Youth in Trust Arts Initiative

Two BDC teaching artists worked with two large groups of students from the Youth in Trust Arts Initiative housed in the State Theatre of South Africa in Pretoria. The students, ranging in age from 18 – 22, were extremely talented, motivated and full of creativity. It was a joy to observe these groups at work, a pleasure we were able to share with the Assistant Secretary, DAS, and Director of Policy and Evaluation, whose visit to South Africa overlapped with our program.

State Theatre of South Africa

Jonathan Hollander, BDC Artistic Director, formed a collegial relationship with the newly appointed CEO of the State Theatre, Quinton Simpson. They met several times to compare notes and share information, resources and networks. Simpson will be taking part in a Voluntary Visitor Program in New York City in January and has called upon Hollander to help organize meetings with various cultural organization leaders to supplement appointments that are being made through the Department of State’s ECA Bureau in Washington.

Bafana Soloman Matea

The presence of the South Africa-born Bafana Matea, an 8-year member of Battery Dance Company, lent the Company’s South Africa program a special and deep resonance and solidarity with the local youth and dance communities as well as a critical hook for the media. Matea grew up in the township of Mamelodi and his mother Anna is an employee of the State Theatre where his training and exposure to the dance profession started. Matea won an Alvin Ailey Scholarship to study in the U.S. and went on to perform with Ballet Hispanico and Elisa Monte Dance Companies before joining BDC. The U.S. Mission to South Africa took full advantage of the unique opportunity of using Bafana as a magnet for publicity, scoring major attention in the mainstream press and television. Bafana’s wife, Amanda, also an accomplished dancer and teacher (who has been a member of the Alvin Ailey II Company) voluntarily accompanied the Company on its South Africa tour and was an important addition to the group, co-teaching with Bafana and even filling in for him when he was called away for media interviews.

Breytenbach Theatre, Tshwane Technical University

At the completion of the week in the Gauteng during which 80 Dancing to Connect participants logged approximately 20 hours of training, everyone gathered at the Breytie Theatre for a grand performance. The first 35 minutes of the performance featured the four student DtC groups presenting their newly created works. This was followed by a performance by the Battery Dance Company. The Ambassador and and Consul General were among the honored guests. In addition to thanking the Minister Counselor and Country Cultural Affairs Officer for their stewardship of the DtC programs, Jonathan Hollander made a special tribute to the Cultural Affairs Specialist, the linchpin of the program.

The Cape Town leg of Battery Dance Company’s tour was most notable for the phenomenal relationship that was established with iKapa Dance Theatre. The two companies share a similar mission, combining the pursuit of artistic excellence and creativity with the sharing of dance education with communities in need. After a mere five years, iKapa has built a superb track record of achievement and recognition, creating a powerful model of community engagement throughout the Cape Flats area while simultaneously operating a professional company, an apprentice company, and serving as a reliable partner with international Consulates and arts organizations in Cape Town. We commend the US Consulate in having the foresight to bring us together with iKapa, and anticipate that the relationship will be an enduring one. Perhaps because it was the last stop on the BDC tour, and word-of-mouth had been building after the successes in Durban and the Gauteng, the media caught up with BDC in a big way in Cape Town with prominent news articles, feature appearances on television and radio interviews.

Our program began with an orientation meeting in a round-table format. All members of both companies introduced themselves and paired up into teams with two or three members of iKapa (dancers, teachers and apprentices) matched with each of the five BDC teaching artists. These teams would fan out over the next four days to the former townships of the Cape Flats district while one team stayed behind in the Woodstock neighborhood of Cape Town where iKapa had its primary studios.

The Company members were struck by the extreme socio-economic gap between the Waterfront area, where their hotel was located, and the Cape Flats communities where the Dancing to Connect workshops took place. Remnants of the Apartheid system were overt. iKapa should be commended for having found a way to bridge the gap, bringing people together across these seemingly insurmountable divisions. One of the youngest groups we’ve ever worked with was at an elementary school in Belhar. Initially resistant to concentrating and retaining their creations from moment to moment, this group defied the imagination when it came time to perform their work.

While in Kenya on an ARS Bureau-organized Battery Dance Company tour in 2010, Jonathan Hollander had been introduced to Nancy Onyango, a talented arts administrator, by the US Embassy. Nancy turned up in Cape Town this year, as Communications and Marketing Manager for the Arterial Network. Through her, meetings were arranged with other members of the Arterial Network national office in Cape Town.

