Jacob Jonas and The Company : Live Drive-In Dance Performance in “PARKED”
May 31, 2020
Last May 17, 2020, Jacob Jonas The Company performed live at the parking lot of the Santa Monica Airport, via a drive-in theater-style show entitled “Parked.” Through invitations received, about 39 vehicles arrived at the 7:50 to watch the exclusive drive-in dance performances choreographed by famed creative dance director Jacob Jonas.
Prior to the show’s official commencement, the invited audience were given a set of 12-page instructions, to which the first was for them to stay inside their respective automobiles and keep their face mask on. They were also told to keep their car windows rolled up, and to turn on their headlights, once they see a flashing light.
PARKED Trailer | Jacob Jonas The Company from Jacob Jonas on Vimeo.
When and How Jacob Jonas Conceptualized “Parked”
Jonas started brainstorming the drive-in dance event in April, after friends from the medical profession told him that it would take about 12 t0 18 months before gatherings in a public setting would be allowed. In figuring out how he and fellow dancers can perform in a safe way, Jonas took inspiration from methods used by drive-in movie theaters, by setting up cars in a circle measuring about 100-foot in circumference. The headlights of the vehicles will then be turned on to illuminate the “main stage.”
The creative director’s previous experiences as a street performer at the Santa Monica promenade and at the Venice Beach boardwalk, gave him the expertise in knowing how to entertain safely in a non-traditional concrete setting.
https://youtu.be/ITwRkmgrn4k
As an artistic director that has rendered work for several prestigious clients like The Getty Museum, Sony, Nike and James Perse, Jacob Jonas applied his creativity in directing a series of solo performances of individual dancers, presented as a drive-in style live dance event in an airport lot.