Month: July 2021

Categories
World News

Wells Fargo is shutting down all private line of credit score accounts

Wells Fargo is shutting down all personal line of credit accounts

Wells Fargo is ending a popular consumer lending product, angering some of its customers, CNBC has learned.

The bank is shutting down all existing personal lines of credit in coming weeks and has stopped offering the product, according to customer letters reviewed by CNBC.

The revolving credit lines, which typically let users borrow $3,000 to $100,000, were pitched as a way to consolidate higher-interest credit card debt, pay for home renovations or avoid overdraft fees on linked checking accounts.

“Wells Fargo recently reviewed its product offerings and decided to discontinue offering new Personal and Portfolio line of credit accounts and close all existing accounts,” the bank said in the six-page letter. The move would let the bank focus on credit cards and personal loans, it said.

A man walks past a Wells Fargo Bank branch on a rainy morning in Washington.

Gary Cameron | Reuters

Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf has been forced to make difficult decisions during the coronavirus pandemic, offloading assets and deposits and stepping back from some products because of limitations imposed by the Federal Reserve. In 2018, the Fed barred Wells Fargo from growing its balance sheet until it fixes compliance shortcomings revealed by the bank’s fake accounts scandal.

The asset cap has ultimately cost the bank billions of dollars in lost earnings, based on the balance sheet growth of rivals including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America over the past three years, analysts have said.

It has also affected Wells Fargo’s customers: Last year, the lender told staff it was halting all new home equity lines of credit, CNBC reported. Months later, the bank also withdrew from a segment of the auto lending business.

With its latest move, Wells Fargo warned customers that the account closures “may have an impact on your credit score,” according to a “Frequently Asked Questions” segment of the letter.

Another part of the FAQ asserted that the account closures couldn’t be reviewed or reversed: “We apologize for the inconvenience this Line of Credit closure will cause,” the bank said. “The account closure is final.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a frequent critic of the banking industry, denounced Wells Fargo’s decision to pull back the credit lines.

Simplify offerings

Wells Fargo didn’t directly answer questions as to what role, if any, the Fed asset cap played in its latest move.

The bank gave this statement: “In an effort to simplify our product offerings, we’ve made the decision to no longer offer personal lines of credit as we feel we can better meet the borrowing needs of our customers through credit card and personal loan products.”

After publication of this article, a Wells Fargo spokesman gave additional remarks: “We realize change can be inconvenient, especially when customer credit may be impacted,” the bank said, adding that it was “committed to helping each customer find a credit solution that fits their needs.”

Customers have been given a 60-day notice that their accounts will be shuttered, and remaining balances will require regular minimum payments at a fixed rate, according to the statement. When it was offered, the credit lines had variable interest rates ranging from 9.5% to 21%.

The move is a strange one given the banking industry’s need to boost loan growth.  

After a burst of commercial lending during the early days of the pandemic, loan growth has been hard to muster. Corporations have used money raised in stock and debt issuance to retire bank credit lines, and consumers stuck at home had fewer reasons to use credit cards.

In fact, last year big banks experienced the first aggregate drop in loans in more than a decade, according to Barclays bank analyst Jason Goldberg. Of the four largest U.S. banks, Wells Fargo saw the worst decline.

After banks saw that borrowers held up far better than they had initially feared, the industry recently began marketing new credit cards with large sign-on bonuses in an effort to boost lending.

Making the switch

Wells Fargo doesn’t disclose how many customers used the credit lines it is eliminating. It had $24.9 billion in loans in a category called “other consumer” as of March, which was 26% lower than the year-earlier period.

One customer said the change is prompting him to switch banks after more than a decade with Wells Fargo. Tim Tomassi, a Portland, Oregon, programmer, said he used a personal line of credit linked to his checking account to avoid expensive overdraft fees.

“It’s a bit upsetting,” Tomassi said in a phone interview. “They’re a big bank, and I’m a small person, and it feels like they’re making decisions for their bottom line and not for customers. A lot of people are in my position, they need a cushion every once in a while from a line of credit.”

Tomassi said he is considering opening an account at Ally or Chime, banking players that don’t charge overdraft fees.

