Washington, D.C.'s Dance Envoy Danna Tai Soon Burgess & Co. Go to the Middle East
American dancers abroad often display the essence of U.S. culture -- open to diversity, the popular and traditional, as well as the minority, avant-garde, and even arts that question the political regime. Not so in totalitarian countries.
Dana Tai Soon Burgess, along with his company members Katia Chupashko, Sarah Halzack and Kelly Moss Southall, recently flew to Egypt. With the support of the U.S. State Department, Cultural Programs Division, U.S. embassies and foreign local organizations, DTSB & Co. completed the first comprehensive training residency in American modern dance in Egypt and then traveled to Israel where Burgess taught both Israeli and Palestinian dancers.
Over three weeks, through lectures, demonstrations and performances, the Americans shared the history and scope of modern dance generally and the company's unique movement style specifically. A Korean-American, Burgess personally crosses cultures and uniquely synthesizes Eastern and Western aesthetics. In 2004-05 the company toured Peru, Ecuador and Latvia. Burgess's repertoire has been performed in Bulgaria, Colombia, Germany, Korea, Panama, Peru, Russia and Venezuela, Nora Amin, a well-known theater director and writer in Egypt, catalyzed the company's trip. She met Burgess during her Kennedy Center Arts Management Fellowship in the U.S. and invited him to Egypt. The American Cultural Attaché Helen Lovejoy and staff in Cairo and Consulate Pubic Affairs Officer Justin Sibirell in Alexandria arranged the company's program and coordinated with the Cultural Programs Division to provide air fare, per diem and a $200 daily honorarium. Cultural envoy activities help foreign countries strengthen their own cultural institutions while the envoys learn about foreign cultures and arts and find resources to enrich their own work.
In Alexandria, Burgess offered workshops to 15 men and 3 women with backgrounds in physical theater, street dancing, martial arts and traditional dance. The participants' dance experiences included very sporadic European improvisation/dance theatre workshops and brief exposure to Paul Taylor in the 1970's and later Ailey. "So in class we worked on concepts of alignment and moving from the center of the body for efficiency," said Burgess. He set a duet on two male dancers that premiered at the Library of Alexandria.
What struck Halzak most about the dancers in Alexandria was "how hungry they were for information and knowledge, and how hard they worked to attain it. When we go across the floor in American dance classes, often each group only goes once or twice and is content to be finished with an exercise after that. However, these students wanted to do each sequence again and again." They asked Burgess, "How do we start a company out of dance projects and keep momentum going?"
Halzak said a dance-theater performance she watched amazed her: "Rather than being set in a traditional theater, the work was performed in a run-down, vacant apartment building. An artistic rendering of a hot dog as well as a top hat patterned with an American flag was hanging on the wall, and video footage of George W. Bush announcing we had accomplished our mission in Iraq was projected on another wall later in the performance. What I found so interesting about this work was the fact that it was occurring thousands of miles from America and was performed by people with entirely different training in the arts, and yet it very closely resembled something I would see in Washington, D.C. Sometimes the world is a smaller place than we think! Also, it was fascinating to see how America and our foreign policy are perceived in other cultures."
I asked Burgess, "Do you think foreign cultures can use modern dance for social change, to infuse new ideas into society through this nonverbal form of communication?" His answer: "Absolutely, the Middle East has a very large youth population looking for new ideas and ways of expressing themselves in a changing global climate."
DTBS & Co. taught master classes at the Samia Allouba dance center in Cairo and had the opportunity to work with the Reda Company, a folkloric group, as well as acting students at the Creativity Center in the Opera House complex. Burgess lectured on how the West's fascination with ancient Egypt fed our early modern dancers' aesthetics. The Egyptian audiences didn't know about Ruth St. Denis's "Egypta," which made her a superstar in America, and Isadora Duncan's stage name that means "daughter of Isis."
The U.S. Cultural Affairs Officer in Jerusalem, Stacy Barrios, a former Burgess student, set up the DTSB & Co. program in Israel. Barrios continues to dance and is dedicated to the power of this art and its ability to create dialogue. Burgess taught a three-hour class to 25 adult dancers at the Arab Jewish Center in Yaffo. At the Jerusalem YWCA for teen dancers, he said, "We worked on technique as well as lifting one another. Until you are taught how to lift another dancer it is quite mysterious."
In Tel Aviv, Burgess taught two classes for the Avizoor Dance Company. At the Arab Jewish Community Center a group of teens he worked with asked about training and how to be a professional dancer. "It was so interesting to have both Jewish and Arab students in class and to see how the language of dance can bring young people together in a shared language."
DTSB & Co. taught 15 and 16 year-old dancers from of the Al Kasabeh Theater in Ramallah. They specialize in traditional Arab dance.
Returning home, Halzak reflected on what she got out of the trip. "To this point in my life, my primary involvement in dance has been as a performer. However, assistant-teaching the workshops gave me a sense of how rewarding it is to help others learn. Dana did such an excellent job of tailoring each of our different workshops to the needs and skills of each group of participants, it was very inspiring. My experiences in Egypt made me realize that someday I might like to broaden my involvement in the arts to include teaching."
She continued, "Also, growing up you often hear some version of the mantra 'dance is a universal language.' This trip proved that it is, in fact, undeniably true. In talking with audience members after our performances, I noticed that they derived the same meaning from our dances as many audiences in America had. Their emotional responses to and their questions about the work also seemed similar to that of American audiences. It taught me that my involvement in the arts will always be my ticket to connect with people who are different from me."
Chupashko said, "What I'll always remember are the people. Each one of the participants had a passion to learn and to get as much from the experience as they could within one week's time. They just jumped in without reservation. At the end of the workshop many of the participants faced the challenge of finding a place to continue their studies and wanted Dana to stay longer. He has touched so many people along the trip, and I feel very lucky to have witnessed a true cultural exchange."
Such cross-cultural experiences promote mutual understanding and inspire creativity. Moreover, directly appealing to the mind and senses, dance in America may "sell" America more effectively than flexing its muscle as a superpower.
To follow the DTSB & Co. tour to India in December/January and ask questions, go to www.dtsbco.com. For information on teaching and performing abroad, see http://exchanges.state.gov