With help from Charlotte Ballet dancers, a choreographer explores life under quarantine

Helen Pickett can’t sit still.

The renowned choreographer is in perpetual motion. Being stuck at home just doesn’t suit her.

So, she found inspiration in, of all things, being stuck at home. She used the time to deepen her work on equity in the ballet world, in part through her talk show, “Creative Vitality Jam Sessions.” And she created a dance film series called, “Home Studies.”

The series is based on the theme of being homebound and features dancers who were themselves homebound. They didn’t have to imagine forced isolation; they were living it.

For “Home Studies, part III,” the third piece in the series, six Charlotte Ballet dancers (Raven Barkley, Josh Hall, Sarah Hayes Harkins, James Kopecky, Sarah Lapointe, and Maurice Mouzon, Jr.) joined two dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and one from Dance Theatre of Harlem to explore the comforts and confines of home.

You can see the result of this virtual collaboration on Aug. 27 on Charlotte Ballet’s Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Bored at home

One of the first pieces filmed was a duet for “Home Studies I.” In it, Pickett ponders the question: “What do you do when you’re bored at home?” Boston Ballet Principal Dancers Lia Cirio and Paul Craig respond in a fast-moving piece that’s “about sharing your cramped space with somebody,” Pickett said.

“I wanted it to look like cats tumbling and tussling,” she added. Working with nothing more than a leather couch, a floor lamp and an Oriental rug, the dancers show us playfulness, restlessness, sleeplessness and irritation — all in under four minutes.

Creating community

When Lapointe, in her fifth season with Charlotte Ballet, signed on to the project, she wondered if her apartment was adequate for the task.

“Helen said we’d need a clear wall without clutter and a sturdy kitchen or dining chair with no arms,” she said. “I was living in a studio apartment and had only a bar stool.”

Chalvar Monteiro, a former dance student of Pickett’s from SUNY-Purchase who’s in his sixth season with Ailey, had similar concerns. “I live alone in a Harlem-sized apartment,” he said. “I have very limited space and a new puppy I had to keep out of the frame. And I was at the mercy of my Wi-Fi.”

Alone in their homes, the dancers would meet online for rehearsals via Zoom. “That was bizarre at first,” Monteiro said. “Rehearsal space is sacred because of the community aspect. It feels different when your community is virtual.”

But Pickett, even from afar, made sure the group jelled. “She insisted we reply all in email threads rather than having one-off conversations,” Monteiro said. “She found ways to make us feel like a community.”

A new puzzle

Zoom rehearsals weren’t just awkward for the dancers; Pickett was flummoxed at times. But she welcomed the challenge. “Zoom choreography has flabbergasted me, but it’s so exciting,” Pickett said. “I’m figuring out a new puzzle. I’ve been in a constant state of new recently.”

And newness brings challenges. Dancers are used to moving fast. These dancers had to get accustomed to slowing down. “Zoom rehearsals moved at a much slower pace,” Lapointe said. “And if you’re watching Helen on Zoom and she’s facing you, you have to reverse what she’s doing. It’s tricky.”

But it came with unexpected blessings. Pickett appreciated the chance to decelerate. “Patience has always been a problem for me,” she said. “Having to slow down is making me a better communicator.”

Filming together, sort of

After six online rehearsals, the Charlotte group gathered July 17 in a warehouse that James Wiley, Charlotte Ballet’s digital media producer, had rented.

“The space was very industrial, and Helen wanted it to look like a home,” Lapointe said. “So, we walked around the warehouse and found rugs, plastic plants, paintings.”

Filming the performance with the director in a remote location was a feat that took nearly four hours. Pickett, acting as director, choreographer and stage manager, watched from her home in Philadelphia, via Lapointe’s cell phone..

“I had Helen in my hand,” Lapointe said, referring to Pickett’s limited viewpoint. “I was walking around, showing her every corner. Helen had us rearrange things exactly as she wanted them.”

“In the end, I loved it,” Pickett said. “It looks like a grungy New York loft space.”

Costumes and masks

The costume department didn’t outfit the dancers. Since “Home Studies” is set at home, they wore their street clothes — jeans, shorts, dresses. Pickett let them choose whatever they wanted from their own closets.

One accessory they all had to wear: masks to prevent virus spread. “Charlotte Ballet and I thought of safety first,” Pickett said. “James and all the dancers were wearing masks. Anytime James did filming, he wore a mask.”

While Wiley’s lighting and recording equipment, including a Steadicam, are entirely professional, the dancers outside Charlotte found friends to film them on nothing fancier then a smartphone. Hayes Harkins, in Alabama at the time, had her sister-in-law film her.

Wiley and Pickett brought the amateur and professional pieces together during editing sessions using the FaceTime app. They logged 30 hours together, and Wiley edited many more hours on top of that.

‘Home is a sacred place’

Rehearsing over Zoom was not all bad. Pickett has, in fact, become a fan.

“I hear all this grumbling from people about Zoom,” she said. “‘It’s so impersonal’ is the rap, but it’s so untrue. With ‘Home Studies,’ dancers are inviting you into their homes. And home is a sacred place. To me, Zoom is an incredibly personal medium.”

She even thinks online performances may be here to stay — as an adjunct to in-person productions. “I believe ballet companies will have an online life after the pandemic,” she said. “The ballet world has needed to step up its game, to evolve.”

For Pickett, being locked down wasn’t isolating. It led to a breakthrough. “I refound my intense curiosity for my art in creating dance for film,” she said.

While Monteiro appreciates what the group was able to create without being together in person, he misses the stage. “There’s nothing like the experience in a theater, that call and response between artists and audience,” he said. “But this performance is no less real because it exists in a digital space.”

Home Studies

What: Premiere of “Home Studies, part III”

When: 7:00 p.m. Aug. 27

Where: On Charlotte Ballet’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. Watch for free at https://charlotteballet.org/digital-performances/

Cost: Free

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

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This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 11:45 AM.