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Categories
Health

Serving to Runners With Lengthy Covid Get Again on Their Toes

Helping Runners With Long Covid Get Back on Their Feet

Penn developed a physical therapy program that varies depending on the severity of each patient’s symptoms. “For some patients who have been really seriously affected and unable to engage in activities, how do we go back to the housework that they have to do every day? How do we manage this during the day so that you don’t have to do everything at once? “

For those with less severe symptoms, the focus is on gradually getting active again and keeping the heart rate at 60 to 70 percent of its maximum for the time being. “If they tolerate it and agree to it for a week or two, we’ll build on it,” he said.

Long-distance Covid patients tend to “have a honeymoon, maybe two or three weeks after the acute illness,” said Dr. R. Kannan Mutharasan, cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and co-program director of exercise cardiology. “You’re finally feeling back to yourself and saying, ‘I’m going to run,'” he said. But afterwards they notice that they don’t feel like they used to. A few weeks later, they may experience “things like lightheadedness or a fast heartbeat even while walking.”

That happened to one of his patients, Hannah Engle, 23, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 last July. She tried running again in October and her heart rate rose to 210 beats per minute. She is now on her way to take it slow, but there are still setbacks if she overdoes it. For example, in May, after a seemingly simple exercise with jumping jacks and stretching, she began to experience chest pain and dizziness.

Ms. Engle has always been an active person. As a child, she competed in diving, cheerleading, and gymnastics, and even did gymnastics at club level through college. After graduation, she stayed active while working in Arlington, Virginia through CrossFit, weight lifting, and 5K running to encourage people to get into the STEM areas – science, technology, engineering, and math.

Categories
Entertainment

‘Final Summer season’ Assessment: Rising Pains

‘Last Summer’ Review: Growing Pains

The film “Last Summer” plays like an extended montage that advertises the breathtaking views and the clear Mediterranean waters of southern Turkey. Like a migratory fish, the teenager Deniz (Fatih Sahin) is lucky enough to spend the summers on this beautiful coast in the coastal town where his family owns a cottage. This wafer-thin coming-of-age film (on Netflix) is set in the summer of 1997, when Deniz is out with his cool older sister Ebru (Aslihan Malbora) while he feeds the puppy love for her teasing beast Asli (Ece Cesmioglu). .

Director Ozan Aciktan is interested in how Deniz’s crush on Asli, a flirtatious young woman, reflects his longing for the confidence and thrill of adulthood. When he accompanies Asli and her friends to a high cliff, Deniz shows him jumping into the sea. Although he survived the fall, the cut on his foot is a sign that growing up is exciting, but not without pain.

The movie’s attention to Deniz’s growing pains is useful as Asli, a beautiful but blurry character, meets a charming older man and Deniz’s shy longing takes a jealous turn. Tension builds up on sunny days and sweaty nights. But at its climax, the film fails to fulfill its purpose. Asli’s feelings seem to change on a whim, and Deniz suffers no consequences for his mistakes. For all the beauty of its dazzling holiday setting, “Last Summer” drives by, but not to a satisfying destination.

Last summer
Not rated. In Turkish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

Categories
Politics

Biden Forcefully Defends U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan

Biden Forcefully Defends U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan

John F. Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military was looking at relocating Afghan interpreters and their families to U.S. territories, American military installations outside the United States, and in other countries outside of Afghanistan.

The war began two decades ago, the president argued, not to rebuild a distant nation but to prevent terror attacks like the one on Sept. 11, 2001, and to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. In essence, Mr. Biden said the longest war in United States history should have ended a decade ago, when Bin Laden was killed.

“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,” he said. “And it’s the right and the responsibility of Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.”

Mr. Biden delivered his remarks even as the democratic government in Kabul teeters under a Taliban siege that has displaced tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and allowed the insurgent group to capture much of the country.

The rapid American withdrawal, he said, was a matter of safety.

“Our military commanders advised me that once I made the decision to end the war, we needed to move swiftly to conduct the main elements of the drawdown,” Mr. Biden said. “And in this context, speed is safety.”

In an effort to provide limited reassurance to the Afghan government, he said the American mission to help defend the country would continue through Aug. 31, though most combat troops have already left, leaving a force of under 1,000 to defend the American embassy and the country’s airport.

At another time in the country’s history, Mr. Biden’s speech, and the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, might have roiled politics in the United States.

