Online dance looks like being a continuing trend for the remainder of 2021.
Rambert, notably, have developed an online programme of performance that focuses on livestreaming work in real time, rather than simply making archived works available online.
Other companies have taken different approaches to making work available online. Some are monetising a specific programme using a limited availability pay per view model - the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet and Canada's Ballet BC have gone down this route.
Staatsballett Berlin - possibly reflecting the robust public funding of the arts in Germany - have announced a digital season much like a regular live season except the work is available via YouTube for free for a specific 24 hour period. Germany now appears to be significantly further from reopening than the UK and this is likely an additional factor in decisions about online programming.
The Edinburgh International Festival is returning to live performance - using purpose-built outside venues and making Covid-secure changes to programmes - such a shorter events with no intervals. They have also announced that they will be running an online series of events alongside. Whether this reflects uncertainties over venue capacities, people's willingness to travel, the possibility of a third wave or simply that organisations have realised that, if done right, online gives access to a larger, more diverse - even more engaged - audience is almost certainly part of the thinking. Whether these are temporary moves or a permanent shift to broadening audience reach for the future is a discussion I'm sure will be taking place across the arts sector.
What happened last year - where many companies compensated for the catastrophic cancellation of their entire plans for 2020 by making archived performances available online - seems to have passed. Oddly, I have watched far more of the Royal Ballet in lockdown than I have ever done previously and this has created a sense of interest and engagement with a company I had previously viewed as largely 'out of reach'. Some European companies - notably GöteborgsOperans Danskompani - have fuelled my interest and awareness of their company and the work of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, whose work I have only occasionally seen onstage in the UK.
- Strong | Berlin Staatsballett | Online Digital Imagination season via YouTube - I had made plans to go to Berlin specifically to see this in May 2020; I re-planned it for March 2021 (based on then published performance dates that subsequently disappeared). Maybe I will now never see this on stage but I have seen it online 3 times and there are further opportunities to see it. Like much of Sharon Eyal's work, it actually gets better the more times you see it. It must have been immense live. Beautiful, dark and sexy. (April)
- Rooms | Rambert | Rambert Home Studio - Live-streamed live performance. 17 dancers, 36 scenes, 100 characters, 1000 costumes. Did it contain huge amounts of dancing? Not especially. Was it a remarkable close-up piece of physical theatre? Yes, it most certainly was. (April)