In Italy, 'lo Resto a Casa,' but Still I Dance

THE YORK TIMES
By Marina Harss

Making do and staying fit: clockwise from top left: Nadia Scherani, who teaches class remotely; Marco Messina, Piera Nicoletti Altimari and Giuseppe Picone. Clockwise from top left, via Nadia Scherani, Marco Messina, Tiziana Aiello and Giuseppe Picone.

Dance is a social art form that happens in crowded rooms full of people. Partnering and dance instruction are all about touching. Movement requires large spaces. So what happens in a period of enforced separation and reduced square footage? American dancers are just beginning to deal with these challenges. How are Italian dancers handling this new reality? The first answers came, unsurprisingly, from social media. On March 11, Marco Messina, a corps de ballet dancer from the Ballet Company of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan posted a mash-up of videos created by his fellow dancers showing them doing barre exercises in their bedrooms, stretching their feet while watering plants, bench-pressing toddlers, lifting each other in the backyard and perfecting pirouettes in the living room . [More]