Categories
Health

Here is what you could know the lambda variant

Here's what you need to know the lambda variant

Health workers vaccinate a woman in Peru.

DIEGO RAMOS | AFP | Getty Images

More than 18 months after the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is now used to news of new variants of the virus, especially those that have successively supplanted previous versions of the disease.

Some mutations of the virus, such as the alpha variant and the delta variant – first discovered in the UK and India respectively – were more transmissible than previous iterations of the virus and have gained worldwide acceptance. Whenever a new variant of the coronavirus emerges, scientists keep a close eye on it.

While the world is still grappling with the rapid spread of the delta variant, which the alpha variant has usurped in terms of portability and hospital admissions for unvaccinated people, there is now a new variant that is being watched by experts: the lambda -Variant.

Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about:

What is the lambda variant?

The lambda variant, or “C.37” as the lineage was called, has spread rapidly in South America, particularly Peru, where the earliest documented samples of the virus are from August 2020.

However, it was only marked as an “interesting variant” by the World Health Organization on June 14 of this year, as cases attributed to the variant had noticeably spread.

In its mid-June report, the WHO reported that “lambda has been linked to significant transmission rates in the community in several countries, with prevalence increasing over time as the incidence of Covid-19 increases” and that further research is needed this topic would be carried out variant.

Where is it exactly?

The WHO found in its June 15 report that the lambda variant was found in 29 countries, territories or areas in five WHO regions, although it is more prevalent in South America.

“Authorities in Peru reported that 81% of the Covid-19 cases sequenced since April 2021 were linked to lambda. Argentina reported an increasing prevalence of lambda since the third week of February 2021, and between April 2 and May 19 In 2021, the variant accounted for 37% of the Covid-19 cases sequenced, ”the WHO stated.

Meanwhile, in Chile, the prevalence of lambda has increased over time, accounting for 32% of the sequenced cases reported in the past 60 days, the WHO said, adding that it was floating around at rates similar to the gamma variant be, but “out competition” of the alpha variant in the same period.

According to Public Health England, the lambda variant had been detected in cases in 26 countries by June 24. These included Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia as well as the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Israel, France, Great Britain and Zimbabwe.

Is it more dangerous?

The WHO and other public health authorities are trying to understand how the variant compares to other strains of the virus, including whether it could be more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines.

In mid-June, the WHO announced that “Lambda carries a number of mutations with suspected phenotypic implications, such as a potentially increased transferability or a possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies”.

Recalling the specific mutations in the spike protein (some of which have been described by experts as unusual), WHO said “There is currently limited evidence of the full extent of the effects associated with these genomic changes” and further studies are needed. “to better understand the impact on countermeasures [against Covid-19] and control the spread. “

It is important to note that the lambda variant is still one step down and is referred to as a “questionable variant”, like the alpha or delta mutations. In a press conference last week, the WHO technical director on Covid-19, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, asked what would have to happen in order to change her definition of the lambda variant.

“It would be worrying if it showed ways of increased portability, for example if it has increased severity or if it has some sort of impact on our countermeasures,” she said.

Do vaccines work against this?

Here, too, further studies are required on the effect of the lambda variant on the effectiveness of vaccines, especially in the case of vaccines widely used in the West such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Oxford-AstraZeneca.

However, in parts of South America, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines, which have been used primarily in the region, as cases related to the spread of the lambda variant and infection rates rise alongside vaccination programs. Brazil, Chile and Peru all rely heavily on the Chinese Covid vaccines Sinovac or Sinopharm, but vaccination rates vary widely in South America.

Categories
Health

Research Particulars How Delta Variant Dodges Immune System

Study Details How Delta Variant Dodges Immune System

The delta variant of the coronavirus can evade antibodies that target specific parts of the virus, according to a new study published in Nature on Thursday. The results provide an explanation for the reduced effectiveness of the vaccines against Delta compared to other variants.

The variant first identified in India is believed to be about 60 percent more contagious than Alpha, the version of the virus that hit Britain and much of Europe earlier this year, and perhaps twice as contagious as the original coronavirus. The delta variant is now causing outbreaks among unvaccinated populations in countries like Malaysia, Portugal, Indonesia and Australia.

