Dancing Alone Together
In March 2020, Katherine created Dancing Alone Together in response to the dance studio closures instigated by COVID-19. With the mission of being a central resource for the rapidly growing digital dance world, the platform collected and shared information about online dance offerings and opportunities.
Almost overnight, Dancing Alone Together became a go-to hub for virtual dance classes receiving 100K unique website users in its first week of operation and amassing 36K Instagram followers at its peak. The platform began phasing out as dance organizations found their footing in the pandemic, shutting down entirely on January 1, 2021. Katherine single-handedly ran Dancing Alone Together throughout its lifetime.
Started on March 16, 2020, Dancing Alone Together's Instagram account (@dancing.alone.together) posted daily digests which highlighted virtual dance classes and film screenings.
Website
Dancingalonetogether.org underwent many iterations in a short period of time as the digital dance world developed explosively. It began as a simple Squarespace website with a Google Form for collecting class submissions. The final version was a Wordpress-based site that allowed anyone to submit information directly into the website's class calendar.
PRESS MENTIONS
Meet the Dancer Behind Dancing Alone Together, Instagram's Go-To Hub for Virtual Classes
By Haley Hilton, Dance Teacher Magazine, 9.2.2020
“On March 13, Katherine Disenhof and her NW Dance Project peers were shocked to learn that their company was shutting down for (an optimistic) two weeks, which soon became an indefinite furlough. Shortly after walking away from the studio, Disenhof noticed virtual dance classes beginning to pop up on her social-media feed. “I realized this pandemic is a shared, global experience,” Disenhof says. “I saw dance as a unifying force that would keep people together.””
How This Dancer Created the Go-To Hub for Virtual Classes in One Weekend
By Lauren Wingenroth, Dance Magazine, 4.2.2020
“When dancer Katherine Disenhof found out her company, NW Dance Project, would be shutting down indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic (on Friday the 13th, no less), she immediately went in search of ways to stay connected and in shape.”
Dancing Alone Together
By Irene Hsiao, Chicago Reader, 4.2.2020
“Dances are made in time and space, a minute or an hour in a dancer’s life never to be seen again. Dances do not last—they have to be made new each time and evaporate as they are appearing. Today, small freedoms—moving, gathering, and connecting—have been restricted to limit the movement of a virus that, whether we want to admit it or not, is showing us just how connected we are.”
After layoff, Portland dancer turns website into popular collaboration space
By Rebecca J. Ritzel, The Oregonian/OregonLive, 4.8.2020
“One of the most popular pandemic websites for dancers — from appreciative amateurs to laid-off Broadway stars — isn’t an advice page from the CDC or a source for DIY mask patterns, but an online repository of classes and streaming performances created by a Portland dancer.”