Dancing to Connect Stuns Essen

A cheering crowd of 1,000 welcomed students from 5 schools in Essen and Duisburg.
Nerves were running high before the show. A t.v. feature that was purported to be about the dance project had turned out to be a degrading piece that used the student as bait. However the showmanship and high spirits of the students returned during the dress rehearsal and everything went off magnificently. Tears, flowers and mementos were exchanged at the end.

Performance Night in Essen!

Wednesday night at 8 pm: Essen is the place to be to see the culmination of the Dancing to Connect workshops in Essen and Duisburg. 100 students from five schools will display their choreography at the gorgeous Lichtburg, Germany's largest film palace:
Check this link for further details:
http://www.lichtburg-essen.de/vera_090930_dancing_to_connect.php

Best Dance Crew NRW!

For those of you who were skeptical, here's the hard evidence!
Jonathan joined German television dance stars Eva and Sisco as a Judge on Dance24.tv - BESTDANCECREWNRW...
Draw your own conclusions! Robin and Sean did a star turn in Sean's choreography as the special featured guests. Best Crew winners were Magic Explosion and Ku.ul J, and the Joker went to New Generation.

Sunday in Essen

Germans usually rest on Sunday, but many of the Dancing to Connect students have opted to rehearse again today! That's dedication for you. And speaking of dedication, all 10 teaching artists took part in a Company meeting last night from 10 - 11:30 pm in order to decide on the program order for the show on Wednesday, after having commuted to their various schools in the early a.m., taught all day long, and then prepared for their Sunday sessions today. Kudos all around!

First day of Workshops in Essen & Duisburg

After a welcome orientation session last night, the teaching artists roused themselves bright and early and set out on their paths to five schools spread out across two cities. At the Stoppenberg school, Carmen, Bafana and I met the Lord Mayor of Essen who greeted the students and told them how proud he was of their courage in setting off on a new adventure.

Farewell to Sachsen Anhalt; Hello to North Rhine Westphalia

The train ride from Bitterfeld in the East to Essen in the West was a 6-hour affair, but no one minded it. The scenery was out of a story book and the rest after the previous night's exertions was a blessing.

Reflections from Teaching Artists; Reflections from Local Teachers

It was new for our dancers to use their imagination while they are dancing – not just what the counts and steps are…. How to feel is new territory. One of our students said, “when I’m dancing, I cannot think” – we said we’re not asking you to think, rather to feel while you are dancing. The challenge of the week was to let the movement express a feeling rather than simply memorizing a movement phrase.

This same student: the exercise was to write a letter to someone they were separated from. In the letter they had to express love, fear, what they would like to change and what they dream of.

These letters were confidential but they had to tell the story of the letter in the form of movement or gesture. Gesture equates to meaning. One student did a gesture that represented to her breaking down a wall – however, she did it balletically with pointed toes and straight leg and high extension; which took us away from her intended meaning. She succeeded finally but had to be reminded, “don’t make it look pretty… find a way to express the emotion that was included in the letter.”

After videotaping the rehearsal, we had the students watch their own creation. Even then it was hard for them to perceive imagery in the movement. It could have been shyness or fear of being wrong. Hard for them to understand that there isn’t sometimes a correct answer.

In each school I’ve taught, it doesn’t matter the level. But there is always this problem of assuming there is a right answer.

Sophie and Alessandra


I really want to thank you and especially your dancers for being in Dessau. It was such a great experience- for our students and for us teachers as well.  The dancers not only performed their own pieces in the show, they cared for the students, helped them to get stronger, more self-confident and gave them the inspiration they needed to choreograph. That`s much more than only performing on stage. so thank`s a lot again and I hope we`ll meet again and can work together.

Gabriele Gruhn, Philanthropinum, Dessau