Dear TRENDS Diary –
For any dance company, real human connection with an audience has been nearly impossible since the pandemic shut down live performances. But, given the slightest crack in the closed door of daylight, we at 3rd Law Dance/Theater burst the door open and took to the great outdoors for the fourth rendition of our biannual Elision Project. Specifically, we took to the tri-level parking garage at Boulder’s 29th Street Mall for a site-specific concert that transformed an ordinary parking garage into an immersive, theatrical wonderland over four nights.
We at 3rd Law took our biggest theatrical challenge to date and turned it into a thrilling creative opportunity. We had so many logistics to overcome, from sound quality to gritty dancing surfaces to audience comfort to weather. We had a plan A, B, C and D. And somehow, we made magic with dramatic lighting, live music and thoughtful original choreography spread over multiple parking levels.
In the end, I found myself happily singing Joni Mitchell’s classic line, ”Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone? They paved paradise; put up a parking lot.” We were all back together, and we got to share our work in-person with others after being apart for so long. We missed our audience immensely.
As we all emerge from the pandemic and try to understand what live theatrical performance means in the future, this concert was an important response to the year of isolation we just went through, The themes we explored through dance, music, costumes and props were truly a living, breathing expression of that year, and the restrictions that came with it.
We have emerged triumphant.
– Katie Elliott, Artistic Director, 3rd Law Dance/Theater, as told to John Moore
