One of the last arts stories we ran before COVID-19 cleared our calendars was an interview with ShaLeigh Comerford. Her namesake company, ShaLeigh Dance Works, was to premiere The In-Between—which adds adventurous light and sound design to her customary dance theater—that weekend at The Fruit.

But the March 13–15 run was thrown into chaos as the reality of the public health crisis took hold, and the company scrambled to set up a livestream for people who didn’t feel safe coming to the venue.

“We monitored the numbers to make sure we stayed below 100 the moment the governor requested it, which was the Thursday before we opened,” Comerford told me later, of what was expected to be a sold-out run. She says that over the weekend, the livestream filled up as the theater emptied out.

While the livestream wasn’t archived, the performance was separately filmed, which will result in the proper virtual premiere of The In-Between this weekend.

On Friday, May 15, a $5–$10 Venmo or PayPal donation gets you into the YouTube watch party at 8:00 p.m., which is followed by a discussion with the dancers on Zoom at 9:00 p.m.

We miss local dance and we miss The Fruit, so this is bittersweet, but it’s the next-best thing to being there. Sign up here for all of the details.  

Contact arts and culture editor Brian Howe at [email protected].