While many New Yorkers headed out of town for Memorial Day weekend, BAM presented the 36th DanceAfrica Festival. In another successful year, the youth dance company Restoration Dance Theatre Company represented Brooklyn in the highly coveted event. This important partnership between BAM and the Restoration Dance Theatre began in 1997, when the BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble debuted. The company includes dancers varying in age from small children to young adults. The dancers are ambassadors for the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, the nation's first community development corporation, which partners with residents and businesses to improve the quality of life in central Brooklyn.
We caught up with some of the company performers, all of whom have been with the company for several years, and two who started dancing with Restoration at the ages of 4 and 5! They shared some of their favorite DanceAfrica moments and gave valuable advice to the next generation of artists.
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BAM/Restoration Dance Ensemble performers Deirdre Brock, Qahirah Kibler, Shaniya Hyndman, Jasmine Poole, Tianna Smith |