What Can We Do Now? with Jaqlin Medlock: Exploring COVID-19's Impact on Dancers

As the world is forced to adapt in order to stay healthy and safe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's important for people to find meaningful things to do. Emily Brunner talks with Jaqlin Medlock, dancer at Stephen Petronio Company and owner of Jaqlin Medlock Photography, about how she plans to stay connected to her art during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Transcript

Emily:   0:01
We've all found ourselves forced to hit the pause button one way or another after the COVID-19 virus spread into all of our communities. Some of us have had to change the way we work. All of us have had to change our plans, and many of us have had to find new ways to do what we love. Last week, I talked with dancer and dance photographer Jaqi Medlock. Jaqi has been a dancer with Stephen Petronio in New York City for over eight years while also running her own photography business, Jacqlin Medlock Photography. We talked about how the lock down is affecting her life and how she's finding ways to stay positive through it all. Jaqi, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. It's it's really nice to hear your voice.

Jaqi:   0:54
Oh, no. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me

Emily:   0:56
Just to tell our listeners a little bit about how we know each other. I got to meet you at the Pas De Deux Dance Photography conference in Phoenix, Arizona just last,  wow, that was really just a couple months ago, wasn't it?

Jaqi:   1:10
Wasn't that crazy to think about?

Emily:   1:11
is, you know, because that was really before this Corona virus was on my mind. I know, I know. It was still affecting parts of the world at that point. It was just coming into everyone's awareness, But I really wasn't on my radar. And I'm so thankful that we have that dance photography conference before all this happened,

Jaqi:   1:33
you know? Me too. That was a really great to do, wasn't it?

Emily:   1:37
It was. So what were you up to in February after the conference?

Jaqi:   1:44
Oh, well, I was actually rehearsing before the conference and after I had a missed a couple of days of rehearsal to go, but they let me Ah, yeah, we were just starting up. We had a full calendar planed. We had, um, a tour, Ohio that was happening. And a residency in Ohio and a tour to perform in Macedonia. All which changed plans pretty quickly. We're in Ohio, actually, when all this Corona stuff started.

Emily:   2:20
Oh, So you guys had already gone there?

Jaqi:   2:22
Yes, out the day before we left to go to Ohio. They canceled our performance, but we went anyway. And then while we were there, they closed the restaurants and bars. Like, you got to go home. You have no way to eat. You gotta You gotta leave. We headed home and I've been home for a week. 

Emily:   2:46
Wow. That's that's a lot of stuff that happened in the last last couple weeks. So when you left for Ohio, you you maybe had, did you have, like, a little inkling that things might change?

Jaqi:   2:57
Oh, yeah. I mean, I had kind of a gut feeling about it.  We're gonna play it by ear. That's exactly what ended up happening. We were hoping because, you know, with the presenters have to cancel it. It's not us. We sign the contract, we still have to go. So it's just a lot of waiting and hoping and packing a bunch of immunity boosting things, huh?

Emily:   3:21
Yeah. Did you start working on the residency when you guys were there? Was the residency was before the performance,

Jaqi:   3:28
uh, technically after, but the performance was canceled. It's the only thing we did. And we did get to work with any university which had al classes canceled and we had two full beautiful studios for ourselves. An empty building. Yeah, we got a lot of work done until they sent us home.

Emily:   3:48
What were you guys working with? The students?

Jaqi:   3:51
just us.    

Emily:   3:52
Did everybody travel back home together?

Jaqi:   3:56
Well, we did. Our boss decided to drive home cause he's in a high risk category. And he was flying to Albany, not to New York City. And there wasn't much of a direct flight for him, so he drove. But the rest of us, Yeah, we flew back. Easiest flying experience I've had really. Luggage Just waiting for you on the other side. Didn't even put it on the carousel. That just put it out.

Emily:   4:20
So that's right. Yeah, that's kind of nice, but also maybe a little bit strange to know,

Jaqi:   4:24
really surreal. I couldn't wait to get out of the airport. It was like I had to get out of here.

Emily:   4:29
Yeah. Did it feel good to get back home?

Jaqi:   4:32
Absolutely. I'm very happy to be back home.

Emily:   4:35
When did you realize that things were going to be changing for a kind of a bit? I mean, I know we don't really know when this is going to end, but it's clearly gonna be more than a couple weeks.