Battery Dance Company was invited to perform in the central Bulgarian city of Plovdiv during the European Cultural Month Festival, associated with the European Capitals of Culture program initiated by the Greek actress and cultural activist Melina Mercouri. The tour that emerged from this invitation eventually included other festivals in Maribor and Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the Varna Festival in Bulgaria. Key to the invitations and the workings out of arrangements in Slovenia was Tadej Brdnik, a Slovene dancer who was a member of Battery Dance Company (and Martha Graham Dance Company), and who was already well known in his native country. The Bulgarian leg of the tour was built through the guidance and networking of Milena Savova, a linguistics professor based in New York, originally from Bulgaria.

This was the first international tour for Battery Dance on which Jonathan Hollander, Artistic Director, was not present. However, with Production Designer, Barry Steele, Company Manager, Claire Pannell, and Tadej himself on the tour, the Company was in good hands.
Challenges abounded with travel arrangements – getting between Slovenia and Bulgaria was an unexpected complication with airlines routes. A train ride to Vienna from Ljubljana followed by a flight to Sofia proved to be the only way; however, arrival in Vienna in the early morning hours and a long wait before the afternoon flight to Sofia could have been exhausting for the Company, having taken the night train immediately after performing in Ljubljana. Fortunately, a good friend of the Jonathan’s, the Viennese journalist Ruth Pauli, opened her apartment to the Company, providing a hearty brunch and towels for everyone with an invitation to utilize the shower (and to nap on any of the beds, sofas or other convenient surface.) Once in Plovdiv (after another train ride from Sofia) The company stayed in a casino hotel where their meals were also provided. The Festival had originally planned to have BDC perform at the ancient Roman Amphitheater. However, Barry said “No” when he realized that the stage was stone instead of the platform wooden stage that was expected. Instead, the performance was moved to an old European-style opera house with a raked stage in extremely bad condition.

Since there were only 16 lights in the theater, of which 14 or so worked (and no spare parts in the theater with which to fix them), Barry concentrated his efforts on making the stage danceable so that the show could go on…. and it did!

Before the opening night, there was an episode regarding “stolen” properties in the theater – which turned out to be a Marx Brothers routine. One of the dancers could not find her clothes that had been stored in a locker, and all Hell broke loose with accusations flying in every direction….. until it was discovered that she was on the wrong floor of the theater where there was an identical set of lockers ! Lots of apologies had to be made to the local crew who were offended, of course, by the false aspersions that had been cast.

Maria Todorova, the translator and guide assigned to the Company by the Festival, was a life-saver, helping the company navigate its way through the twists and turns and assuaging the feelings of the crew.

Narrative: Liuzhou, China 2010

After completing the Beijing leg of the tour, Carmen traveled to Liuzhou, China in the south near Hong Kong. The program there was sponsored by the Guangdong State Department and the Henry Luce Foundation with administrative support by Guangdong Modern Dance Company and the Liuzhou Nationalities High School. Liuzhou is an amazing and beautiful city located on the Liu Jiang River. The high school was interesting because of its ethnic diversity. It is a mixed income mid-level high school with some students that commute and some that live on the school grounds. The schedule for Chinese students in a typical high school is grueling with classes beginning at 8 am and extending well into the evening. It is not abnormal for students to be leaving classes as late as 9 pm.

Despite their very full schedule, the participants and teachers were energetic and fully committed to the workshop. The program and accommodations were smooth and wonderful. The students had different interests and concerns then the children from Beijing. They were older and working to perform well in school with the hopes of attending a competitive university program. Many of them had previous exposure to dance through their school and social activities as well as the traditions of Southern Chinese music and dance. Their pride in the landscape and local culture was inescapable and became the theme for the piece. Taking inspiration from the beauty of the surrounding mountains, river and parks, the students developed phrases about Nature, the elements and Chinese symbols found in local arts and crafts. Karmen Li from Guangdong Modern Dance was an assistant administratively and within the classroom as an interpreter. Her enthusiasm and focus was invaluable. She also organized a local modern dancer and beginning teacher Fung-Pu Xing to accompany her as an assistant in the studio and as a performer for the final project. It was lovely to have him as part of the program and he expressed interest in learning to teach the program in the future.

