Quarantine Book Club: An Energetic Zoom Call

Rachel Barker

In collaboration with performers

Performers: Maddie Butler, McCall McClellan

Music: Michael Wall "3 166" and "War Machines"; Yann Tiersen "The Old Man Still Wants It (Portrait Version)"

Music and Video Editing: McCall McClellan

…And multiple “you’re frozen” statements were muttered…

This piece stems from a desire to explore personal physical histories. Particularly, during this strange and uncertain time of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we are all struggling to navigate major changes in lifestyle, relationships, financial situations, living and dancing spaces, etc., I am curious about how we catalogue these changes in our emotional and physical states through movement. We are all processing a great deal, and there is much to be mined in our bodies.

 In true COVID-19 style, Quarantine Book Club was created completely over Zoom, and as such, remains gritty and somewhat unpolished.  With one dancer, Maddie, in her backyard in California, the other, McCall, in her garage in Provo, and I at my home in Salt Lake City, we never physically met together throughout the entire process. Choreographing through digital means was not without its challenges, and proved to be very tedious—a 150 ft ethernet cable was purchased, and multiple “you’re frozen” statements were muttered—but it was exciting to play with rich, disparate spaces which offered much more than a studio or theater could. I encouraged the dancers to explore and dance with their particular spaces in a site-specific manner—lifting up a garage door, tipping over a chair, hiding behind a palm tree... Much like we as a global community have tried to find ways to continue to connect despite isolation, in this piece I worked to connect these two women , albeit in a quirky manner, across time and space through movement. —Rachel Barker, 2020

Rachel Barker

 is an Assistant Professor, teaching improvisation, composition, and other courses in the Contemporary Area of the BYU Dance Department. Her current research both questions and seeks to build connections between dance and the various domains, audiences, or communities wherein it might exist, while investigating improvisation both as performance and process. A Utah native, she received an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University where she was a three-year Distinguished Fellow, an MAT from Westminster College, and a BFA in Dance from the University of Utah.