“Missed Connections,” Starring Some of Your Favorite Ballet Dancers

July 15, 2021

During the height of the pandemic, New York City-based director and photographer Megan L.C. McNally teamed up with New York City Ballet corps member Gilbert Bolden III to create a COVID-safe project. With Bolden serving as choreographer and a dancer, the film brought together dancers from NYCB (Laine Habony, Mira Nadon, Spartak Hoxha and Kennard Henson), American Ballet Theatre (Joseph Markey and Remy Young) and Miami City Ballet (Ella Titus and Adrienne Carter) for three weeks of summer intensive-style preparation that saw the dancers living and training together to comply with CDC guidelines.

The result, “Missed Connections,” is a 16-minute short film that uses dance to highlight the importance of human connectivity (with a dreamy, palm tree-embellished West Palm Beach, Florida, as its stage). Through four movements, the dancers let us in on their separate struggles for freedom, love, friendship and identity, while reminding us all that we’re more connected than we think—even in times of isolation.