BDC artists Carmen Nicole, Mira Cook and Sean Scantlebury have travelled all over the world but, we are sure, they never heard the name of the old Russian town, Vyksa.

This is why they were very excited not only to read about it in Wikipedia but become the feature artists at the Art-Ovrag festival of urban art when Battery Dance Company received an invitation from the festival’s main curator Konstantin Grouss.

The timing was very tight with the trip to Russia to start only one week after the guys returned from their month long tour of South America, but all the logistical issues have been resolved successfully and three BDC dancers safely arrived first in Moscow and a day later in Vyksa located 5-hour drive north from Russia’s capital. They found themselves in the circle of attention from both old and young Vyksans since for many of the locals this was the first ever encounter with American artists.

As in many other countries, Carmen, Mira and Sean held a week-long Dancing to Connect workshop with teenagers, watched their students perform on the big stage on the final day of the festival and also presented their own piece specially choreographed for this event that was very well received by the local audiences.

In his later e-mail, the festivals' curator, Mr. Grouss not only thanked the dancers for coming but also expressed his hope that next year Battery Dance would be able to repeat this success since not only the audience loved the performance but the students participating in the Dancing to Connect initiative wanted to continue collaboration.