Los Angeles Times - 06.04.2020

L ATIMES.COM/CALENDAR MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2020E3

and you can feel that,” said
Kathryn Burns, a choreo-
grapher who won an Emmy
for her work on the series
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”
In his 20 years as a choreo-
grapher and creative director
in film and TV, Lyrik Cruz ne-
ver had a job completely can-
celed. But on March 13, after
he finished a two-month tour
and prepared to head to Chi-
cago for a Netflix pilot, the
cancellations began rolling
in.
“I didn’t even want to
open my emails anymore be-
cause it was just like a slew of
cancellations back to back,”
Cruz said. “We’re choreo-
graphers and dancers for
hire. Not many of us are work-
ing jobs where we get a salary
or where we get sick-pay
days; that’s just not the way it
works for our industry.”
Choreographer and danc-
er Kiira Harper, who has per-
formed with Janelle Monáe
and Beyoncé and has served
as an assistant choreo-
grapher for Lizzo, put it an-
other way: “We’re all broke.”
Pay for commercial danc-
ers varies wildly. Dancers Al-
liance, a group that nego-
tiates rates and conditions
for nonunion workers, sets a
minimum of $250 for four to
eight hours of rehearsal and
$500 for dancing in a live show
or non-union music video.
Dancers often supplement
their income by teaching
classes; a gig at a popular
L.A. studio can bring in a cou-
ple of hundred dollars. Both
types of work have dried up.
At 30, Harper had finally
been at a point in her career
where she could begin saving
money. Before the cancella-
tions, she was booked
through June to teach dance
classes, shoot a music video
in Cuba and work in artist de-
velopment for music labels
including Atlantic Records.
“To be honest, I flew
cross-country,” Harper said.

“I’m in New York with my

parents right now so I don’t

have to spend money on gro-

ceries and driving my car and

doing all that other stuff.”

Clear Talent Group, an

agency that helps dancers

and choreographers naviga-

te the business side of the in-

dustry, said the No. 1 ques-

tion is, “How am I going to

pay rent?” agent Matthew

Logsdon said.

Most L.A. dancers are

self-employed and need mul-

tiple streams of income to

make ends meet.

“Beyond making dances,

they’re also teaching or

they’re in the health and well-

ness lifestyle industry,

whether it’s Pilates or yoga

teacher,” said Raélle Dorfan,

executive director of the

Dance Resource Center.

“Basically every line of in-

come has been shut down.”

The center opened appli-

cations for its emergency

fund, which will provide up to

$500 for L.A. dancers and

companies, and in five days

the group received about 150

applications. “We hope to dis-

tribute funds to as many ap-

plicants as possible, thus the

amounts will likely be less so

we can serve more,” Dorfan

said.

Some dancers said they

would like to see more finan-

cial assistance, such as a re-

lief fund, from the giants of

the entertainment business.

“So many of us have

worked with so many celebri-

ties and so many big produc-

tion companies,” Cruz said.

“Not one celebrity that we’ve

worked with has reached out

to any of us.”

Harper mentioned others

who work behind the scenes

—camera operators, stage

hands, directors, lighting

teams — to help big stars

bring their visions to life.

“We’re all out of work; it’s

not just the dancers,” Harper

said. “We’re all indefinitely

frozen. It’s kind of like a pur-

gatory.”

Although the upcoming

months are uncertain, the

dance community is resilient,

Dorfan said.

“Dance is chronically

underfunded as it is. And so I

think dance-makers have

been making and presenting

work in innovative ways here

in L.A. for years. So they’re

adapting to this new nor-

mal.”

For the dance community,

that means connecting on-

line and finding new ways to

generate income.

Like many choreo-

graphers, Cruz, Harper and

Knight have begun teaching

classes on Instagram Live.

Cruz said teaching his

Latin fusion class online of-

fers a way to “share a little bit

of happiness and positivity,”

he said. “Sometimes we for-

get the power of social media.

And as much as people frown

upon it sometimes, it really

keeps a lot of us connected.”

Cisco Ruelas, a choreo-

grapher who has worked

with Lil Wayne and Jennifer

Lopez, recently held an In-

stagram class that attracted

about 5,000 people. Although

the class was free, Ruelas re-

ceived donations over

Venmo, which might be his

only source of income in the

immediate future.

“I didn’t want no one to

feel guilty for taking class, so

that’s why I didn’t put a num-

ber on it,” Ruelas said. “But

some people donated $40 ....

Some people donated $5.”

