regular schedule. At the rate things seem to be moving, who knows what will happen next week, let alone next month or several months from now.

I'm also not going to ask you for a contribution to our company right now. You've got more than enough to cope with, and there are those who need your help more at this point just to get through the crisis. I am fully aware that talking about the struggles to keep going with TRAP IST pale before your own daily efforts to stay positive, sane, and alive in this terrible time.

I look forward to the day when this will all end and we'll be able to resume our normal lives -- and our journey together to the planet, Trappist 4. Until then, please remain healthy and safe!

All the best,

Felice

© 2020 Felice Lesser

All Rights Reserved