Delta is now also the dominant variant in the USA. Infections in the country have been at their lowest level since the pandemic began, although the numbers may rise. Still, hospital admissions and deaths related to the virus remain steep. That’s partly because of the relatively high vaccination rates: 48 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated and 55 percent have received at least one dose.

But the new study found that Delta was barely sensitive to a dose of the vaccine, confirming previous research suggesting the variant can partially bypass the immune system – albeit to a lesser extent than Beta, the variant first identified in South Africa.

French researchers tested how well antibodies produced by natural infections and by coronavirus vaccines neutralize the alpha, beta and delta variants, as well as a reference variant that is similar to the original version of the virus.

The researchers examined blood samples from 103 people infected with the coronavirus. Delta was much less sensitive than Alpha to samples from unvaccinated individuals in this group, the study found.

One dose of vaccine increased sensitivity significantly, suggesting that people who have recovered from Covid-19 may still need to be vaccinated to fight off some variants.

The team also analyzed samples from 59 people after receiving the first and second doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Blood samples from just 10 percent of those immunized with a dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were able to neutralize the Delta and Beta variants in laboratory tests. But a second dose increased that number to 95 percent. There was not much difference in the levels of antibodies produced by the two vaccines.

“A single dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca was either poorly effective or not effective at all against beta and delta variants,” the researchers concluded. Data from Israel and the UK broadly support this finding, although these studies suggest that one dose of vaccine is still enough to prevent hospitalization or death from the virus.

According to the new study, the Delta variant also did not react to Bamlanivimab, the monoclonal antibody from Eli Lilly. Fortunately, three other monoclonal antibodies tested in the study retained their effectiveness against the variant.

In April, the US Food and Drug Administration revoked the emergency approval for the treatment of Covid-19 patients as a single treatment, citing the increase in variants resistant to bamlanivimab.

Separately, Pfizer announced Thursday that it is developing a version of its vaccine that targets the Delta variant and is expected to begin clinical trials in August.

The company also reported promising results from studies of people who received a third dose of the original vaccine. A booster given six months after the second dose increases the effectiveness of the antibodies against the original virus and beta variant by five to ten times, the company said in a press release.

Antibody levels could drop six months after immunization, Pfizer said, and booster doses may be needed to fight off variants. But antibodies aren’t the only part of the body’s immune response, and other studies have shown that the immunity induced by full vaccination is likely to remain robust against variants for years to come.

Categories
World News

Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, 70, Sibling Rival in Indonesia Politics, Dies

Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, 70, Sibling Rival in Indonesia Politics, Dies

Mrs. Rachmawati entered politics after the fall of Suharto, helping to found the Pioneers’ Party in 2002. But it won only a tiny number of seats in Parliament. She joined the Nasdem Party in 2012 but quickly left it to join the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, the party of Suharto’s son-in-law Prabowo Subianto. At her death she was on its board of trustees.

Updated 

July 8, 2021, 6:10 p.m. ET

“Rachmawati always sided with anyone who opposed her eldest sister, including Prabowo,” said Andreas Harsono, a Human Rights Watch researcher who wrote a book about the early days of Indonesia, “Race, Islam and Power” (2019), and who knows the Sukarno siblings.

“It is a dysfunctional family,” he said.

Mrs. Rachmawati was accused of being involved in a plot in 2016 to rally hard-line Islamists to kidnap the Christian governor of Jakarta. She was one of 11 people arrested on treason charges related to the plot but was released a day later, denying that she had been involved and saying, “How could I be doing treason against the country that my father helped found?”

The Jakarta governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, was a close ally of President Joko Widodo, whose Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle was headed by Mrs. Megawati.

Diah Permana Rachmawati Sukarno was born in Jakarta on Sept. 27, 1950, to Sukarno and his third wife, Fatmawati, who was considered his official consort for ceremonial occasions. Rachmawati was the third of five children of that marriage and had several half-siblings from Sukarno’s eight other marriages.

Like Mrs. Megawati, she took on the patronymic Sukarnoputri, meaning daughter of Sukarno, to emphasize the connection to their father.

When she was 3, her mother left the palace in protest of Sukarno’s plans to take a new wife, and Rachmawati was raised mainly by a foster mother.