Jaqi:   4:49
Yeah, I'm in agreeance with that. I think it really hit me when we got home and started getting all of those studio closure.  And then, of course, my inbox got flooded because I had a big photo shoot coming up with Marymount Manhattan College on May. Shut down. Um, first it was until April 13th and then it was indefinitely postponed. They're still doing online classes, but you know, those poor dancers don't get to walk a graduation. They don't get their end of the  year performance that happens. You know, I feel like they got a little bit cheated. But then, of course, there are reaching out to me for a photo shoot. So I had a figure out my Coronavirus policy, which I had no need to have earlier. Um, just trying to postpone everything for whenever the indefinite future allows life to proceed as normal. Yeah, much of normal will be in. Yeah.

Emily:   5:49
Yeah, it's definitely gonna be different for a while.

Jaqi:   5:52
Yeah. Yeah. Like  now we're meeting online for classes.

Emily:   5:59
My two daughters, they're going to start their online dance classes today.

Jaqi:   6:03
Oh, I started mine yesterday.

Emily:   6:07
with, um it's interesting. I think some will have have jobs that they did that they can do alone. You know, they don't don't really have to go anywhere. And they don't need other people necessarily immediately to do their job. I feel like dance is something where you really, you really need other people, whether you're performing or rehearsing with people. Um or maybe you need an audience, you know,  to receive your art?

Jaqi:   6:36
Absolutely. And even to do. 

Emily:   6:39
It's something. It's really hard. If you guys are stuck at home, how do you deal with that? How do you keep dancing? Because you're a dancer. So how do you keep doing it when ah, lot of the things that enable you to do it are not available to you?

Jaqi:   6:55
Yeah. You know, it's a work in progress. Really. Um, the online classes and the stuff that the dance community staring up on instagram is incredible. I'm fortunate to have a studio space that can double with the dance. But not everyone is that, most everyone in New York is not that lucky. Um, so it navigating hard floors and classes, trying to figure out what to teach that don't really require a lot of space that could just move a table in your living room and do so. It definitely is a modified way of dancing. But it's, you know, everyone getting creative.

Emily:   7:33
It's really nice that that we have all the social media so that we can still be connected, especially with dance we're having in connection with the person you're dancing with. And the people that you're performing for. It's really an important piece of it.

Jaqi:   7:49
It is absolutely, and to create new movement with the company. I know my company's working on, not trying, to figure out. How can we do this in a video chat like call out a person's name and they add on a movement of another person's movements?

Emily:   8:04
It's definitely going to create new ways to be creative, I know. Here at our house, um, I have asked my younger daughter to think about things that she could use for a bar because she wanted, she wanted to do her dance class in the living room, and and I don't really have anything in there that can help her with that. So I sent her on a quest to look at all the chairs in our house and see if I think about the right height.

Jaqi:   8:34
That's a tricky one for us. I've been trying to think about what I should use. I'm like I have a coat rack? Back of a chair. I have a standing desk, like maybe that might work. If I clear that.

Emily:   8:48
My older daughter is using our, we have an actual, like bar, like a drinking bar in the basement. So she's been using that. I guess that's a good height for her.

Jaqi:   8:59
Yeah. Good! My husband and I actually have started to make an app together during this time where I am, um work like time, balance and routines and kind of an integrated wa yto get all of that done. Quarantine routines. You can then move on to your life later on.

Emily:   9:19
Is he, Is he an app developer?

Jaqi:   9:21
Yes, yes. He also made my website,

Emily:   9:25
Which is beautiful by the way,

Jaqi:   9:28
I'll pass it on to him.

Emily:   9:32
That's great that you guys are working together.

Jaqi:   9:34
Yeah, we're definitely creative together. We share a brain.

Emily:   9:39
Are you guys a good team do you work well together?

Jaqi:   9:41
Absolutely.

Emily:   9:44
How long have you guys been married?

Jaqi:   9:47
Three years. I don't think about that. Yeah, three years.

Emily:   9:52
And do you have any pets or anybody else living there with you guys? 

Jaqi:   9:55
We have two cats. Olivera and Kitty. They're part of a studio. We also have them on our website. They keep us entertained. My Instagram has been filled with cat pictures days.

Emily:   10:11
Well, from this perspective of being a photographer in particular, dance photographer, you're also kind of without subjects to photograph.  But that's another job where you need, you need people. You need to have other people around you to have to help create.

Jaqi:   10:27
Yeah, that's the truth. Um, I do. I did recently do a couple of projects that it just for myself. So this week is going to be my edit those pictures and put them out in the world. My personal project next week, I think I might do a series of self portraits. 

Emily:   10:46
That's a good idea. You should do it. I want to see them.

Jaqi:   10:50
I have a couple I can send you. 

Emily:   10:53
What else? What else are you doing? To just sort of keep yourself inspired and feeling happy and healthy emotionally.