To give back to the dance

community, Knight organ-

ized a meal giveaway in col-

laboration with restaurant

Everytable, handing out

2,500 healthy meals in the

Burbank studio KreativM-

ndz Dance Academy. Others

in entertainment, including

singers, stylists and makeup

artists, were also invited.

Knight plans meal give-

aways in other cities and will

launch a fundraiser for the

dance community, “helping

those people stay on their

feet, keeping people pos-

itive,” he said.

He knows about the chal-

lenges facing dancers and

choreographers working to

establish footing in the in-

dustry.

“When I first started, we

were sharing rooms; it was

five of us in the apartment,”

Knight said.

Reflecting on how such a

pandemic might have af-

fected him at the beginning

of his career: “I probably

would be on a flight back to

Atlanta now, figuring out

how to get out of my lease.”

Working behind the most

popular artists in the world

may seem like easy fun and

glamour, Knight said. “The

real life of it is hard.”

JAQUEL KNIGHT offers up a handful of meals to dancer Raphael Thomas during an outreach giveaway on Wednesday in Burbank.

Photographs byKent NishimuraLos Angeles Times

Many

step up

to aid

dance

crowd

[Dancers, from E1]

KALEIGH WILLIAMSof North Hollywood mulls

over meal choices from the restaurant Everyday.

says, “we’re going to see a lot
of cool, new interactions
coming from places we
wouldn’t expect.”
Shortly after Gov. Gavin
Newsom placed restrictions
on social gatherings, the
USC Game School sprang
into action. Jeff Watson, an
assistant professor of Inter-
active Media & Games at
the university, put out a call
for students to create games
using Zoom, keying in on the
idea that many would now to
be using the platform to con-
nect and in need of ways to
use it for its full potential —
that is, to play, of course.
“It’s kind of reminiscent
of what happens with all
kinds of technologies,” Wat-
son says via, yes, Zoom.
“People think, ‘How can we
be playful with this technol-
ogy?’ Think of early cinema,
effectively just filming the
proscenium of a play before
realizing that we could move
the camera around and put
the camera on the wheels.
“Of the submissions
we’ve seen so far, the ones
that are most interesting are
the ones that are really tak-
ing what can only really hap-
pen in Zoom or a system like
it and being playful with it,”
Watson said. “I tried to play
board games over Zoom,
and unless you have a really
great setup it’s clunky. It’s a
square peg in a round hole.”
Watson, who is curating
the submissions — he will re-
ject no games for quality, he
says, but will maintain a cer-
tain level of family-friendly
decency — has begun post-
ing the offerings on the site
ZoomJam.org. More than
half the submissions are
from USC students. And
while open to all, the Wat-
son-led ZoomJam is gaining
steam in academic circles.
He’s has been in touch with
professors and universities
in Texas, Australia and else-
where.
Some of the ZoomJam
games lean toward silliness,
but they’re also excuses to
socializeand a way to force

us to stay connected and

stay goofy.

“A lot of us will be using

platforms like Zoom or Jitsi

for work, for school, organiz-

ing or just hanging out. I

think games can help us get

over some of the awkward-

ness and limitations of these

new platforms,” says Dan

Lark, a PhD candidate in

cinema and media studies at

USC. “The thing about these

games is that it’s hard to play

them alone. You’ll need

other people to play with.”

Before you think you

have the perfect ZoomJam

submission, know there are

rules.

The game must be able to

be described in 500 words or

fewer. It must work with ei-

ther the free or educational

edition of Zoom. Limited

downloadable assets can be

used — one monster game

includes a PDF as a charac-

ter creator sheet — but the

game should really be play-

able with nothing beyond

common items. And lastly,

Watson’s rules state, design-

ers must be cognizant that

these games will be played

during a pandemic. So it

would be wise to avoid po-

tentially triggering subjects

such as illness or death.

The early crop of games

posted rely heavily on im-

provisation. “I’d love it if peo-

ple participate from all

walks of life and every-

where,” Watson says. “But

I’ll consider this a success if

we get 40 or 50 submissions. I

would love to see 200 or 300

ideas.”

Watson says he’ll contin-

ue to post games as they’re

submitted and he’s able to

screen them. He’s set a

deadline of April 24 for those

who wish to participate in

the competitive phase of

ZoomJam, for which a panel

of game designers and aca-

demics will chose the top

three submissions.

While the games use a

relatively modern technol-

ogy — video conferencing —

they all have some old-fash-

ioned, campfire-gamequali-

ties. It’s important to re-

member, says Watson, that

before the advent of video

games, and with it the out-

of-date image of a lone figure

staring at a screen late into

the night, games were usu-

ally social events.

