Dancers are not the type of people to be idle and let the world happen around them without taking action. Earlier this summer, Eugene dancers proved this when they created a new dance collective that aims to support the dance community in the face of extraordinary challenges.
Fermata Ballet Collective, formed in June, demonstrates the resilience of the local dance community. When met with a global pandemic that made the traditional process of a dance company impossible, as well as the civil unrest that has aimed to change traditional power structures, the seven founders of Fermata saw the dire need for change.
“There was really this beautiful opportunity for the re-birth of something new, something healthy, something safe,” said Angela Dunham, dancer and co-founder of Fermata.
According to Lindsey Shields, another co-founder, the conception of the group formed over appetizers at McMenamins. Co-founder Jessica Jaye Mackinson said that the idea was the result of friends coming together in an effort to safely create dance after a few months of isolation.
Fermata is a performing collective that eschews the traditional structure of a dance company in which most of the power is wielded by the administration and not dancers. Instead, Fermata relies on an egalitarian decision-making process that prioritizes the needs of dancers, Dunham said. The creative and administrative decisions are made collectively, as opposed to a traditional company in which one artistic director and one executive director are in charge of those decisions, respectively.
Fermata has set up its class and rehearsal structure to be accessible to the larger dance community. Classes are targeted at all levels of ability in multiple styles of dance and cost $15 for one class or $55 for five. Though labeled as a ballet company, Fermata seeks to be a resource for dancers who are facing hard times as a result of the pandemic. It offers a space for dancers to gather and get what they need out of a class, the co-founders said.
“This has been an incubator for them to maintain their resume, their career, their bodies, their minds,” Mackinson said. “That resource for them is invaluable.”
This type of change is a big deal for the dance world, particularly in ballet. The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have highlighted the huge amount of discrimination based on race, class, gender and body type that are institutionalized in classical ballet companies across the country. By establishing a dancer-oriented non-hierarchy, this structure “eliminates that opportunity for abuse of power,” Dunham said.
Though the collective’s co-founders recognize the dire need for change within classical ballet companies, they thought it essential to keep the word “ballet” in the name over something more general.
“It was important to our name and brand that we are an exemplary institution of healthy ballet, diverse ballet and representative ballet,” Dunham said.
Fermata’s next performance will be at ArtCity’s BEAM, an all-ages pop-up event that will showcase works by local artists that incorporate light. The piece it is creating for BEAM is not pre-choreographed in the studio, but a reaction to their environment — much like Fermata itself.
After a lively in-studio warm-up and improv session one evening, Fermata company dancers ventured a few blocks over from their rehearsal space to the Eugene Park Blocks where BEAM will take place. What is usually a vivacious public space in the day was eerily vacant and ethereally lit. The dancers immediately took to the space, creating improvisational movement around the park infrastructure. The piece being created developed organically, inspired by the urban environment in which it will be performed.
“There is something so beautiful and special happening in this time and space,” Dunham said.
Fermata currently offers five open classes a week at several venues that range from ballet to contemporary to heels hip-hop. There are several additional workshops where Fermata company dancers collaborate on choreography for an upcoming project, or sometimes just for fun. The fluid nature of these rehearsals makes for a fun and energetic atmosphere within the studio; dancers seem to forget everyone is masked up due to a worldwide health crisis. Fermata follows state-regulated precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus by limiting class sizes and requiring face coverings.
You can see Fermata perform on Friday, Oct. 16, at the Eugene Park Blocks as a part of ArtCity’s BEAM. You can also take class with Fermata at various venues, which are announced weekly on their website and Instagram.