The State Department staff did a wonderful job of organization and support. They arrived the evening before the final performance that took place in the school badminton arena. Additionally, they led a presentation about soft diplomacy and educational outreach for the Liuzhou teachers. The workshop was a great success and had full attendance. All were thrilled by the performance of the students that included the school’s vocal group that sung two traditional southern Chinese songs in their local dialect. They wore the traditional costumes of Liuzhou and created a stunning image and glorious sound. VIP attendees included the mayor of Liuzhou, the school’s principle and several other city officials as well as Ms. White and Ms. Wong. The entire school of students, parents and teachers made up the audience with a group of about six hundred people. Although it all transpired without a formal theater or special lighting, it was a wonderful event and resulted in loud applause and school support. The participants received certificates of completion in front of their school and gave Carmen, Karmen and Fung Pu a special farewell gift of photos and individualized messages in English. Goodbyes were difficult with many tears, hugs and hopes for another Dancing to Connect project in the future. A final dinner with the mayor to celebrate the program’s success was a lovely close to a wonderful stay in beautiful Liuzhou. Similar to the Beijing survey results, Liuzhou students also showed a marked improvement in body image, a unanimous desire to work with American’s in the future and majority desire to participate in Dancing to Connect again.

On June 23rd, Battery Dance Company returned to Breisach, the city where it had staged the acclaimed “Dances for the Blue House” in 2006, to participate in the 10th Anniversary commemorating the opening of the Blue House as a living memorial to the Jews of Breisach. Seven members of the Company participated – 5 performers, artistic director and technical director.

Three events took place in close succession before an audience estimated at 200. First, a series of site-specific performances were presented within 5 rooms of the Blue House:

• a community room on the ground floor where a BDC dancer performed along with musician Thomas Wenk (resident of Breisach, professor of music at the Freiburg Conservatory)

• A prayer room in which dossiers of Jewish families are stored in a wooden ‘ark’

• A study room where the recently deceased Cantor, Ralph Eisenmann, had prepared his sermons

• The former bedroom of Eisenmann and his wife, where a rock came through the window, a precursor to the events that were to follow in the Nazi movement

• A small kitchen where the audience watched the dancer and reader from the open doorway.

The audience was asked to form a ‘silent procession’ and filed through the rooms, following a pathway that was marked on the floor with colored tape. There were readers in each room who recited passages from texts included as an addendum to this report. After the audience had filed out of the house and seated itself on chairs and benches that had been placed on the closed-off street and in the shade of a large tree, the dancers dashed out of the house. They had changed from their cream-colored silk costumes into brightly colored “rain suits” and ran around the side yard of the Blue House, climbed a scaffolding, and ceremoniously unwrapped the plastic sheeting covering a newly installed sculpture created by German artist Heike Endemann. While the audience took respite in the garden of the Blue House, with cakes and coffee, the Battery Dance Company team was transported to the Breisgau Halle where the Company’s tech director had been working all day with local crew on preparing the stage, lighting and sound for a full-fledged performance. At 7 pm, the performance took place, featuring a new work, “Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost” by Polish choreographer Jacek Luminski and two segments from “AUTOBIOGRAPHICA”. Introductory remarks were given by the Public Affairs Officer of the Consulate General Frankfurt and by Battery Dance Company Artistic Director. The audience included a huge span of generations with local children of under 10 years old all the way up to people in the 80’s. Jewish Holocaust survivors and families of survivors from Breisach came from as far away as the U.S., Switzerland, U.K., Israel and France. For them, the events had a special resonance. However, the local audience from Breisach and Freiburg, including 4 young adults who had participated in the original Dances for the Blue House and Dancing to Connect programs, as well as teachers from Freiburg schools who had coordinated the earlier programs, also attended and accorded powerful appreciation for all of the events.

See Narrative under Maubeuge, France.

Starting from the end and going backwards may be the best way to tell the story of our ten-day program in Greece. The score card includes 5 intensive Dancing to Connect workshops with a nearly full complement of 100 youth; a 3-hour workshop with teachers and 15 students at the National School for the Deaf; a 3-hour teacher training workshop with choreographers, dance and gym teachers; an arts management workshop for 30 administrators from cultural organizations, performing arts ensembles and journalists; and in-depth training of 5 Greek teaching artists and a performance attended by 700 people which was live streamed and is archived.

It seemed in the planning phase (and in retrospect) like an impossibly extensive schedule but while it was happening, we were carried along seamlessly and with full support at every moment. Did this have something to do with the mild weather after the snows of Northern France? Or our proximity to the wonders of ancient Greece, with the Acropolis within walking distance from our hotel? Or the magnificent facilities of the Onassis Cultural Centre? Yes, to all of the above. But even more so, I credit the talent, generosity, savvy and open-mindedness of our Greek partners at the US Embassy and the Onassis Cultural Centre.

