Washington, D.C. – Dance Blossoms
Washington, D.C., home to the renowned annual cherry blossom festival, is also home to a blossoming dance culture. Washington plays host to about 185 embassies from as many countries and each brings its own vibrant culture to the city. These cultures have made Washington a dance-diverse place to be.
Helanius J. Wilkins, founder and artistic director of Edgeworks, an all-male African-American company says, “Washington is a melting pot. There are cultures that are crossing pathways. It really makes for a space that’s open to diversity and people being willing to explore and see things they would not traditionally see.”
Dana Tai Soon Burgess, founder and artistic director of Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co., an Asian-American company agrees. He says, “There’s an evolution that happens to a community in their understanding of concepts through the arts.”He adds, “Dance essentially spans cultural and language differences because every culture in the world dances.”
And as Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray, artistic director of Silk Road Dance Company, says, “While they’re enjoying the dance, they end up being educated. They’re so busy being enchanted by the movement and the costumes that they maybe go home and Google a specific culture to see who they are. It raises an awareness…Some world dance groups are deeply buried within their own ethnic communities, but happily we have seen an increasing effort to reach out to these artists.”
Reaching out has helped create a thriving audience for all kinds of dance. Take, for example, Daniel Phoenix Singh, director of Dakshina. “We have a diverse audience. I’d say the general population in D.C. hasn’t grown up in D.C. so they’re able to tap into our immigrant experience…I also think the audiences themselves are driving this a little bit because they’re bored with modern dance or ballet. They want to vary the program a little bit.”
Coyaba Dance Theater at Dance Place
Photo by Philippe Limet Dewez
Other companies not only appeal to those looking for new styles of movement, but to those who might be excluded from traditional professional companies. Rachel Kay Brookmire, founder and creative director of Sahara Dance, says her company’s Middle Eastern belly dancing is “…really special amongst all the genres because it’s so accessible to different body types and ages.”
She says, “We host groups all the time and we welcome dancers to do drop-ins if they’re from out of town. We have different types of styles. Our main style is Egyptian with Lebanese and American influences but we also offer the folkloric dances of the Arab world. We have Middle Eastern tabla class that specializes in hand drums and other percussive instruments relating to Arab music.”
The next step for an artist would be to locate the action. Good entertainment can be found all over the city, from its annual festivals, to performance venues like the Kennedy Center, to the Lisner Auditorium located on the George Washington University campus, to embassy-hosted events and dance studios. All seek to increase awareness of their programs. As Lisner Auditorium’s director, Rosanna Ruscetti, says, “Not only is it a very internationally populated community, but being a part of the university, the vast majority have an international awareness and they’re very open to what’s going on culturally. We’re trying to expand those audiences.”
So, too, are studios like Joy of Motion Dance Center, Dance Place and DC Collective. Each offers multiple dance styles and classes to fit any schedule, skill level and age group. Investing in a few dance classes is a simple way to experience a new, perhaps unique, dance vocabulary and pick up valuable tools for later use.
Joy of Motion Dance Center has four locations and offers over 40 styles of dance, including Middle Eastern, flamenco, hula and folk dancing. They have about 4,000 students a week and as executive director Douglas Yeuell says, “We do also invite guest artists from other regions of the country to come and perform and teach. That’s a good way to enrich and create cultural understanding. If you don’t have it there to choose from, you can import it.”
Dance Place is another studio complex with a variety of classes. Its founding director, Carla Perlo, says, “We’re a studio theater. We’re a presenter and a presenter with our own theatre.” They’ve had belly dancing, a Latin festival that included flamenco and Mexican folklorico and even Chinese hip hop. “Our school is like a studio in New York where you can take a single class and you can also sign up for a semester.”
DC Dance Collective’s classes range from Irish Step dance to Afro-Cuban and Bollywood to flamenco. They have over 100 classes a week and about 30 styles from which to choose. For a complete review of DC Dance Collective, see Dancer magazine’s December, 2007 article online at www. Danceruniverse.com.
So, we’ve established that Washington, D.C. has a huge world dance presence, due in great part to its embassies, but where do you go for tickets? A great place to start might be Ticket Place, sponsored by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington. They offer half-price, day-of-show tickets at theatres like the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Theater J, Active Cultures Theatre, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Imagination Stage, Keegan Theatre and more. Pick up the tickets at their booth at 1436 U Street NW, Suite 103 in Washington or go to www.ticketplace.org.
Or maybe you’d like something free. The Smithsonian Museum hosts its 42nd annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival (July 2-6), held on the National Mall. Every day of the year the Kennedy Center has a free concert program (often featuring dance) on its Millennium Stage or go to www.internationalclubdc.com to get a list of events hosted by embassies. You might find a piano concert at the Austrian Embassy, ballroom dance lessons at the Embassy of France, fencing lessons or Indian cooking classes in Georgetown.
Of course, the local newspaper is always a good source for locating things to do and see. Jennifer Hinrichs, with the Maru Montero Dance Company, a Latin American company, says, “Every weekend our papers are chock full of cultural activities that are going on that are free. There’s such a huge range of opportunities for children, singles, families, whatever it is that interests you.”
Though it’s wonderful to have a major city with such a diversity of dance opportunities, what can the average dance instructor do to introduce world dance concepts in their hometown studios? Gray says, “I think I might start with the children. If you’ve walked into any school lately, you’ll see the faces of the children aren’t the same faces we might have seen a generation ago. Also, the children are so open and interested in the culture of other children.”
With pre-professional dancers, Brookmire suggests a good first step would be to “…commission a piece.” Or as Yeuell says, “With the internet it becomes a little easier to find talent to bring to your region…Go to festivals and network. See who’s doing what.”
Perlo says, “I would look for people in my area that teach those types of genres, put an ad on my website, contact my recreational departments and check with my local arts agency and my state arts agency.”
Then be sure the result is good. As Burgess points out, “There’s an evolution that happens to a community in their understanding of concepts through the arts. It takes time and it also takes making sure the quality of the work is extremely high. If the quality isn’t good, then they don’t want to go back.”
But if the quality is good, then you’ve established another link to world understanding. As Gray says, “My own life experience has taught me that it is possible to master dance forms from cultures that are not linked to your own national or genetic identity. People,” she says, “look vastly different … until we dance.”
Sidebar:
“Understanding culture is a great way to understand people.” Douglas Yeuell, executive director of Joy of Motion Dance Center
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