Jenny Oliver

Modern Connections dance collective, run by dancer and activist Jenny Oliver, announced that in-person classes would be making a comeback, with increased safety and sanitation measures, on July 12. In less than 12 hours, the class was sold out. Oliver says reopening was an easy choice to make because the in-person community and connectivity is so essential to her dance practice.

Since March, Modern Connections has been running well-attended classes online, but Oliver says it hasn’t been the same. “I think that’s something that we really learned through this quarantine, is that there’s nothing like being around other people. There’s nothing like that energy exchange that happens when you’re with others,” she says.

To make in-person classes safe, a number of new procedures are in place. Class sizes are limited so students can be six feet apart, registration and payment is done online in advance, masks are required during class and anywhere in the building, and the shower facilities are not available. The space is also being cleaned at increased intervals and one-way path-finding has been instated to reduce congestion in hallways and entrances.

Every Saturday, Oliver teaches the Modern Connections class at the Dance Complex in Cambridge’s Central Square, focusing on the Horton technique, a favorite of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as well. The class is open to dancers of all levels, from longtime practitioners to first-time dancers. “Anyone can take the class, and then depending on who’s in the room, I give modifications to make it more advanced or to make it less advanced if people are coming to it for the first time,” says Oliver. The classes will continue to be streamed online and Oliver also hosts an informal “Kitchen Class” on Instagram once a week, streamed from her home.

Oliver also runs Connections Dance Theater, a contemporary dance troupe that creates work around social and political issues. Though they’ve been on hiatus for most of the quarantine, Oliver says she’s been thinking carefully about how to apply the art form to the racial justice issues at hand. She anticipates a work will begin to evolve in the coming months.

In the meantime, she’s found that the COVID-19 shutdowns have exposed how essential art and dance really is, for social justice issues and individual fulfillment. “Imagine a world without art. In this quarantine you wouldn’t have anything. You wouldn’t have books, you wouldn’t have TV, you wouldn’t have music, you wouldn’t be able to watch any kind of videos with dance or singing or acting,” she says. “We wouldn’t be a society without art.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more and register at www.modernconnectionscollective.com