How did we get to this point of utter program and personal fulfillment? It was anything but a straight path. We originally targeted Greece because we felt the economic crisis must leave people with a thirst for enrichment through the arts and education. We found to our delight that the Public Affairs Staff at the U.S. Embassy gravitated to our concept when we first approached them in May, 2012. The question of funding was an impediment from the beginning; but the open dialogue between us allowed us to stay focused and collaborative. We had entered into conversation with an international foundation that we thought would be a likely prospect to co-fund the project with the Embassy. It took us six months of back-and-forth to discover that we were barking up the wrong tree. Likewise, we were directed towards an important dance education institution in Athens as our local partner, only to find that everything we thought we understood about the cooperation was a mirage.

One of our affiliated artists was based in Greece and by chance, discussed the project and the need for a local partner with the education director of the Onassis Cultural Centre. It turned out that Battery Dance Company’s approach was a perfect fit for the OCC. From that point onwards, the Embassy, OCC and BDC became a dream team, with great and rare unanimity of purpose, philosophy and approach. This type of synergy happens very infrequently, and we treasure it.

The success of the program can best be seen in that there are several strands of follow-on activities that are in the midst of blossoming. One of the student DtC groups has made a dance video embedded with the theme of ending human trafficking. They were mentored by the Greek teaching artist who had partnered with us at the school. The five Greek teaching artists, none of whom had worked in the same company before, have coalesced as a group and are preparing work to be presented at Battery Dance Company’s Downtown Dance Festival in August (with facilitative and financial support from the OCC.)

Just as in any successful partnership, we feel as if we have received more than we could possibly have given ourselves. We hope we can come close to replicating this program as we travel elsewhere and build new international cultural engagement programs.

Arrival

The Company was greeted at the airport by U.S. Embassy Bucharest’s CAO Edwina Sagitto and FSN Isabella Alexandrescu who accompanied the team to the InterContinental Bucharest. After quickly dropping off the luggage, the Company visited Trouble Dance Studio, where Roma dancers performed a number of acrobatic street dance numbers. The following day, the Company and Embassy team visited and inspected all of the workshop venues and met with local partners.

The Workshops

Over the course of 5 days, 85 youth and young adults came together in the workshops for 6 hours each day, including 1 hour for lunch. BDC’s Mira Cook led a workshop with 20 young ballet students from the Place of Youth on-stage, while Robin Cantrell led a workshop with 20 dance experienced and non-experienced young adults from Romanian public high-schools at WASP, and Clement Mensah led a workshop with 18 young adults at the George Cosbuc Bi-lingual School. The choreography created from each group was emotionally powerful and complex and delved into their life experiences and difficulties. The youth from the George Cosbuc School included a rendition of ‘Every Time I Close My Eyes’ altered to talk about their dreams.

Roma Workshop

BDC’s Sean Scantelbury led a workshop with Roma youth from the villages, city, and Trouble Dance at the smaller studio at WASP. While ordinarily BDC requires that participants volunteer for the Dancing to Connect program, the history of exclusion felt by the Roma community has resulted in a culture in which Roma do not volunteer to be included. This coupled with the expectation by some that they would be learning hip-hop moves led to the disengagement of some of the youth on the first day. The small studio and poor discipline by some of the remaining youth, who disturbed the workshops and distracted others, threatened to derail the workshop and the ability of the students to create a piece that could be performed on stage. As a result, the workshop was moved to a larger studio at the Palace of Children and a few young ballet students from the Palace joined the Roma workshop group to make up for those who had dropped out, leaving the total number of participants at 14. Those ballet students quickly created close friendships with their fellow participants. After inspiring the students by showing them the stage area and telling them that all the seats had already been reserved, a 180 degree shift in attitude took place amongst most of the students. The lead troublemaker soon also joined in after her fellow students began ignoring her antics and instead urged her to take the workshop seriously. Amazingly, some of the strongest emotions after the final performance came from this group.

Special Needs Workshop

BDC’s Carmen Nicole led workshops with participants suffering from Down syndrome and other mental handicaps at the National Palace of Youth. While the workshops were planned with higher capacity students that had some prior experience with dancing, the 1st day of workshops included a group of participants with extremely low cognitive and movement capacities. After consulting with local partners on the possible strain of the workshops and stage performance on the physical and mental health of the least capable students, it was decided that the originally planned contingent of higher capacity students be brought in to supplement the more capable participants already attending. Nevertheless, the few participants who would not continue with the workshops were very thankful and happy with their one day experience. Total number of participants for Carmen’s workshop was 13.