Categories
Politics

DOJ declined to prosecute 82% of hate crime suspects from 2005 to 2019

DOJ declined to prosecute 82% of hate crime suspects from 2005 to 2019

Dental students and others crowd during a vigil at the University of North Carolina following the murder of three Muslim students on February 11, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute 82% of hate crime suspects investigated between 2005 and 2019, according to a report released Thursday.

The report follows recent efforts by Attorney General Merrick Garland to enhance the Justice Department’s role in combating hate crimes and incidents.

Four pieces of US Criminal Code define hate crimes as crimes committed based on a victim’s characteristics, such as race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or disability.

Recently, reports of hate crimes against Americans in Asia and Pacific Islanders have increased during the pandemic, with many attributing the surge to former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric blaming China for spreading Covid-19 in the US

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the federal prosecutor’s office completed investigations into a total of 1,878 suspects of potential hate crimes in the 2005 to 2019 financial years. However, only 17% of suspects were prosecuted by US lawyers, while 1% of cases were settled by US magistrate judges.

The report cited insufficient evidence as the most common reason hate crimes were prosecuted. Decisions to prosecute hate crimes generally rest with United States lawyers in the country’s 94 judicial districts.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on the report’s findings.

President Joe Biden signed a bill in May that would direct the Department of Justice to expedite the investigation of hate crimes related to the pandemic and provide more resources to local law enforcement agencies to follow up on the incidents.

In May, Garland announced its own six-step plan to tackle hate crimes. These include increasing resources and coordination, facilitating the expedited review of hate crimes, and improving the department’s voice access capabilities to overcome the incident reporting barrier, among other things.

“Since its inception, the Justice Department has tried to combat illegal acts of hatred,” Garland said in the memo that outlined the plan in May. “As members of the department, we need to continue this work as much as possible and build on it.”

Garland’s plan also instructs US attorneys across the country to “build trust” with the communities they serve to increase hate crime coverage and appoint local criminal and civil attorneys to act as civil rights coordinators.

While the report found low law enforcement rates for hate crime suspects at the federal level, it also found that hate crimes prosecuted by prosecutors are largely successful. The conviction rate for all hate crimes rose from 83% in 2005 to 2009 to 94% in 2015 to 2019.

Categories
Health

Warfare, Covid and local weather change gasoline starvation disaster killing 11 each minute

War, Covid and climate change fuel hunger crisis killing 11 every minute

After a fire in a refugee camp in Ukhia in the southeastern district of Cox’s Bazar on March 24, 2021, children are seen eating food provided by NGOs and social organizations.

Yousuf Tushar | LightRakete | Getty Images

LONDON – According to a new Oxfam report released on Friday, the number of people who died of starvation increased six-fold over the past year to surpass deaths from Covid-19.

Up to 11 people die of starvation and malnutrition every minute as the proportion of people suffering from starvation-like conditions has skyrocketed since the pandemic began, the global charity said in a paper titled “The Hunger Virus Multiplies” .

For comparison: an estimated 7 people die of Covid-19 every minute.

The statistics are overwhelming, but we must remember that these numbers are individual people who are exposed to unimaginable suffering. One person is too much too.

Abby Maxman

President and CEO, Oxfam America

Main causes of extreme hunger

War and conflict remain the leading cause of hunger, accounting for two-thirds of hunger-related deaths worldwide. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and economic shocks as a result of Covid-19, as well as the worsening climate crisis, have starved tens of millions, the report said.

Global food prices are also up 40%, the highest increase in more than 10 years, the report said.

“The statistics are mind-boggling, but we must remember that these numbers are made up of individuals exposed to unimaginable suffering. Even one person is too much, ”said Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America.

A relative prays on a cremation site during the final rites of a Covid-19 victim.

Majority world | Universal picture group | Getty Images

Oxfam named war-torn countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen among the world’s worst hunger hotspots.

“Hunger continues to be used as a weapon of war to steal food and water from civilians and to hamper humanitarian aid,” said Maxman. “People cannot live safely or find food when their markets are bombed and crops and livestock are destroyed.”

Meanwhile, food insecurity has worsened in what the charity has dubbed “emerging epicentres of hunger” such as India, South Africa and Brazil – some of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19 infections.

But even countries with relatively resilient food systems like the US have been rocked by the pandemic and recent climate shocks, the report said.

