Current circumstances have given birth to conscious and ecstatic dancing through Zoom and other platforms. We can dance with others in our living room, bedroom or kitchen!
Virtual dances create an opportunity to dance with other DJs, musicians, friends and groups that we would have never thought imaginable just a few months ago. People in Maine get to share movement with people in New York, San Francisco, Boise, Paris and Jakarta! Musicians, DJs and Dance Leaders share their gifts with other amazing people all over the globe. We can share “the dance floor” with friends, family and community members that have relocated. Now it does not matter where we live, we can move and shake with a group of humans anywhere at anytime!
Zoom Suggestions for Optimal Experiences
(compiled by our friend Moti Zemelman):
1. MUTE – I will mute everyone by default. For best sound quality please stay on mute unless there is a sharing time in which case you can unmute yourself to talk.
2. GALLERY VIEW – In the upper right hand corner push “gallery”. This will allow you to see everybody dancing on the screen at the same time!
3. SPEAKER VIEW is the default where you just see the person speaking or musician playing
4. PIN VIDEO – on each person’s video you can find this option to pin a specific person which brings only that person’s screen into view. This is a great option if you want to dance with just one person inspiring you instead of the whole gallery.
5. CHAT – Push chat and on the right hand side of your screen will appear a dialogue that we can all talk to each other throughout the dance! You can choose to chat with everyone in the group or private chat with just one person. This can be great if you want to initiate a dance with a single participant 🙂 (Also If you want to save the chat you can press the three dots in the chat section and you’ll see that option)
6. CHOOSE A VIRTUAL BACKGROUND – This is a fun option you can find on the bottom left corner by pressing the up arrow by the video symbol. You can make any photo of yours into your background!
7. WRITE US A LOVE NOTE – Yet another way to communicate – write a note or a draw a picture on an old fashioned piece of paper and hold it up to the camera for the whole group to read/see.
8. INVITE – Use the invite button to invite more of your friends to the dance during the event