Public transit, air quality and…dancing? It’s an unusual combination, but one that Brigham Young University Assistant Professor of Dance Keely Song hopes will bring awareness to the dangers of air pollution and encourage more people to use public transportation.
Song, along with a team of dancers, musicians, choreographers and videographers, produced four three-minute dance videos that tell the story of air pollution’s effect on our bodies and help promote public transit. The videos will be screened at BYU this evening and can also be viewed below.
Song was inspired to create what she calls “commercial dance activism” after moving to Utah several years ago.
“I saw kids on the playground on red air days wearing masks - air masks, with cute little patterns. It really woke me up. I don’t want my kids to have to wear masks,” she said.
The videos were also a way for Song to challenge herself to use public transit as she commutes from Salt Lake to BYU.
“I’m standing accountable for the art the I’m making,” she said.
The videos feature original choreography performed by BYU dance students and local performers, and all but one of the films are accompanied by original music. Song estimates that hundreds of hours went into creating the videos, which were funded through a BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications grant.
Co-producer and freelance filmmaker Scott Cook said that he and Song deliberated over every aspect of the production – color, sound, image and movement – to help translate dance into a four-part story about air quality.
“Every element on our project was aligned with our purpose,” he said.
The team turned to BYU Environmental Science Professor Ben Abbott for information about air pollution’s wide-reaching effects on the human body.
“Most people, when they think of air quality, they just think about the lungs,” Abbott said. “Air pollution affects every system – our brains, hearts and even our reproductive system.”
Abbott hopes the videos will help a new audience understand the dangers of air pollution. Scientific papers are accurate and informative, he said, but they don’t attract much attention.
“That’s what’s so exciting to me about Keely’s work - it appeals to people’s sense of fun,” Abbott said. “It might connect to people in a positive way that avoid some of the doom and gloom.”
The videos portray a man battling with the physical effects of air pollution, the cleansing power of rain, riders saving cars from the junkyard by riding public transit and riders completing the last legs of their journeys after exiting public transit.
Song hopes the videos will encourage the public to utilize new options for improving air quality, citing the new transit pass program for BYU and UVU students and the recently opened UVX line. Seeing this message portrayed through movement may inspire others to change the way they move as they travel to school or work, she said.
“I’m really looking to help change movement behaviors,” Song said. “That’s what really intrigued me - in some ways, it’s all choreography.”
The team received special permission to perform and film on UTA property, using out-of-service vehicles and following strict safety guidelines. As noted in the videos, please obey all rider rules when riding UTA.