Battery Dance Company conducted five Dancing to Connect workshops in and around the Northern French city of Maubeuge in Feb/March, 2013. The program, Battery Dance Company’s debut in France, was a close collaboration with the U.S. Embassy Paris and took one year to plan. The locale was specifically chosen to target immigrant and disenfranchised communities; and a local host institution, Secteur 7, was identified as the ideal partner.

Secteur 7 has a good track record in engaging local youth, utilizing hip hop and other urban art forms as magnets for a broad mix of participants, celebrating their talent and creating esprit de corps. There is high unemployment in the region and career prospects for young people are grim. There is tension between the different ethnic groups – between people of different color, religion and social mores. The Embassy hoped to utilize Battery Dance Company’s prowess in the dance education and conflict resolution areas to make a significant contribution to the community. From the response of the participants themselves, the Secteur 7 leadership and the local and municipal government officials, it would appear that the project exceeded all expectations.

Originally a national theater, Le Manège, had been chosen for the final performance. However, another alternative had to be sought two months before the program, purportedly because of scheduling issues. However, while in Maubeuge, we heard mutterings about the schism between the world of high art (which is funded nationally and via EU) and local art. We wondered whether Manège had looked down upon the Dancing to Connect project because of its populist aspect. The Embassy staff scrambled and was able to locate a beautiful new theater in Louvroil, adjacent to Maubeuge, which welcomed our program. The poison pill came when it was discovered that this theater, Espace Culturel Casadesus, had no lighting equipment of its own. An outside contractor was engaged and after haggling with prices and cutting anything that wasn’t absolutely essential, the Embassy was able to share the unexpected costs with the Préfecture du Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

The stage at Casadesus was beautiful and the lobby was bright and inviting; but the theater architect hadn’t counted on a large number of performers, and had created only 3 dressing rooms that could each accommodate 2 or 3 people maximum and therefore worked for the Battery Dance Company members exclusively. Since the DtC workshops involved over 60 participants, a solution had to be found for them. Originally, it was thought that a heated tent could be erected outside the backstage of the theater; but this would have proved costly and was considered dangerous given the inclement weather (it was snowing and windy). Another solution was found by curtaining off the two sides of the lobby and draping inside the theater to create areas where the participants could wait for their entrances, providing a hidden entrance into the backstage area from each side of the lobby. Similarly, the issue of the projector and cyclorama were challenges that were overcome through experimentation and teamwork on the part of BDC’s tech director, the theater’s tech director (who moved the projector, allowing for a wider image) and the local contractors who provided a good white cyc on which to project the video effects that form a critical part of the BDC portion of the program. It took days to work out this solution but all was well in the end.

On the night of the show, it was thrilling to see the house completely full with visitors from as far away as Paris and Brussels and from each of the surrounding towns. There was a mix of children, seniors and everything in between. The U.S. Embassy’s Minister Counselor for Public Affairs Philip Breeden welcomed the audience as did a representative of the French Government and Jonathan Hollander, whose address in French was vetted by Sophie Nadeau, the Embassy’s point person for the entire project. A Secteur 7 representative served as emcee.

The entire performance was documented by the Embassy and posted on Youtube. Click here to view full performance. A lengthy radio interview with Jonathan Hollander and Secteur 7’s Clementine Coulon was aired the week after the program, amplifying its impact. The Voix du Nord newspaper gave ample coverage to the event and France Television broadcast a 2 minute clip in the lead up to the performance. The Mayor’s Office of Maubeuge hosted a luncheon for Hollander, Breeden, Nadeau and Secteur 7 and made everyone feel very appreciated. Parisian artist Catherine van den Steen attended the workshops and performance and has posted a gallery of photos illustrating the social and physical milieu of Maubeuge and the workings of the Dancing to Connect process.