In lieu of questionnaires, BDC conducted interviews with the special needs students before and after the performance. Throughout the duration of the workshop week, the parents of the youth would sit or stand to watch.

The Performance

With an overflow of people and emotions, Battery Dance Company and the five Dancing to Connect groups performed to an over-capacity crowd that filled the theatre with people sitting in the aisles. Prior to the performance, a slideshow of the week’s activities was displayed for attendees. At the conclusion of each group’s performance, the audience showed immense support. Most touching was the outpouring of cheers for the mentally challenged group and the Roma group, exemplifying the breaking down of barriers achieved, and the success achieved through the workshops despite the difficulties faced at the beginning. At the culmination of the performance, the audience provided a nearly 5 minute standing ovation. With emotions high back-stage, participants and local partners alike cried with one another over the joy of what had been accomplished. View performance here.

Supplemental Activities

Deputy Director Emad Salem gave a lecture on Arts Administration and Fundraising at the National Academy for Theatre and Film to over 20 students, while Technical Production Supervisor G. Benjamin Swope provided Lighting Design master class to 20 participants at the George Cosbuc School. Both Emad and G. Ben gave additional lectures at the American Corner to over 15 participants. Meanwhile, the dancers held a 2 hour master-class and discussion on the life of a dancer in NYC to over 30 participants at the National Academy.

On BDC’s final day prior to leaving Romania, the Company took in the sights and sounds of Transylvania, visiting the beautiful Bran Castle after a winter blizzard had coated the countryside. BDC also visited the town of Brasov and the Black Church, before having lunch with Embassy driver Dany.

Arrival: The Company was greeted at the airport by U.S. Embassy Budapest’s CAO Dmitri Tarakhovsky who accompanied the team to the beautiful InterContinental Budapest. The InterContinental provided reduced-rate accommodations for BDC’s stay in addition to access to the executive lounge. Tarakhovsky, worked diligently over the next day to secure from Tarom Airways the lost luggage of Deputy Director Emad Salem, which arrived at the hotel the following day.

Master-classes: The day after arrival and the morning of performance day, the BDC team, accompanied by the Embassy’s FSN Monika Vali, split-up and conducted master classes across different locations in Budapest. Over two days, nine master classes were held at the Hungarian Dance College taught by BDC Teaching Artists Clement Menshah, Mira Cook, and Robin Cantrell; at the Budapest Contemporary Dance College, taught by BDC Teaching Artist Carmen Nicole Smith, and at the Jurányia Inkubátorház taught by Sean Scantlebury. A total of 90 participants took part in the classes. In addition, Salem and Cantrell conducted an arts administration lecture with 30 dancers at the Budapest Contemporary Dance College, and Cantrell provided advice and answered questions on career development and the life of a dancer in New York City for 12 international dancers at the Hungarian Dance College. One participant, Kati Basca, travelled 80 miles to Budapest to take part in the workshops. Kati previously visited Battery Dance Company’s studios in Manhattan in summer, 2012. Kati said of the workshops: “I cannot be grateful enough [for the attention paid to me], [to provide] me access to the classes and the performance! The two days [were] full of energy, impressions, and I got a lot of good feelings! I am very thankful, and I hope, someday I can repay you. I never thought that [I could have such an honor]. I very much appreciate what I got! Thank you again and also very often. I wish you the best, with whole heart.”

Performance: After a full day of technical setup by BDC Production Director G. Benjamin Swope, the dancers rehearsed on-stage and performed for a capacity audience of nearly 300 that included old and new friends, including Kovács Gerzson Péter, one of Hungary’s foremost choreographers, Adrienne Nagys, formerly of the Hungarian Cultural Center in New York, and Andrew Somogyi, former cultural officer at the U.S. Embassy Budapest. The audience showed its appreciation with three curtain calls. Somogyi said of the performance: “Only positives to broadcast! Full house, fantastic theatre for the performance, innovative musical composition, great multi-directional audio sound equipment, amazing dancers and very lovely choreography. The pace and length of the evening was quite appropriate and the performance had a genuine American sense of presence, an energetic view toward the future, a hopefulness that you do not see here performed in our theatres.” The full house was a surprise, given the fact that Budapest was socked in after 3 days of snowfall.