Hurt the most vulnerable people

In any case, vulnerable groups like women, displaced people and informal workers are hardest hit, Maxman said.

“Marginalized groups are hardest hit by conflict and hunger. Too often women and girls eat last and least. ” She said.

Governments must prevent conflict from fueling catastrophic hunger.

Abby Maxman

President and CEO, Oxfam America

The spike in hunger-related deaths comes in a year when global military spending rose by $ 51 billion – enough to cover six and a half times what the United Nations believes it needs to stop hunger.

Meanwhile, the world’s 10 richest people have risen by $ 413 billion in net worth over the past year – 11 times the estimated cost of the United Nations for global humanitarian aid.

“Governments must prevent conflict from fueling catastrophic hunger and instead ensure that aid agencies reach those in need,” Maxman said, calling for multilateral support from policymakers.

“We need the US to take a leadership role in ending this hunger crisis by pushing for an end to the conflicts that fuel this famine, providing the vital resources to save lives now, and helping communities achieve a safe one Building the future. “

Categories
Entertainment

Utilizing the Knowledge of Dance to Discover Our Method Again to Our Our bodies

Using the Wisdom of Dance to Find Our Way Back to Our Bodies

Sometime in the middle of April I took up space in the world again, the bigger one outside of my apartment, outside of my neighborhood. Taking a seat is a bizarre feeling after a year inside. It’s sometimes exciting, sometimes terrifying. It’s always strange.

As we get out of the pandemic, not only do we walk around without masks, we learn how to re-enter our bodies. It’s wild out there – which means the happy, nerve-wracking combination of New York City and lifted restrictions – but it’s still time to hold on to whatever is slow.

The pandemic, devastating in many ways, was also an opportunity to explore the value of the body and the everyday, to refocus the eyes and to see, as dance critic Edwin Denby wrote, “Daily life is wonderfully full” of seeing things . Not only the movements of people, but also the objects around them, the shape of the rooms in which they live, the ornaments that architects make on windows and doors, the peculiar way how buildings end up in the air. “

In his 1954 essay “Dancing, Buildings and People in the Streets” (also the title of a later volume) Denby explores the art and the act of seeing both in performance and in the daily dance of life. During the pandemic, I put a lot of thought into Denby’s essay, a reminder not to stop looking at the details of everyday life. People slowed down. And you could study your body just as you could study the world.

With the increase in vaccinations, the world has changed, although it is not what it was and will not be. This spring there were again dances to be seen in person; In May, I wondered if it was time to buy an unlimited MetroCard. Some of it was great – like when members of the club world performed at the Guggenheim on Ephrat Asherie’s UnderScored, part of the Works & Process franchise. Some things were forgotten. But a lot seemed right at the moment: processions in nature, a participatory installation at MoMA, an intimate studio performance. In different ways, they all reflected the time we are in – a borderline in-between place that won’t last forever. (Hold on to it.)

Watching a performance is now not just about the dance itself, but about a glimpse into our position – maybe even a way to pause the world for a moment longer. What does it mean to watch dance like in life and to move through the room? How does your feeling affect your vision? What should be preserved from the pandemic and what could dance teach us about it?

Dance sprouts all around us; it’s purposeful, serious, healing, transgressive, inclusive and beautifully laid back. And while the theaters haven’t fully opened their doors yet, the choreography has spread to rooftops and parks, studios, cemeteries, and museums.

Processions, these performances with built-in cast, are also ubiquitous. Why now? They’re practical, of course – kept outdoors, they don’t require excessive choreographic construction. And they feel right for this time in between: They are not shows, but events that arise in the moment. And how they develop – that is, how they look and, more importantly, how they feel – depends on who shows up.

The last River to River Festival in 2021 in collaboration with Movement Research presented three processions led by Miguel Gutierrez, Okwui Okpokwasili and the Illustrious Blacks. What does it mean to inhabit our body – and the city – as individuals and as a group? “It was almost like opening doors of opportunity again as we come out of the pandemic and step into this new world,” said Lili Chopra, executive director of arts programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. “It is a participatory moment that you do together, but which you can take with you.”

A procession led by Gutierrez in Teardrop Park in Lower Manhattan was about thinking about the land we were walking on; it was also about slowing down and seeing. Before we started, we performed a movement at Gutierrez’s instruction in which our outstretched arms cupped and scooped the air forwards and backwards.

