Dr. Wendy Ziecheck has found a new specialty: helping dancers to work together safely. “Testing was the key to making this happen,” she says.
“Bubble, part of the growing coronavirus vocabulary — the R-factor, zoonotic, sheltering in place — can be used as a noun (“My bubble with 25 other dancers”) or a verb (“Yes, 25! We were bubbling!”).
Either way, bubbling has gained traction in the dance world as companies and organizations try to find ways of bringing artists together to create work in a safe environment. That involves rules, medical protocols, tests and vigilance, and it requires a presiding authority to decide what those should be.
Enter Dr. Wendy Ziecheck, a Manhattan internist, who trained with George Balanchine’s doctor and was the medical director for the Rockettes before taking this unlikely new career path. She is currently supervising a bubble for Dance Theater of Harlem, which recently traveled together to the secluded residency center, Kaatsbaan, in Tivoli, N.Y., to work for three weeks. (While there, the dancers will chat on Zoom to patrons, and host a dance party, during the company’s virtual gala on Monday.)”
