Dance & Community Building: Utopian Practice in the 21st Century:
1. An Overview: Dancing through the History of Utopias
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Lecture Series
7:30 pm CET
with Jacalyn Carley (Sarah Lawrence College; author, Community Dance Handbook, Henschel Verlag)
Community Dance projects have impacted people and their communities in projects from Peru to Ethiopia, Northern Ireland, Romania, Palestine, migrants in Vienna, refugee homes in Berlin, inner city schools in London, British prisons. The number of projects is growing, some have existed and evolved over decades.
What is Community Dance? Long a part of European culture, it’s hardly known in the US. How does a community, often with hundreds of participants, who might never have heard of modern dance put up a professional modern dance production? What was the rationale for government funding of Berlin school system’s Community Dance project with one million Euros annually?
The documentation of one Community Dance project, Rhythm is It, (with the Berlin Philharmonic) is a good introduction to the ‘Everyone Can Dance’ movement. Here Royston Maldoom's motto, ‘You can change your life in a dance class,’ shows outcomes that impact entire communities and extend well beyond the dance.
This Bard Berlin lecture series program is funded by the Mellon Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education. It will discuss the history and practices of Community Dance, show examples from various contexts and continents, and discuss the wide-ranging outcomes. Two important practitioners, Royston Maldoom and Prof. Ingo Reulecke will give examples of their work in the field, take questions, and do workshop demonstrations. Jacalyn Carley introduces and curates the series.
RSVP on Facebook
Other events in the series:
What Community Dance can Achieve: Life and Work of Royston Maldoom, Thursday, March 4, 2021.
Hands On: Community Dance Practice with Prof. Ingo Reulecke (Hochschul Zentrum für Tanz and Ernst-Busch-Hochschule), Wednesday, March, 10, 2021.
Email: [email protected]