Jaqi:   11:05
It's a great question. Journaling is, I think, the top one, um, trying to find some time to meditate, which I've always wanted to do. And now I have the gift of time to go on that journey. Um, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. And I used to cooking things up. And I got talking to people checking in with friends and neighbors and face timing with family. That's how my days are occupying as of late!

Emily:   11:40
It does sound like some pretty nice days. 

Jaqi:   11:43
Yeah, they are really nice days. I have to say it's like I'm trying to figure out how to take these routines back into life with me. You know, like scheduled time to sit down and read. My morning coffee. I never do that.

Emily:   11:55
That's a really good lesson to think that, like there are some, there are some good lessons and good things we can take away from this. And I know that when life gets back to being really busy again, it's it's gonna be easy to just kind of, like, get back into it and forget about this new, new found slow pace that we've all all acquired. I hope that we can kind of keep ahold of it a little bit. It would be nice if we could all stay a little bit slower when things resume.

Jaqi:   12:26
It's definitely a goal of mine. That's kind of how the app got started. I made a list of everything that I want. I wish I had time to do in a day in a week, in a month on. Now we're making a way where that's gonna be easy for us to do and for other people. Mmm. Yeah, I definitely want to hold on to those.

Emily:   12:46
Yeah, I realized when when things started shutting down and made me, it made me appreciate it. All of the things that were shutting down things that I hadn't really thought about before. And I thought, Wow, you know, people, people are really creative and people are doing so much good work out there. And it made me really sad to think about all of the amazing creations and good work that was was being paused. And because of all of this, maybe, the silver lining is that if we all slow down, we can focus more on that. Um, when we get our work spaces back and when we get our communities back together, maybe, maybe, just maybe we can focus on that more instead of the smaller little problems that really aren't that big of a deal.

Jaqi:   13:37
I agree. Have you been following the stuff that's happening to environmentally like fish returning in Venice? And air pollution is like dissipating in heavy areas and like, Oh, wow, wild animals that people thought were exctinct are showing back up, huh? It's interesting.

Emily:   13:57
It is interesting. I didn't it didn't take very long, did it?

Jaqi:   14:00
No, just for people to take a step back and kind of respect.

Emily:   14:05
It goes to show how great life is at adapting. 

Jaqi:   14:11
True! It's a really good point. We are, adaptive creatures.

Emily:   14:15
Yeah, we definitely are. And I think everything everything that's alive adapts and in a way that's kind of like a definition of life. That it doesn't stay the same.  It keeps, keeps growing and changing.

Jaqi:   14:28
Yeah, for sure.

Emily:   14:31
So you're in Jersey City, which is really very close to New York City. And when I look at these maps, so I'm I'm in Philly and a little bit further away from you. But I look at these maps showing where where this virus is is really popping up in New York City. But it's crazy. It's it's really, really bad there. Are you feeling, um, the intensity of that where you guys live? 

Jaqi:   14:58
A bit. Yeah. I mean, isolated within our home, keeping busy with projects and work. Not so much, but I had to give myself scheduled time to listen to the news because otherwise I'm just in panic mood. And then, you know, my mom calls, family calls. Everyone's nervous about where we are. Um, checking in with us a lot and hearing about how people in your building you're starting to get sick and they can't get tested and the whole thing to that scary for sure.

Emily:   15:27
So you're limiting,  you're limiting your exposure to the news?

Jaqi:   15:32
I am. It's hard because it pops up every three seconds on your phone, but in terms of actually sitting down and letting myself read those articles, Yeah, I'm giving myself time to do that every day because if I do it all day, I won't do anything else. And I think I'll just be in a panic.

Emily:   15:49
I think that's a really good idea you got. You got to protect yourself a little bit just mentally,

Jaqi:   15:55
Yeah, I mean, I definitely want to stay in the loop, that's for sure. I just can't do it all day.

Emily:   16:00
No, and nobody should.

Jaqi:   16:02
It's a lot to take in.

Emily:   16:04
It is a lot to take in, and this and there's more. There's more to life. I know it kind of doesn't seem like it sometimes, but there's still a lot more life than, then the virus.

Jaqi:   16:15
Yeah, I mean, honestly, that's the part that freaking me out more, the economical side of us. A week ago I had a full schedule. I was overworked. I was on the point of burning out. Really. It was just very, very busy. Not too much to do. And then in the blink of an eye, everything's cancelled.  All that income is gone. Trying to file for unemployment. Trying that in itself is hard. The website crashes. Phones go down. Everybody's calling, you know?

Emily:   16:44
Mmm.

Jaqi:   16:44
Then you remember. Everyone's experiencing the same thing. 

Emily:   16:48
Yeah, that's right.

Jaqi:   16:50
We've just go to take it as it comes and get creative.    

