2020 was hard on everyone. Especially healthcare-workers and artists. As a way to honor our healthcare workers and express some of the feelings that they are going through in this challenging time, UptownWorks teamed up with medics dealing directly with COVID-19 across America and beyond. While our team created original sound scores and choreography, we collaborated with dancers and choreographers around New York City to bring these stories to life. This emotional undertaking was produced as a series of five films and featured on the Yale Schwarzman Center web series along with an interview with Daniela Hart, Pandemic Voices sound designer.
Curated by Mandie Rapoza, Pandemic Voices is a series of short dance films that share perspectives of healthcare professionals around the world in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health professionals we worked with documented their experiences through three days of hospital shifts and summarized each day for us with one word. These three words were then given to the choreographer to build a short movement phrase. In an effort to mimic the experience of the medic not knowing what would be next for them, moment to moment, we urged creatives to work fresh each day and respond to the words as they came in. Once the movement was recorded, original music was layered into the film by Daniela Hart.
The Volumes
Anticipation. Hypoxia. Familiar.
Vol I Credits:
Choreography & Performance: Mandie Black Rapoza
Sound Design: Daniela Hart
Words from Rich in NYC
Overwhelmed. Challenged. Disappointed. Sad. Exhausted.
Vol II Credits:
Choreography & Performance: Abby Taylor & Gaz Davis
Sound Design: Daniela Hart
Words from Liz
Artistic Direction: Mandie Black Rapoza
Hope. Safety Barriers. New Normal. Frustration. Comfort.
Vol. III Credits:
Choreography & Performance: Leah Hofmann
Sound Design: Daniela Hart
Words from Umbert Hart in Texas
Artistic Direction: Mandie Black Rapoza
Taking care, my patients as my family. Lack of medical equipments. Tension. Make an instantaneous Judgement. Patient.
Vol. IV Credits:
Choreography & Performance: Mamiko Nakatsugawa
Sound Design: Daniela Hart
Words from Japan
Artistic Direction: Mandie Black Rapoza
Safety Barriers. Anticipation. Make an instantaneous Judgement. Overwhelmed.
Vol. V Credits:
Choreography: Olivia Palacios
Performance: Emma Becker
Sound Design: Daniela Hart
Words from Many
Artistic Direction: Mandie Black Rapoza
Inside The Volumes
