A Colombia Dance Tour

In October 2010, I started the process of finding an organization to sponsor a tour for the dance company I danced with until moving to South America, Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater.  The Colombo-Americano Cultural Center took the bait and I spent almost a year coordinating for the Asheville and Medellin sides of what would be a hugely successful 2-week, multi-city tour of children's workshops and dance performances here in Colombia.  ACDT was here Sept. 8 - 24, and here's what they did:

Me, Esperanza Carvajal (front row, left), and members of the performance group of the Red de Danza, Medellin.  This Dance Network is a city-funded program that offers free dance classes in many of Medellin's neighborhoods-- including those of the lowest socio-economic strata.  The best of the best are invited to dance with the performance group.  ACDT worked for 5 days with 40 of these kids, 8-17 yrs old, integrating them into their show Fables, based on the Arnold Lobel children's book.  Esperanza is their fearless, energetic, and very kind director.

Rehearsal with ACDT and the Red de Danza always included some kind of movement/choreography game.

The child-dancers of the Red de Danza surprised us everyday with their creativity, openness,  and incredible work-ethic.  They stepped up to every challenge we through their way!

As showtime neared, parents and friends of the Red de Danza came out to build the costumes for the animals, sand dunes, flowers, trees,  pig-waiters, and all the other characters in their show.   Barbara Jahn's (my artistic roommate) hands are seen here wielding the fake-animal fur into submission for our forest-animal costumes. 

Parents helping to make the flower costumes.

After 5 long days of rehearsal and costume-building, ACDT and the Red de Danza performed FABLES on the mainstage at Medellin's Botanical Garden.  The show was a part of the city's very popular Book Festival, and this book-based performance fit right in.  The children danced along side their new American, dancing friends, and the audience, full of children, loved it!  The dancers are Karen George and Lola York (front row, left), Amy Borskey and Alexis Miller (middle row, left), and Giles Collard (in stripes, middle row).  I'm in the back row, beaming after what was possible one of the best things I'd ever seen on a stage!!

Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater with Jessy Kronenberg and Barbara Jahn... what an ambitious, artistic bunch!