Emily:   16:54
Do you think it makes it a little bit easier or not? The fact that everybody's in it together and everybody is experiencing the same anxieties and the same problems?

Jaqi:   17:07
I think it definitely helps to know that you're not alone for sure. I think it does, in a way. Make it easier to know that everyone is experiencing their own version of this crisis. So yeah, in a way, social distinct, distancing and encouraging us to reach out to other people.

Emily:   17:26
Mmm. I agree. I think it is definitely. How far ahead are you thinking in terms of your photography and your dance? Are you, are you really just like letting it all go? Letting all control go and wondering, just waiting for the all clear and then to see what the situation is like. See how you can jump back in Or do you have a plan for what you want to happen? Let's say in a month from now or two months from now,

Jaqi:   17:56
Honestly, a little bit of both. I've closed my studio down until the kind of reconvene and read.situate on May 1st is my date to kind of be like, Okay, can I reopen? What's everything like? But up until now, I'm closed until May 1st, um to then hopefully reach out to clients and start confirming shoots. Things are back to normal for dance that a bit different. We're taking it day by day. We're trying to figure out if there's a way that we can rehearse being separated. Um, they're trying to figure out if tours can be rescheduled. Um, I know we had a cancel our gala, a big thing that we do every year. Our season is scheduled for, uh, May. But we're not sure if that's gonna happen or not, which is really gonna heavily determine what our schedule looks like. Um, yes, they're a little bit of both.

Emily:   18:55
Do you guys have things planned so far through the summer?

Jaqi:   18:58
No, not so much. Um, we have, like, a teaching engagement I know in the summer, but spring is our busy season.

Emily:   19:06
Okay, well, that makes it hard.

Jaqi:   19:09
Yeah, it does make it hard, but everyone's just trying to put on your creative hat.

Emily:   19:18
There's definitely there's definitely ways to keep going and move forward, and they'll be different. But people are very creative, especially dancers.

Jaqi:   19:30
Photography's a hard one.

Emily:   19:32
You really can't, really can't hold a session virtually. You can't do a photo shoot via Zoom at all.

Jaqi:   19:40
No, that just  doesn't work. Although I can't lie. My brains kind of going Whoa, can you?  Is there a way to make that happen?

Emily:   19:47
You no way should never say never.

Jaqi:   19:57
Uh, definitely thinking about that one. The services they're different. Dancers aren't really in need of auditions when all the auditions are cancelled and performances and such. Though, my brain's kind of going around in circles. Well, what do people need? You need social media content. Perhaps there's something we can work on with that. 

Emily:   20:16
I don't know. Maybe just some stock. Maybe there's a space for sort of like stock, like photography. Where, you know, you could take photos in your studio. You're so lucky that your studio's in your home Are you under, um, like, one of these orders, like, stay at home shelter in place kind of order right now?

Jaqi:   20:36
Uh, yeah. Jersey City is doing everything they can to keep people in there.

Emily:   20:40
Okay, so since your studios in your home, you can still use it. And you still have your stuff? So I don't know, maybe you could come up with creating some some photos without people, of things that that people could could use photos that people could use in some way

Jaqi:   20:57
Spending time photographing objects in my kitchen. So interesting people, though, that's gonna be a hard one. I think my cats are gonna maybe end up on Instagram quite a lot.

Emily:   21:10
I have a book, and I think it was my father in law who gave it to me. It's called Dancing With Cats and photos of dancers dancing with cats. So, um, which it would be a very difficult undertaking, I imagine. I think it would be way harder than dancers with dogs. Cats just don't, you know, they're not, they're not just gonna, um, poss nicely as a dog might.

Jaqi:   21:36
A little harder to train the cats, but possible.

Emily:   21:44
You have everything you need right there to give it a try,

Jaqi:   21:47
huh? I see myself starting a blog during this quarantine. Yeah, just like self portraits of me and my cat dancing in different parts of my house!

Emily:   21:59
That sounds fun. It's a nice way to connect with people. A nice way to still create something. And and you can strengthen your relationships with your cats!

Jaqi:   22:12
It's only a matter of time till the husband gets thrown into it too, right?!?

Emily:   22:20
It's been so nice to talk with you.

Jaqi:   22:22
You too. Absolutely. Thanks for thinking of me.

Emily:   22:26
I hope that the next few weeks can bring you a lot of downtime because I'm sure it was really needed. Um so I hope that the downtime can be good for you and not too stressful.

Jaqi:   22:44
Thank you. I wish to seem to you.

Emily:   22:46
Thanks so much. Take care. 

Jaqi:   22:48
Take care. Thank you.