A message to Our Dance Community Regarding COVID-19
Dear Artists, Movers, Friends, Collaborators, Observers,
Due to the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic, Young Lungs Dance Exchange will be postponing our upcoming Research Series until further notice. We remain committed to facilitating activity which fosters artistic creation, growth and connection, and recognize that we are in a unique position to remain financially supportive to the artists involved in the Research Series during this time of crisis. We look forward to sharing the dance-based research explored by the amazing cohort of artists involved in the Research Series, including Neilla Hawley, Mark Dela Cruz, and Emily Solstice Tait, Meryem Alaoui and Sasha Amaya, as well as essayists Omid Moterassed and Ryan Ad, as soon as possible.
During this extraordinary time, Young Lungs has been deeply inspired by artists helping to keep us, as a people, moving. We have seen how adaptable humans are, how resilient, and how critical art is in each of our lives. We would like to extend our gratitude and thanks to all the artists out there offering their work, their skills, and their hearts to the public in new and innovative ways.
We also recognize the broad sweeping and heartbreaking cancellations of performances, shows, and projects, faced by artists in the last few weeks and into the unforeseeable future. The financial implications of these cancellations for artists is huge. For dance artists living in Western Canada, CADA/West has just issued a statement regarding their commitment to supporting dance artists at this time, as well as an update on the Government of Canada’s proposal to commit $82B to assist Canadians who have lost income due to measures implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19. We hope that this information might be of some help to those of you facing this particular financial challenge right now.
Go to https://cadawest.org/ for more information.
Our bodies are moving through this together, even if we are, at the moment, physically apart.
Stay safe folks, and keep on dancing!
xo
The Young Lungs Dance Exchange Board of Directors