‘We will be back.’ Kansas City Ballet artists dance in isolation through the pandemic
The arts have taken a huge hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, but ballet, dependent on dancers being in peak physical condition, has been challenged like no other art form. In addition to artistic challenges, the Kansas City Ballet has been presented with a plethora of other hurdles.
In the face of a surging virus, the company recently canceled its 2020-2021 season through the end of the year. That includes its beloved annual production of “The Nutcracker,” which also happens to be the ballet’s biggest moneymaker.
This has been heartbreaking news for dancers who give every ounce of soul, inspiration and sweat to performances. Devon Carney, artistic director of the Kansas City Ballet, says he and his company have been developing strategies to take on the pandemic and come out the other side stronger than ever. But he acknowledges it won’t be easy.
“It’s horrible, Carney said. “It’s devastating in so many ways. It knocks you out at the knees.”
Carney says the pandemic has dealt the Kansas City Ballet several setbacks, ranging from the physical and artistic to the financial.
“I think the financial setback is the one we’re all most concerned about,” he said. “It’s not just ‘Nutcracker,’ but how long the pandemic will last. Everybody predicts it’s going to be multiple years. Unless our audiences come back strong, it will take many years to financially recover from this. This is not going to be an overnight experience by any means.”
Carney says the Kansas City Ballet has “reasonable resources” right now, but he worries that support from donors and patrons may fade as COVID-19 drags on.
“Right now we’re having furloughs, we’ll have salary reductions, we’re doing everything we can to answer this pandemic head on,” he said. “The question will be how long can we hang on. The plea is for our audiences, in any way possible, to step forward and help us now because it is the way we will ensure our future. We have started a relief and recovery fund, and our dream and goal is be back in the Kauffman Center, hopefully, before the season ends.”
Maintaining the financial health of the company is, of course, extremely important, but so is maintaining the health and proficiency of the dancers.
“I worry about that,” Carney said. “I really do. Your body is your instrument and it’s a valuable resource, and it has to be taken care of on a daily basis.”
So Carney has instituted Zoom classes and encouraged all of his dancers to create their own home studios and maintain their fitness through cardio training and other means. Carney, too, has started taking classes, for the first time since retiring from dancing in 1998.
“It’s been good for me because it’s revealed how intensively in shape you have to be to do this art form,” he said. “It is something that takes time. You cannot hurry getting yourself in shape. Your muscles will only respond so quickly. You can’t go too fast or you will injure yourself. That’s critical here.”
Through painful experience, Danielle Bausinger, who has danced with the Kansas City Ballet since 2014, discovered the limitations of her home studio. Bausinger and her husband and fellow Kansas City Ballet dancer, Liang Fu, have carpet in most of their home and linoleum in their kitchen. The linoleum proved too slippery, so they opted to practice on the carpeting.
“But then I started to have aches and pains, which I normally don’t have,” Bausinger said. “So I called our company’s physical therapist, and she recommended a flooring that is plywood squares which join together. I had nine squares and put them together like a puzzle and then I was lucky enough to get some scrap marley (a special vinyl flooring for dance).”
This improved the aches and pains, but was still far from ideal. Bausinger is able to work on the fine points of certain techniques at home, but leaps and jumps are out of the question. Luckily, the Bolender Center has just reopened so the dancers can utilize its studios on a very limited basis.
It’s “the first step forward,” Carney said. Big white squares are taped to the floor to indicate social distancing and no more than four dancers are allowed in a room at one time.
“My husband and I have a small studio just for the two of us,” Bausinger said. “We wear masks coming into the building and come dressed in our dance clothes. They have wipes so we wipe down before we start. After we finish, they clean the floor and close the studio and that’s it for the day.”
Carney says that right now the studios are being used for conditioning. By late August or early September, he hopes to start offering organized company classes. Then in late October, fingers crossed, the company can once again start rehearsing ballets.
Carney says the ballet the company will rehearse first, when and if it is able to do so, has yet to be determined. But he hopes it’s either “Jewels,” the full-length Balanchine classic that was originally planned to end the 2020-2021 season, or the last season’s final production, which was canceled because of the pandemic.
“That’s the one we already have financial commitments to, so we don’t want to lose that production,” Carney said. “It was to feature ‘Serenade’ and ‘Wonderland’ and a fabulous ballet called ‘Celts.’”
Bausinger is also looking forward to the day when this pandemic, which has disrupted her life and career, is just a bad memory.
“I dance because I love it,” she said. “It brings me so much joy. Even though it’s been stripped away, that passion hasn’t left me. Dancers are very resilient. We will be back. We will find a way to keep providing dance to our audiences.”
To learn more and to contribute to the Kansas City Ballet relief fund, visit www.kcballet.org.
The William Baker Window Concerts
William Baker is singing it from the windows: People are thirsty “to hear real music, in real time, sung by real people.” To slake that thirst, the William Baker Choral Foundation has instituted a series of Sunday evening “Window Mini-Concerts” at 7 p.m. July 19 and 26 and Aug. 2 and 9 from the second floor of the foundation’s headquarters in Roeland Park.
On July 19, 26 and Aug. 2, a quintet from the William Baker Festival Singers will perform. On August 9, it’s Kansas City Bronze, a four-octave community handbell ensemble. The parking lot will be blocked off, so you’re invited to bring your lawn chairs and cap off your Sunday with a half hour of live music. The audience will be a socially distant 30 feet away from the performers.
7 p.m. July 19, 26, Aug. 2 and 9. William Baker Choral Foundation, 5450 Buena Vista St, Roeland Park. Free. https://tinyurl.com/yyvdpnxj for more information about the Kansas City Bronze concert, visit https://tinyurl.com/y3lerz6n.
You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: A story published online July 17 should have said The William Baker Festival Singers will perform on July 19, 26 and Aug. 2, and Kansas City Bronze will perform on Aug. 9. On Aug. 9, it’s Kansas City Bronze, a four-octave community handbell ensemble.