Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Maggie Hope

Apart Together – Video

Canada

“During the first few days of self isolation due to COVID-19, filmmaker Maggie Hope sifted through footage from a recent trip to New York. Hope reached out to childhood friend and professional musician, Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, to score the film, and the two created the audiovisual project titled Apart Together. This film is the first piece of an ongoing transcontinental collaboration between Montreal, Canada and London, UK during self isolation.”

Formed by filmmaker/writer Maggie Hope, and violinist/composer Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Apart Together started as a remote, collaborative project where the Vancouver-born artists could process their experiences of self isolation through art creation. Having gone through all of primary and high school together, but now living in Montreal and London respectively, the artists found a space of reunion and creativity through rapidly shifting circumstances. As social distancing regulations began to take effect, they shared video footage and audio recordings of their experiences as a way of connecting with each other. The recordings were then edited together and posted on Instagram for friends and family to view. This isolation project is an ongoing conversation between two friends separated by time and space.  

Aliayta is the first violinist of the Echéa Quartet (Chamber Music Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music), and performs regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra. Aliayta was a Fellow at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, a prize winner in the Vancouver Women’s Music Society’s competition, and received First Prize in UVic’s Bach Competition and Concerto Competition. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music (postgraduate) and University of Victoria (undergraduate).  

Currently living in Montreal, Canada, Maggie Hope is a writer, filmmaker and student at Concordia University. Hope’s work explores themes of the self, sexuality, queerness, vulnerability and community. Her films have been featured in local film festivals such as FliQs, and various art and film exhibitions in Montreal.

For more information about the artist, check out: https://instagram.com/apart__together