Being isolated during the pandemic of 2020 made us all pause to reflect on our lives and realize that human connection is essential to our sense of well-being. “7pm Clapping” was inspired by the pandemic’s transformative condition and was created during the quarantine of winter/fall 2020. It is a collaborative performance between multidisciplinary visual and performance artists Ronit Levin Delgado and Iren Kamyshev.

“7pm Clapping” is a response to the new world that arose during quarantine. It reflects the uncertainty and extraordinary moment in history we’re experiencing. The performance is a collaborative use of our bodies and movement to encapsulate 2020 events and share our personal experiences. The dissonance that arose during the pandemic led to duplexities: between connection and disconnection, isolation and socialization, all with a backdrop of unprecedented historical events.

In this performance, we created a unique movement vocabulary to showcase the 2020 pandemic storyline. Our solos and duets interact in a playful and curious manner utilizing different objects which have transformed into our normal everyday use in the new pandemic world. It reflects a collective experience of historical events, our long period of quarantine loneliness, and desire to socialize.

We transformed the Covid street-wear of a green face mask and gloves into wings and a playful transformative rectangle body cover. We included other pandemic vocabulary of social distancing personal space marks, dividers, and explored alternative humorous and ambivalent uses to the objects, thus symbolizing the long weeks of quarantine when we feel lonely, and we have an appreciation for human connection from a different perspective.

The inspiration for the performance are the sounds of collated news report recordings mixed with the BLM slogan “No Justice, No Peace” and ends with the sounds of the 7pm “clapping” all recorded in Manhattan. During the height of the pandemic in March, the daily clapping, cheering and pot-banging at 7pm was a sign of gratitude for the heroic healthcare and essential workers who finished their shifts at 7pm. This gesture is one of hope and reminded us that we will get through the pandemic experience together, we are all heroes.

“7pm Clapping” was performed live, at our first socially-distanced live art event in New York, at Culture Lab LIC Live Art Performance Art Festival, The Plaxall Gallery and Local Project Art Space, and “Alembic: Body and Spirit. Live Art as Healing Art.”