Since the beginning, Aspen has been a culture-rich community full of music, festivals, and dance. In March 2020, during the pandemic when the entire valley shut down many people believed that Aspen’s culture would never be the same. Over time, the music and festivals came back but the last to reemerge from the pandemic was dance. Since 1991, Aspen has had a resident dance company: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, founded by Bebe Schweppe. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet then became a world-renowned touring contemporary dance company, but when Aspen Santa Fe Ballet laid off all of its full-time dancers for good, the future of dance in Aspen was uncertain.
After Covid, the world of dance was forever changed. There was a 100% decrease in ticket sales because going to the theater during Covid was not the wisest thing to do, ballet companies were not receiving any income, and dancers suffered the consequences. Almost 80% of dancers filed for unemployment during the pandemic and 50% were still unemployed in late 2021. The popularity of dance has been going down since the rise in technology, but Covid 19 pandemic exacerbated this. The importance of culture has been dropping significantly, so what many are asking is: why should people care about the death of dance if dance was already dying? Dancers have never been paid a fair living wage for the work they do, while it’s been proven that dance is the most physically demanding job in the U.S. followed up by professional athletes. It’s all about what people want to watch, and for some reason, people don’t want to watch dance.
As a dancer myself the steady decline of support for dance has been concerning. If I ever attend a dance performance the majority of attendees are over the age of 65. Maybe it’s because dance was a thing before technology became prevalent, so it brings a sense of nostalgia. Maybe younger people are not acquainted with the value of dance performances. In short as an aspiring dancer, the future of dance is scary.
Dance companies were not the only example of dance that shut down during the pandemic. All dance schools and studios were closed and dance training in person was halted. Many pre-professional dancers brought out their at-home barres and ballet floors and trained in tiny rooms on Zoom. This created a loss of hope for many dancers and caused many aspiring dancers to quit.
Although lots of evidence points to the death of the dance world, and there is no hope for it ever to come back, because no one cares about culture and all dancers are unemployed, that is not 100% true. Since 2020 the world of dance has been slowly resurrected. There are still many who have always been large supporters of dance companies and continue to show immense support for the struggling industry. The former Aspen Santa Fe Ballet dancers came together in 2021 and created an entirely new company called Dance Aspen, since its creation they’ve brought in many amazing choreographers and put on many performances. Additionally, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet launched its Fund for innovation in dance and has brought many world-renowned dance companies to Aspen, the most recent being Complexions Contemporary Ballet.
Nevertheless, the general public is still clueless about what happens in the ballet world. However through TikTok and ever-changing fashion trends, ‘ballet core’ has become one of the most popular fashion styles of 2023, additionally on TikTok many ballerinas have been sharing how they use their pointe shoes, elevating the awareness of dance. This is making many young people want to attend a ballet or dance performance, pushing the art father into a direction of longevity.
So basically it’s up to you to bring back dance even stronger than before the pandemic and support the many dancers, choreographers, and teachers who share their love for dance with the world every time they perform. As much as dancers dance for themselves because they love the art form, they also dance for the audience, sharing the love and passion dancers have is one of the most important parts of a dancer’s job. Take a look at the upcoming winter seasons for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and Dance Aspen. Going to the ballet is not just for the old and cultured, and I speak for all dancers, students to professionals, seeing a dance performance means so much more to the dancer than you could ever imagine.
