Dancing to Connect Workshop Participant

This is a great opportunity for Houston area youth (ages 14-19) who are interested in dance, the arts, cultural exchange, and refugee support. Volunteers will be participating in the U.S. premier of the Battery Dance Company of New York program Dancing to Connect: Building Bridges/Refugee Integration/Combatting Islamophobia.

Dancing to Connect (DtC) is the award-winning international arts education program developed by Battery Dance over 20 years ago. This initiative engages participants in creativity and team building, using the art form of dance as a tool for building social cohesion and resolving conflict throughout the world.

Up to 100 youth, ages 14-19, will be invited to participate in the DtC summer dance workshop. PAIR program students, young refugees permanently resettled in Houston from countries around the world, will make up 50% of the participants. The remaining participants will be drawn from a cross-section of the broader Houston community.

Battery Dance Company dancers work with student volunteers over a period of 5 days, for four hours each day. Beginning with a specially designed syllabus of creative exercises that create a safe space, break down barriers of distrust and discrimination, and build mutual respect and understanding, participants create movement phrases that become the building blocks of a finished piece of choreography that tell their stories. The workshops culminate in a public performance in which the DtC participants experience the pride of presenting their creation before an audience. 

Volunteer participants must attend each day of the workshops as well as the final performance on July 16 from 6:30 pm-8:30 pm at Zilkha Hall at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.

Volunteers must arrange their own transportation. Food will be provided. Masks may be required when not dancing/participating in workshop activities.

If you are interested, please also submit the following interest form: https://tinyurl.com/Dancing2connect