Rachel Howard January 26, 2021Updated: January 26, 2021, 7:38 pm
RAWdance co-director Katerina Wong (center). Photo: Elena Zhukova
When RAWdance Co-Artistic Director Katerina Wong’s dance “The Healer” was first set to premiere almost one year ago, it was to be an immersive sensory experience. Choreographed to honor Wong’s aunt, a registered nurse who also practiced traditional Chinese medicine, “The Healer” was designed to have the audience walk into ODC Theater alongside the dancers, welcoming all with incense blown by paper fans, and inviting viewers to take deep qigong breaths in their shared space.
But a week before opening night, COVID-19 shut down San Francisco. Six months later, when RAWdance regrouped to see what the company might present online in 2021, “The Healer” which had been one of three world premieres scheduled on that scuttled 2020 program stood out as the dance to resurrect in this new moment.