For him the action could do many things; it could be a conjuring gesture or it could contain the idea of ​​conjuring. It could be about moving or banishing energy. He spoke of waving as a gesture of awakening: “Healing”, he sang, “there is no space for oblivion”.

At a time when it looks like a lot of people have pushed the past year and a half out of their heads, the gesture was grounding and reassuring. It also echoed: as we walked towards the park, two children were seen in a high-rise apartment with their arms curled in the same meditative slow motion; they stood behind a window, but their attention – they watched, they copied, they moved with us – made the procession important even before it really began.

Moving as a collective, especially after so much loneliness, has a hypnotic effect. This idea of ​​togetherness was the focus of the Global Water Dances 2021 in Locomotive Lawn in Riverside Park South in June, which drew attention to the cause of clean and safe water with movement. Martha Eddy, the dance teacher and one of the coordinators of the event, helped lead a dance in which participants, dancers and spectators alike made waves with their bodies.

“You’re starting to feel harmony,” Eddy said of the liberating power of moving with others. “And we build a kind of collective effervescence that both senses fear and releases joy in what humanity can create.”

But I’ve found that effervescence isn’t just about large groups; it’s not even about being outside. In a series of individual performances, dance artist Kay Ottinger played a solo by Melanie Maar as part of a larger project that she initiated with three mentors. Everyone passes on an exercise or a piece. For Maars Solo, Ottinger turned her body with a heavy wooden pearl necklace that was wrapped around her waist. As she circled her hips for 20 minutes, she rocked back and forth, transforming the room, a dingy studio in Judson Church, and the air in it.

There is something priceless about live performances: the energetic exchange between a dancing body and a quiet and attentive body. Mirror neurons – how a brain cell reacts to an action, either when it is performed or simply observed – are charged. I felt that with Ottinger and in “Embodied Sensations”, a participatory work by the Chicago-based artist Amanda Williams. Williams is trained as an architect and takes care of space; Her piece was one of my favorite experiences of bodies in space – and my body in space – of the past year.

Williams teamed up with Anna Martine Whitehead, a performance artist from Chicago, for “Embodied Sensations”, which is presented in the huge atrium of the Museum of Modern Art; The spectator’s job was to perform movement instructions amid a maze of piled furniture – benches and chairs that had been removed from parts of the museum due to social distancing protocols.

Each performance consisted of four prompts, which the audience performed twice over 30 minutes. One of me was, “Take three full minutes to do absolutely whatever you want in this room.” Another was more direct: “Imagine there is a black hole in the center of this room. Go to the edge of the black hole and practice resisting its pull. “

If the pandemic raised our awareness of our bodies, “Embodied Sensations” was a way to find out who has the freedom of movement and why. One instruction read in part: “Imagine you are a walking goal post or a moving target. Decide if you want to be caught. “

In an interview, Williams said, “I can imagine what my brother’s answer would be, what my 7-year-old’s answer would be, what my upper-middle-class white classmate would be from Cornell’s answer. Then it was incredible to see these people perform. “

But even when the instructions were less burdened, their execution had levels of meaning. During the first lap, I felt like I was carrying out the instructions; the second time I just did it and that had a relaxing effect. I was in space, wearing a mask, and could breathe. Deep.

Meanwhile, certain instructions were reminiscent of moments from the pandemic experience: “Choose any room,” one read. “Close your eyes, hear and smell intensely for about 2 minutes. Choose a new place and keep your eyes closed. Focus on how you are feeling for a minute. Repeat this even if you are bored or tired. “

In the past year and a half, haven’t we all been bored and tired? Alone with our feelings? Without the space to move much, we looked inward, at the body. And for those of us who normally see a lot of live performances, we had to pay attention to the bigger world – the angles in nature, the choreography of the everyday. Both were gifts. Now there is little shortage of dance events, and here are two: STooPS BedStuy, an annual arts event, takes place on July 24th; On August 7th, Dance Church, a guided improvisation class from Seattle, is making a tour stop in New York.

Or borrow a re-entry experiment from Williams. Close your eyes. Focus on how you feel. And then repeat. Think about how your body, not just buildings, ends up in the air. It’s about enjoying the in-between.