And that’s coming back.

We’ve seen theme parks,

for instance, increasingly

put an emphasis on social

play. More cynically, our

app-driven lifestyle uses

game techniques, with many

adopting point-based or

like-driven systems.

But all of it is fueling the

notion that games surround

us. “It doesn’t need to be a

destination thing that we

fire up our game console to

do,” Watson says. “The com-

puter is helping to make it

possible. It gives us the con-

text that you and I can con-

nect, but the real magic is

between us and in our minds

rather than the fantastical

of what we’re seeing on the

screen.”

And it may just help

make these weeks and po-

tentially months more toler-

able.

Some highlights from the

submitted games:

“Kitty, You’re a Star.”Any

of us who have used Zoom,

either for a business or social

call, have likely seen it inter-

rupted by a pet. “Kitty,

You’re a Star” is designed for

those moments, to take ad-

vantage of what everyone is

instantly now doing: paying

attention to the kitty or

puppy. Participants are

called to immediately begin

narrating a story about the

pet’s thoughts or life.

“Kitty, You’re a Star” was

created by Lark under the

name Social Distance Warri-

ors. “I think people are

pretty good at making

games on any platform

or with any constraints

they find themselves in,” he

says.

The rules are direct:

“During a call, if a player’s

pet enters the frame, they

must immediately move and

give their pet center stage.

The pet is now the protago-

nist of a story that the other

players will narrate.” To

make sure no one talks over

the other, the story of the

pet shall unfold one sen-

tence and one person at a

time.

“Prove You Know Your

House.”This one, says Wat-

son, can be potentially dan-

gerousbut also potentially

full of extreme hilarity.

One person stands up,

puts on a blindfold, spins

around and then must be

guided back to their chair by

the other players on the

Zoom call. To make it more

difficultand to take advan-

tage of Zoom, the player who

spins should holdtheir lap-

top, phone or tablet to their

chest, forcing others to de-

scribe a more narrow point

of view.

“It’s something very

Blind Man’s Bluff-ish,” says

Watson, “but it’s also some-

thing that’s very attuned to

Zoom.”

Watson cites the work of

Henry Jenkins, USC provost

professor of communica-

tion, journalism, cinematic

arts and education, specif-

ically his look at “medium

specificity.” “Since we’re all

spending so much time on

Zoom, we’re seeing if people

can come up with cool things

to do with it — that we can

only do with it,” Watson says.

“We can try to turn this weird

potential panopticon situa-

tion into something more

playful, fun and social.”

“The Messenger.”Another

story-driven experience,

“The Messenger,” designed

by Hesiquio Mendez A., re-

quires the use of breakout

rooms and background im-

ages, the latter of which

most everyone is already us-

ing in a playful manner.

Essentially, the idea is to

create a story around some-

one’s background photo.

One person is designated as

“the messenger.” That per-

son enters each breakout

room individually. There,

the messenger will ask for a

sentence to advance the

story. In the next room, the

messenger will relay the last

sentence given — and only

the last sentence — and

build upon this story. Re-

peat this at least six times

(the game should be played

with at least three) until

there is a story to share.

“MUTE-iny.” There are a

couple of mind games at

work with “MUTE-iny,” de-

signed by a team calling

themselves Quiet Rebels.

How well can you read the fa-

cial expressions of a friend?

And how well can you guess

the kind of things that may

randomly come out of their

mouths? Or maybe you’re

just an ace lip-reader.

“MUTE-iny” requires

that everyone mute them-

selves. Best turn off the vol-

ume of your device just to be

safe.

One person counts down

from three and then says a

sentence, speaking slowly.

Everyone else tries to guess

what the person said and

types their answer in the

chat field. This continues

until everyone has had a

turn, and then the actual

sentences are revealed. It’s

the sort of game, says Wat-

son, that can work in multi-

ple settings and be a quick

diversion — a way to “give

the Zoom session an extra

sort of pizzazz and sur-

prise.”

“Play is a great way to re-

connect with the people you

care about, and anything

that makes you laugh and

smile will make social dis-

tancing all the more bear-

able,” says Isaacman, who

was part of the team that de-

signed “MUTE-iny.” Ulti-

mately, if we want to encour-

age folks to stay home for the

sake of public safety, then we

need to make staying home

more fun.”

Zoom becoming the cat’s meow for gamers

[Zoom, from E1]

“KITTY,You’re a Star” is a game created by the Social Distance Warriors.

ZoomJam