Provincetown Dance Festival Goes Virtual

The Provincetown Dance Festival, which is in its 15th year, is being presented online on Sunday, January 17th at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 at castlehill.org.

It will consist of pre-recorded performances, made especially for the festival, by Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle); Paul Taylor Dance Company (New York); Island Reflections Dance Theater (Hartford); Madison Palffy (Boulder); tap artists Orlando Hernandez, Sean Fielder, and Khalid Hill; Mouli Pal, a classical Indian dancer; and surprise guest artists. Artistic Director Adam Miller will also interview the dancers about the pieces, and how they are coping with Covid.

Miller says that dancers and choreographers are especially hard-hit by the pandemic. “There’s a frustration beyond the inability to make a living — there’s also practicing your art form, expressing yourself,” he says. “A painter can keep painting from his house, but a choreographer can’t.” Plus, there’s the issue of staying in shape. The Provincetown Dance Festival is a rare opportunity to create art during this time.

The dancers hope to perform this summer on a new outdoor stage that is being built at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill’s Edgewood Farm. —Saskia Maxwell Keller