The Company's program will be anchored by performances as part of
The Amman Contemporary Dance Festival, April 16, 8 pm, at the Al Hussein
Cultural Centre; and The Amman Jazz Festival, April 19, 7:30 pm, at
the Haya Cultural Centre. In the dance Festival, the Company
will present 4 works from its repertoire including
'Observatory', a work created on commission by South African
choreographer Theo Ndindwa. At the opening night of the Jazz
Festival, Battery Dancers Sean Scantlebury and Mira Cook will appear
together with their Iraqi protege, Adil Qais Adil, whom the New York
dancers have trained over the past 6 months via Skype, and whom they will
meet for the first time live when they arrive in Amman on Thursday evening,
April 9th. All of the choreography for the jazz festival will be
generated while the dancers are in Amman and will be performed to the
live music of Jordanian singer/guitarist Hani Mitwasi, backed up by the
local band, Black Ice.
Jonathan Hollander, founder and artistic director of the company
says, 'Our experience in over 60 countries tells us that the arts can
provide hope to those in conflict and can engender unity across
religious and ethnic differences and national
borders. Battery Dance Company will put this belief to the test, moving
farther than we have ever done before in marrying our art with humanitarian
goals, in Jordan.'
Recent coverage in the Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Washington Post and
BBC/PRI’s programThe World has brought
unprecedented attention to the Company’s work in the conflict zones of the
Middle East. As an outgrowth of BDC's Dancing to Connect program
in Iraq in 2012, the Company members have been training aspiring Iraqi and
Kurdish performing artists long-distance utilizing Skype and social
media.
Their most promising mentee in Iraq, a creative artist of phenomenal
ability and dedication, is the dancer Adil Qais Adil. Although
the media attention accorded to BDC's program has exposed
Adil's artistry to world-wide audiences electronically, he is
unable to practice his craft outside of his family’s home in Baghdad without
inviting threats from extremists in the community.
Through a grant from the Prince Claus Foundation of the
Netherlands and other private donors, Adil has boarded a plane and took
the 90-minute flight from Baghdad to Amman, with life-changing
consequences.
Each day beginning on Friday of this week, before and after
teaching classes to Jordanian dancers in schools and conservatories, Sean,
Mira and Adil will rehearse for 5 hours at the National Centre for Culture
and Arts in Amman, bringing to life their camaraderie and
artistry after months of electronic interaction. They
will collaborate on new pieces of choreography for the jazz
festival, but this is no standard artistic collaboration. It is a fusing
of their shared hopes and dreams for a future in which young people can
pursue their artistry without fear.
Articles about Battery Dance Company's International
Artists Mentorship Program:
Wall Street Journal article (and video) about
BDC's work with Adil Qais Adil: http://on.wsj.com/16Z3xGG
LA Times: http://lat.ms/1uFFkwd
For
more information, contact:
Jonathan
Hollander
Press Release Distribution
Media Sponsor: Sandy Dhuyvetter
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