Rachida Aharrat, found a creative way to maintain contact with the students from her ContempOriental class during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns. Here she explains how she united the students through 2 video projects followed by testimonials from the students themselves, revealing how this project inspired and motivated them.
During the first Lockdown, to fill the void of human contact I came up with the idea of making a video where the students improvised, with the final movement of one woman linking to the next movement of the other. As a common base apart from the music, I had them film themselves looking out of the window, a way of representing the nostalgia of sharing. Somehow we felt integrated and united by having to WhatsApp each other's videos in order to continue working together outside of class. It was a reason to keep in touch, to stay active and creative.
This second Lockdown was almost worse than the first. The cold weather and the lack of sunshine meant that we spent more hours indoors than during the first one. There was less social contact and we were tired of only dancing in the online classes and not in the studio. It was a student who encouraged me to make a second video, this second one perhaps more sad and melancholic than the first. A train travels through different forests and reaches the houses, where each of the students shares the same movement within the same image, another way to keep in touch. Even if reality has kept us away from each other, the music and the image has united us and has been a tool and a perfect excuse to dance our personal winter.
“Working at home with Rachida during the first lockdown was a breath of fresh air within an unusual routine that one year ago nobody would have expected.
”Happiness cannot wait” was a nostalgic but inspiring and encouraging choreography, in which we combined improvisation with a choreographed part to be danced leaning against a wall.
The walls of our homes have been lately constraining elements protecting but also separating us from the outside world. Rachida turned these walls into something to interact with. Through our dancing, we hit the wall, caressed it, played with it... Rachida gave it a dramatic dimension absolutely interesting to work with! Recording this video embracing the loneliness of this very first lockdown, was a challenging and liberating experience that make our “ZeoT ContempOriental group” feel close despite everything. I really enjoyed it! Thank you Rachida for your inspiring training and ideas, love you lots! ”
“Rachida has done an amazing job with the ZeoT ContempOriental class by keeping us moving, motivated and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic related lockdown periods. Within a very short time, we were able to do all classes from home every Friday by Zoom which has created a very nice event after the workweek. Rachida has always been in a good mood and this was so contagious that one of the students rightly expressed the class as being a real antidepressant. I also very much enjoyed working on two video projects which has helped me very much to understand my own areas for improvement.
The resulting videos which combine pieces from all of us have turned out to be real artwork and capture very well the flowing feelings and moods of the music and dance. Thank you Rachida for being our continuous inspiration!
Thank you again for all your hard work to keep us moving during this time!”
“I’m always eager to attend Rachida’s lively online classes and I highly appreciate her style of teaching with a sense of humour. Being online created a different kind of closeness and we could stay on track. I personally learned to focus on my body and train differently. And despite the distance, Rachida’s online project was a great way to still feel connected with the group and discover our own creativity. ”
“Dancing at home was just not the same as dancing together in ZeoT. The teachers put a lot of effort into the online classes and succeeded in keeping us dancing and practising during the lockdown. Still, meeting with the other dance students, experiencing the connection with the group while dancing and having the feeling of performing for someone (even if only for the other students) were obviously missing elements. Participating in the video projects was a wonderful way to get back to that feeling of bonding with the group. Together we were able to create a unique performance where each one of us had the freedom to create a sequence or choose a special setting for the video. I am very proud of the result we achieved, thanks to everyone’s performance and above all thanks to the guidance of our amazing teacher and her creative work from conceiving the idea for the project all the way to editing the videos.”
“Erst war es speziell, mich selbst zu filmen - ich übte die Sequenz, gefühlt tausend mal. Dann halfen mir meine 7- und 9-jährigen Jungs und eine Freundin von ihnen mit dem Schattenpart als Lampenexpertin, Tonmeister und Kameramann. Wir hatten sehr viel Spass, es dauerte ewig und am Ende konnten sie das Stück besser als ich :-).
Das Endergebnis war eine Überraschung von Rachida für uns alle. Obwohl jede alleine bei sich tanzte, tanzen wir am Ende zusammen. Genauso ist es jeden Freitag in Rachidas Stunde, Rachida integriert uns alle super, ich fühle mich immer in Gemeinschaft!”
Rachida teaches ContempOriental at ZeoT Zürich every Friday at 18.30. Join her class here >>
For further information about her work visit Rachida’s website >>