Special Project - Begin Again
Dance Films Showcase

Building Resilience to Begin Again

In the video, a woman's face floats in darkness, a bright spark hovering before it. A voice sings yearningly, another voice whispers. The frame shifts: now it shows a man sitting alone in a room. But always the bright spark, the burning flame. This symbolic imagery appeared in an experimental video created by The Chand Family for the fundraising benefit Building Resilience, run by WDAAP in August 2021. The Chand Family are the participants of the WDAAP Choreolab held as part of the Ocean Dance Festival in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in 2019, under the mentorship of Toronto-based dance artist Sashar Zarif. In April 2021, Sashar approached the Executive Committee of WDAAP to propose a donation drive with the help of the Chand Family to uplift and empower the Covidbesieged dance communities of India and Bangladesh. 11 successful grant recipients were selected and their works will be showcased at SWEAT.

Excerpt from Channels Dec., 2021