- [Narrator] "United We Dance" is made possible by Freed of London, a designer and manufacturer of professional dance shoes since 1929.

(light music) - [Woman] When COVID-19 struck, the world stopped.

And for the performing arts, it hasn't yet restarted.

The idea of returning to the dance studio and to live theater audiences is a hope growing nearer and brighter, but filled with challenges.

Take a look back at 2020 and see some great performances past, as the ballet world looks forward to brighter tomorrow, in "United We Dance".

- [Edward] This thing, you know, that came on us, it really stopped us.

- [Annabelle] In the beginning we really didn't know the severity of the virus, so everybody was trying to find another date in the same season.

- [Kevin] The inevitable happened, you know, we watched as the timeline progressed towards us.

- [Kara] the first thing that happened for ABT was the cancellation of four tours, but it was like dominoes.

- [Christopher] I made it home before the big travel crash, thankfully, because I just had an instinct that things were going a little belly up.

- [Herman] There are many countries, like Argentina or Spain, that I know that I have family.

They keep getting their salaries by their governments, but here in America is a different story.

- [Edwaard] I know dancers live for what they do and their craft.

And it's heartbreaking.

It's like as if part of them are broken.

- [Julie] A dancer's lifetime has such value because your career is so short and all of your work is focused and fixated on the next time the curtain can rise.

- [Melanie] We've faced, you know, the virus.

We've witnessed the police brutality.

I mean, there's so many things and we don't even know what each individual may have encountered on their own.

- [Isabella] I think it just was a wake up call for so many people to no longer be able to avoid the systemic racism that permeates like every level of society.

- [Wendy] You have to realize that the face of ballet is changing.

The color of ballet is changing.

It's not going to be a predominantly white field anymore, hopefully.

- [Joaquin] I think there's opportunities and there's positive out of it.

We're just gathering air and strength and I think there's still hard times ahead, the economic times and social times, you know, we're gonna have to grieve and go through it, but I think that I believe in art as a healer.

- [Alicia] I think during this period we learned a lot about what opportunities could exist and not just what we lost.

- [Edward] Like old pandemics in the past, one of the worst 100 years ago, the Spanish flu, taught us many things.

You know, the theaters were closed during the worst but people kept on wanting and willing to participate in art.

I do believe that people want to see other people live, not online.

- "La Pluie" is the last segment of a larger ballet of 40 minutes called "Black Rain".

And it was a ballet about the war and actually the war in Chechnya.

And the idea for that last duet, I wanted to be completely pure and originally the dancers would get rain falling on top of them at the very end of the duet.

And my idea was to convey, yeah, the idea that rain erases all traces of violence and destruction and what's left behind is just, you know, love between two people.

And that thanks to that love, it's the hope for a new beginning.

(light dramatic music) (upbeat music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) - Maybe 100 ago, when all the immigrants came to Argentina, that love, this music is songs about being away from home.

So tango always had these melancholic background and so taking that being away from home, that's very meaningful for me being away from home.

So this piece was very, very organic for me to create.

(upbeat music) (light dramatic music) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) (light music) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music continues) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) - [John] The inspiration came very much from the novel, and this theme I found so incredibly modern in the novel because it is Marguarite Gautier who had made this incredibly difficult decision to leave Armand because of her love for him because she feels that she might ruin his life.

But he doesn't understand anything and he insults her by flaunting another prostitute in front of her.

And she's having trouble to bear this so there is an important theme where she takes the courage to visit him and tell him, "Please, whatever you feel for what we did have together, please don't hate me so much.

I am very ill at the moment".

And this conversation becomes the most physical, the most sexual, the most incredibly erotic relationship and she spends the night with him again but then leaves before he wakes up.

(dramatic piano music) (light piano music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music continues) (suspenseful music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) - [Joaquin] David, why don't we get in a studio instead of like, you know, play around with things and ideas and, you know, he played this music.

I think it was him that played this violin concerto by Bach.

And I'm so in love with Bach.

To me, he's, you know, I hear Bach and I'm immediately dancing and making steps in my head.

And, you know, we listened to the music and we saw five different sections of it.

And, you know, we started playing with the idea of why don't we repeat the same section but adding stuff to it.

You know, we started coming up with these little holds and balances and, you know, we created this piece in about a week.

It's been a very dear piece to me.

I've been dancing it for until last summer, actually, I did it the last time and I think I may have to do it a couple more times.

I think I have a couple more in me.

It's a very natural movement and the way of understanding the music for me.

(light dramatic music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music continues) (light music) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) - Even more today, 15 years after the premiere, the performance seems, in a way, prophetic watching these images with medicine, masks and gloves.

I was surprised how quick they got it because I thought it's, you know, it's not that easy.

It was something new for me at the time as well.

And I liked the way it looked on them.

(light dramatic music) (people cheering) ♪ While you make pretty speeches ♪ ♪ I'm being cut to shreds ♪ ♪ You feed me to the lions ♪ ♪ A delicate balance ♪ ♪ And this just feels like ♪ ♪ Spinning plates ♪ ♪ I'm living in cloud ♪ ♪ Cuckoo ♪ ♪ Land ♪ ♪ And this just feels like ♪ ♪ Spinning plates ♪ ♪ My body is floating ♪ ♪ Down the muddy river ♪ (light dramatic music continues) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) - It's pristine, yet it's wild and free and dramatic and Rachmaninoff.

There is no storyline to this pas de deux, it is just a little bit more dance for dance sake.

I think the music tells the story already.

(dramatic orchestral music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) - Wayne McGregor's choreography means to me.

For me, it's an opportunity to express myself as a dancer through his vocabulary, because he's never asked me to portray something that isn't me.

- Yes.

- So he finds the most beautiful qualities in me or Melissa and brings those out.

- It was like he was testing our boundaries and how far we could push.

And I mean, I didn't even know my body was capable of some of the things that it did.

I kind of, I see photographs, I see footage of it and I'm like oh, oh.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But it kind of, it just happens.

And with Eric is so comfortable and easy that I feel capable of being put in those positions without getting hurt.

(light music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic rhythmic music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) - I'm a person who really likes dance, I have art, a lot of idea, I'm always work, work, work.

Because it's my language.

You know, I have like a lot inside my soul; talent, passion, and this is my language to speak with people, dance.

And I can't even think about what I do if I can't dance.

(dramatic music) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) (light music) (audience clapping) (light music continues) (audience clapping) (light music) (audience clapping) (light music continues) (light dramatic music) (light music) (audience cheering) (light music continues) (light dramatic music) (audience cheering) (light dramatic music continues) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music continues) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) (light music) (playful upbeat music) (audience clapping) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) (light dramatic music) (audience cheers) (light dramatic music continues) (audience cheers) (audience clapping) (audience laughing) (dramatic music) (audience cheering) (audience clapping) (upbeat music) ♪ Can't stop the, can't stop the ♪ ♪ Can't stop the feeling ♪ ♪ Nothing I can see but you when you dance, dance, dance ♪ ♪ Feeling good, creeping up on you ♪ ♪ So just dance, dance, dance, come on ♪ ♪ All those things I should do to you ♪ ♪ But you dance, dance, dance ♪ ♪ And ain't nobody leaving soon, so keep dancing ♪ ♪ Can't stop the feeling ♪ (people cheering) (upbeat music)