Two years into a Covid-19 world, and we are all still experiencing degrees of isolation. But in the first year, we were so boxed in that each day had us trying to find a way to burst out of the seams. So what better way is there to open an emotional enclosure than cranking the music and letting loose with a soul freeing session of dance. Martin Ponferrada realized just that and gathered 176 dancers from around the world to get the message out. The result is a short film called Shelter that uses dance, music and color to bring hope, and by the end of the six minutes, you’ll know exactly what to do when there seems no escape from the loneliness.
So we begin in an enclosed space where the wooden shades are drawn, and the sunlight is struggling to break in. “During the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns, we asked artists from around the world to express the emotion of isolation through dance,” reads the words written across the screen.
A young Australian woman then enters the room – and despite there being no end in sight – she looks like she’s seen enough of social distancing and sitting at home.
The light slightly brightens around her, and turning toward the camera, “Australia” readies herself with a deep breath that says a journey is about to begin. Simultaneously the piano score by Donovan Dorrance kicks in, and animation is superimposed over her gyration.
A myriad of color, we are no longer privy to the person and only the form as provided by Ponferrada and Ravinder Singh’s animation technique. Still, we can gage through the motion that “Australia” is doing all she can to cast off the bonds of isolation. Thus, we feel the escape that dance provides, and before we can completely lift off with her, we’re taken to New Zealand, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, and more.
Each dancer is at home doing ballet, breakdance, free-form or the movement that brings life to the loneliness that the lockdown has imposed on them. The edits are seamless and come off as one dance that conveys the same universal struggle. The same solution too, but there are no words. So the score vividly tells the progression Shelter seeks.
Despite the inspired motion on screen, the emotions have to catch up and shift gears slowly because the weight is still so heavy. The monotonous tapping of the keyboard signifies the sentiment, and the uplift remains contained.
The musical pace picks up, violins are added, and our hopes also escalate. The guitar pluck then feels like specs of light are being added to the darkness.
Not so fast, we’re still in lockdown mode, and then an incursion of instrumentals hits like a rainbow. We are taking off. Dance and music – we cannot be stopped.
Well not exactly, and like life, the musical refrain takes us through the whole journey again. Finally, we end at the beginning, and “Australia” returns along with the tempered single stroke of the piano keys. She’s still stuck, but the shelter of dance and this film shows us how to get through – whether there’s a pandemic or not.
