Arts in brief

Motivity Dance Collective performs Saturday

After a winter of practicing during the COVID-19 pandemic with face masks and social distancing, Motivity Dance Collective holds it premiere performance, “Emerge,” on Saturday, May 8, at the Kachemak Shellfish Growers Assoc. deck on the Homer Spit. Show times are 3:30 and 6 p.m., with tickets $10 available at motivitydancecollective.com.

Founded by dancer and choreographer Breezy Berryman, the collective has been rehearsing in places like member Kammi Matson’s hayfield. They also did a short video for the Homer Council on the Art’s “Art from the Heart” project. Berryman said that the collective is part of a long-time dream to start a dance company in Homer after she returned home. Members of Motivity are Berryman, Rhoslyn Anderson, Bridget Doran, Kammi Matson, Emilie Springer and guest dancer Emily Rogers.

For “Emerge,” Berryman said they work a lot with props, an innovation Motivity came up with last September as a way to keep social distancing. Props included yoga balls, chairs, a rope, hula hoops and strollers — a prop suggested by one of the members who was then pregnant. One piece uses member Springer’s poetry as an audio track. Another piece features Doran’s flying trapeze using a self-standing rig.

“This is our first debut performance and it’s been a really fun process because we are a collective, so we are equally collaborating by either coming up with material as a group or taking charge on individual pieces,” Berryman said.

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