A new year, a new chapter, a new leaf!

As the world gladly bids farewell to the year of COVID-19’s rise and forced lock downs, we welcome 2021 wholeheartedly as a clean slate, and a new year of possibilities. The only way is up from here, right?

There is no doubt that 2020 was tough for many of us. For some, the Coronavirus brought personal tragedies and anxieties, with family or friends contracting the disease. For the rest, lockdowns, work-from-home and travel restrictions changed the way we planned our daily lives, plans and habits. While these changes might have felt constricting, we must give ourselves credit for how adaptive we have been, making the changes we needed to, for our lives to fit into some sense of normalcy. As Tim Gunn would say, we ‘made it work’!

Whether we realize it or not, the arts played a huge role in helping us adapt to the ‘new normal’. We replaced our nights out on town with binge-worthy Netflix shows. We took the opportunity to pick up that dusty book we’ve always been meaning to read off the shelf and let ourselves escape into a new literary world. Social outings and live concerts were replaced by ticketed digital screenings within the frames of our laptops. Art kept us sane – it always has – but its impact in our lives has been much more significant over the past year. This isn’t surprising, because the purpose of the arts has always been to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. At a time of chaos through the pandemic, we needed art to center ourselves, give us stories of hope, and connect us to characters that represented who we are.

In the process however, the divide between the success of commercial arts platforms, and the struggle of niche performing art forms became all the more evident during the pandemic. We increased our time-spend and contributed to the success of commercial channels such as Netflix and Spotify, while our efforts in watching the occasional play, or cultural arts performance dwindled away.

All hope is not lost – performing arts companies have tried their best to adapt by reaching digital audiences through the pandemic. Tamara Rojo, artistic director of the English National Ballet wrote in her article for The Economist that the company’s Wednesday Watch Parties initiative, showing archived performance screenings, garnered 1 million viewers globally, more engagement than they would experience in any one performance season. Nonetheless, in comparison to the 16 million new sign-ups for Netflix, niche art forms have ways to go to really see success in this new age. This lack of engagement negatively impacts these performing art forms. Theater shutdowns, stalled show releases and live performances made the global performing arts industry see a 28% unemployment rate, almost twice that of many traditional industries, according to a recent RAND study.

This of course, is not all our fault. Niche art forms are considered niche not only because we as consumers deem them so, but also because of the air of exclusivity and limited access that performing arts companies fuel. Taking a leaf off conventional content and media platforms, performing arts companies need to make their content more accessible, to reach a wider range of audiences, and adapt to creating and engaging people through digital and social channels. The perception of niche art forms being too elitist needs to change, and the arts companies themselves need to play a direct role in building marketing awareness and relatability across audiences.

For all these efforts to be effective, we still have a role to play in our perception of the arts. The irony of our own consumption of art is that, we believe we’re after the story, the artist, the content - but in actual fact, we are after the form. A vast majority of us will appreciate Olivia Colman and her stellar performance on Neftlix’s ‘The Crown’, yet, only a fraction of us will watch screenings of her performances at the National Theatre with equally bated breadth. Both these forms have stories and characters that are just as endearing, inspirational and compelling, but we gravitate towards what is familiar, and most popular.

It is evident that a refresh is needed both from us as consumers, and from arts companies and their modes of engagement. For all its struggles, the pandemic might be just what we need to shuffle things up and see this convergence happen. Our time at home gives us the chance to experiment with new modes of entertainment, introspection, inspiration and thought, with little risk and effort.

So as you work through your 2021 resolutions, I invite you to take the chance to rediscover the performing arts, taking advantage of the convenience of digital platforms. You never know what you could discover about yourself, and your interests. Here are a few options to get you started:

National Theatre. Watch your favorite actors come alive on stage with breathtaking archived performances of the National Theatre.

Marquee.tv. This platform has been streaming some of the most amazing dance, theater shows at the comfort of your own homes. A must have to gather stellar performances under one platform.

Avonya.co. Want to give dancing a go yourself? Avonya has been bringing some of the most established dancers from Ballet to Bharatanatyam, to give you a taste of the dance world, at the comfort of your home.