By Victor Swoboda Opportunity in the arts sometimes knocks at unexpected doors. Montreal choreographer Helen Simard heard the knocking last March when the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly closed all theatres as well as the rehearsals of her new trio, Papillon, for the company she co-founded and co-directs with musician Roger White, We All Fall Down. Simard
By Michael Crabb Performing artists tend to be optimists. How else to explain their willingness to dedicate themselves to what in the best of circumstances is often a precarious and financially insecure existence? And then came COVID-19. The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus has tested this optimism to the extreme. Just as governments around
By Rebecca Karpus A young dancer prepares for class: tights on, bun made, shoes handy. After a brief warm-up of her own, she is ready to begin. She clicks “join meeting,” waits for her teacher and fellow students to appear on the screen, and places her hand on her kitchen counter “barre.” This is the