“Telephone Tango” was performed, documented, and compiled by artists Grace DeVies and Jeremy Wong. The performance, completed simultaneously in our respective cities, revolved around a week’s worth of missed calls and voicemail messages as we entered 2021.

With in-person connection currently impossible, an emotional connection was attempted over anxious messages left to each others’ voicemail inboxes. We never managed to reach each other directly, only communicating sporadically through these left messages. This became a desperate, yet seemingly failing attempt to feel less alone. However, when the voicemails are played in sequence, they mimic a deeply personal and emotional telephone conversation full of understanding and support. The compiled audio—in which we contemplate the past, the present, and the uncertain future—was played over the performance.

An awkward and abstracted tango absent of a partner visually portrayed the lack of an essential psychological need for companionship in our lives. In times of isolation—suggested by confined movement in a cold, gloomy space—we are without intimacy and belonging. The dance was stiff and uncomfortable, then messy and frantic, following the ebbs and flows of our mental states. Even though our phone calls missed each other, our dramaticized movements linked us to one another without us being physically together. Our similar, and sometimes synchronized dance provided a connection that we could not have otherwise created.