Dance With Me - A Public Blindfolded Dance Experiment With Strangers
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As many of us retreat further into the silos of our devices and our tribes, avoiding contact with strangers, I wanted to see if anyone would take me up on this invitation. I wanted to remind the world, but mostly myself, that extraordinary connections between strangers are possible and that the world can be as magical, safe, and free as we allow it to be. I wanted to test out my belief that people are good and that despite being vulnerable, I would be safe. I wanted to test myself, was I willing to dance with anyone, whoever they were; however they danced? Could the blindfolds help me to be truly blind to gender, age, race, and economic status? Thank you to those who took me up on the offer. Thank you to those who whispered encouraging words. Thank you to the blindfolds for encouraging me to trust and surrender. For several years my partner Candice Dawn and I have been teaching a Contact Improv workshop that uses blindfolds to help dancers drop into their authentic movement and let go of self judgments. We put a lot of effort into creating a safe space so participants could surrender and trust each other. I wanted to see what would happen if none of those agreements were in place and what would happen with perfect strangers. This was filmed before the pandemic. See blindfoldedcontact.com to find out more about this modality.