Arts Activities Support

500 audience members attended performances of Sights and Sound Bites, participating in dance and discussion about social justices. 27 dancers engaged in dance, writing, music and video to explore themes of social justice. Young Dance Guest Artist in Residence, Brian Evans, worked with 75 dancers in classes, company rehearsals and outreach workshops. Through Sights and Sound Bites, the Young Dance company explored dance through a lens of social justice. Choreographic residencies with Ananya Chatterjea, Brian Evans and Elizabeth Johnson, a partnership with Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts, workshops with H. Adam Harris and service projects designed and implemented by Young Dance company members all shone light on issues of accessibility, equity, and justice facing the dancers in their lives and communities. A Young Dance parent commented that their daughter, age 10, was very anxious, in the fall, and was uncomfortable discussing the election and issues in the local and national dialogue. As the year progressed she grew more comfortable discussing concerns and asserting her own values through actions. They attributed her evolution to the opportunities she had at Young Dance to discuss and move with others as they explored fear and hope, ideas and actions. Though this lens was not entirely new to Young Dance, staff and dancers alike deepened our understanding of equity and of social justice structures and practice. Dancers voiced their passions through choreography, whether it was their own or in the work of professional artists. Dancers acknowledged the difference they can make simply by coming together as a group in support of others, and took the initiative to organize for service projects and public demonstrations. However, both staff and dancers ended the season with a desire to go deeper, to promote social justice through our art making, to provide dance opportunities for others, both within Young Dance (class participants) and in the larger community. Working with multiple guest artists provided a myriad of approaches to social justice through dance. Dr. Chatterjea coached the dancers in declaring their fears, hopes, convictions and putting the commitment of their emotions into the dance. Mr. Evans facilitated community art making processes in which each dancers contributed ideas and the collective group found ways to voice them. Ms. Johnson enriched the Young Dance/Semilla collaboration with creative explorations of fear and bravery, isolation and community. The work with guest artists informed the artistic process of Young Dance staff, Pick and Jones, both of whom pushed into new territories in work they created for the Young Dance company. A framework of social justice permeated rehearsals and classes where we reflected upon who held power as a facilitator and ways that creative processes and learning environments supported inclusion and/or exclusion. Though artists, professional and youth, were passionate about the work created this year, we were challenged with having enough rehearsal time to achieve a consistent high quality with all the dances. As we look towards future seasons, we are mindful of trying to take on an appropriate amount of work to create a high quality experience that engages artists and audiences alike. Our commitment to a process at an intersection with social justice led to a deep investigation of who we each are as individuals and as a community. From a demographic explanation, the community would likely be very close to how it was defined in our proposal. However, the diversity of the Young Dance community revealed itself in ways that we didn't know going into this process. At rehearsals and in classes we engaged in dance activities around identity, inclusion, group awareness and support. This led to an environment where dancers felt safe revealing more invisible aspects of their identity, such as gender fluidity, sexuality, disabilities that are not obvious, and ways their family histories impact their sense of identity. One of the most significant successes in the area of community of this project was creating an environment in which people could engage their discomfort and grow as individuals and as a community. Partnering with Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts allowed us to engage with their community, a Phillips neighborhood based community. Though the actual rehearsal process only lasted two weeks, and took place in May, we began meeting with Semilla “youth leaders” in the fall, to create the vision of the project. We had hoped that an equal number of participants from Young Dance and Semilla would take part, but we had 5 Semilla participants and 10 Young Dance participants. Upon reflection, the director of Semilla suggested that it is difficult to recruit consistent participants during school, and a future project may work better for them in the summer. We do have plans to come together and perform the final project one more time in July at Open Streets. The 5 Semilla participants were Latina and African-American. The project with Semilla provided participants with important challenges of community building in the arts. Over the course of the process, though the participants from each community shared generously and openly with each other when creating together, they tended to stick to their own social groups on breaks. The performance itself was planned with times for the audience to meet each each other, walking form sight to sight they were given tasks to talk to someone they didn't’ already know and begin to build connections. The process of planning these interactions for the performance showed the youth participants that they needed also to do that work. All felt like the two-week rehearsal process was a beginning, a first step, significant only if we continue to build understanding and connections. We are continuing conversations with Semilla about how to build upon this partnership as well as developing partnerships with other community organizations with these lessons in mind.