Connecting Through Dance

Mark Morris leads a workshop in Cambodia. Photo: Johan Henckens

By R. Michael Blanco

One pilot year and four seasons later, DanceMotion USA^SM (DMUSA)—the US State Department’s cultural diplomacy program produced by BAM—continues to work its magic around the globe. By the end of 2016, the program will have sent 20 dance companies to 47 countries, reaching more than 100,000 people directly in workshops and performances and over 20 million people through digital platforms and social media.

Conceived in 2009 by BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo in response to a Department of State request for proposals, DMUSA brings its extensive network of national and international dance contacts to work with the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in choosing dance companies to send on missions of cultural exchange throughout the world.

Q&A with the Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company riggers

by Claire Frisbie

Photo by Mauro Dann

Buenos Aires-based choreographer Brenda Angiel draws from elements of tango, hip-hop, and modern dance, taking them into the air and up the wall in her innovative style of aerial dance. But her dancers' movement and safety would not be possible without the strength, talent, and extreme concentration of three key members of the company: Andrés Puertas, Laura Casalongue, and Alejo Gago, the riggers.

The company is in town this week as part of BAM and the State Department's dance diplomacy initiative DanceMotion USAsm, performing in the Next Wave Festival with New York-based company Doug Varone and Dancers. We caught up with the Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company rigging team to talk harnesses, carabiners, and exactly how one becomes an aerial dance rigger.


How did you start working as a rigger and how did that lead you to dance?

Andrés Alejandro Puertas: I’ve been a climber for over 15 years now, and now I have a climbing gym in Buenos Aires called Realization. I run the gym, and do rigging for aerial and theater shows. I started working with Brenda’s company 10 years ago.

Laura Sofia Casalongue: I joined the company in 2006. I’m an actor, and I started taking aerial dance classes at school to complement my acting training. Then the company presented a work at the Konex Theater (in Buenos Aires) and they needed a tech assistant, and years later I learned how to rig and ended up being part of the crew.

Alejo Gago: I played in trees a lot as a kid, and I lived in a nautical neighborhood, so you could say my contact with ropes and cords started there. Later on, I ventured into climbing, and started working with Brenda through a friend. Doing rigging for dance is artistically gratifying, which you don’t get from other kinds of rigging work.

DanceMotion USA 2013 Review:Doug Varone and Dancers

by Sophie Shackleton

Since 2010, BAM has produced DanceMotion USA, a program funded by the US Department of State to promote diplomacy and cultural exchange through dance. This year, we sent four contemporary American dance companies to represent the United States on artistic missions in four regions around the world. Using dance as a language, they forged lifelong connections—both artistically and personally—with the artists and audiences they met during their travels.

The dancers were our eyes and ears on tour, sharing videos, photos, and blog posts as they traveled. We are featuring highlights from each of the four companies’ journeys here on the BAM blog.

In April and May, New York’s beloved Doug Varone and Dancers took us south, miles below the equator.

In Argentina, the company collaborated with South America’s most renowned dance companies—Buenos Aires being a hot spot for dance of all kinds. They taught at Julio Bocca’s school, flew in the air with Brenda Angiel’s Aerial dance company, and performed for a full house at the San Martin. But the cultural discoveries were no fewer: they explored the Recoleta Cemetery, burial place of Eva and Juan Perón. Dancer Xan Burley recounted the unique experience of getting their Mayan astrological signs read by a vendor outside Palermo. Alex Springer got a special note from one of his students. They saw capoeira and tango and danced in the streets of San Telmo. Doug whipped out some fancy footwork in Morón. Lawrence made sure to take photos of all the dogs in Argentina. They consumed plenty of steak, steak, and more steak. And we discovered the pun that would last the length of the tour—Varone/Varones: Doug Varone in the men’s room.

DanceMotion USA 2013 in Review:Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

by Sophie Shackleton

Since 2010, BAM has produced DanceMotion USA, a program funded by the US Department of State to promote diplomacy and cultural exchange through dance. This year, we sent four contemporary American dance companies to represent the United States on artistic missions in four regions around the world. Using dance as a language, they forged lifelong connections—both artistically and personally—with the artists and audiences they met during their travels.

The dancers were our eyes and ears on tour, sharing videos, photos, and blog posts as they traveled. We are featuring highlights from each of the four companies’ journeys here on the BAM blog.

The celebrated talent of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago set off for Chicago’s sister city, Casablanca, to start a tour through the North African desert and Andalusian mountains.

At the airport, they shared their nerves with us, but were soon overwhelmed by the incredible food, markets, and marble mosques of Morocco. In Marrakech, they led a contemporary dance flash mob  in the public square. David Schultz proved he is not just a dancer, but a photographer. And Matt Miller, the company's quiet yet loquacious technical director, sent us the first of his many incredible blogs, which describe the world of Morocco with whimsy and wonderment.

DanceMotion USA 2013 in Review:Illstyle & Peace Productions in Eastern Europe

by Sophie Shackleton

Since 2010, BAM has produced DanceMotion USA, a program funded by the US Department of State to promote diplomacy and cultural exchange through dance. This year, we sent four contemporary American dance companies to represent the United States on artistic missions in four regions around the world. Using dance as a language, they forged lifelong connections—both artistically and personally—with the artists and audiences they met during their travels.

The dancers were our eyes and ears on tour, sharing videos, photos, and blog posts as they traveled. We are featuring highlights from each of the four companies’ journeys here on the BAM blog.

A lesson we've learned over the three years of DanceMotion USA: there is nothing quite like a hip-hop tour. Hip-hop has spread from its roots in New York’s boroughs to the farthest corners of the earth, and each country, culture, and group has adapted it to its own dance customs, political voices, and youth experiences. This April, we sent Philly’s own Illstyle & Peace Productions to a whole new hip-hop territory: Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. A whirlwind of cheering fans and breakdance battles, it was not only an incredible experience for everyone involved, but also some of the most fun we’ve had on the internet.

DanceMotion USA 2013 in Review:Spectrum Dance Theatre in South Asia

by Sophie Shackleton

Since 2010, BAM has produced DanceMotion USA, a program funded by the US Department of State to promote diplomacy and cultural exchange through dance. This year, we sent four contemporary American dance companies to represent the United States on artistic missions in four regions around the world. Using dance as a language, they forged lifelong connections—both artistically and personally—with the artists and audiences they met during their travels.

The dancers were our eyes and ears on tour, sharing videos, photos, and blog posts as they traveled. Over the next few weeks, we’ll feature highlights from each of the four companies’ journeys on the BAM blog, starting with Seattle-based Spectrum Dance Theater, who brought their diverse styles and visionary theatricality to South Asia.

Their tour started in Nepal, where Spectrum discovered b-boy and b-girl culture was thriving (check out these moves!) alongside traditional dance customs. Company member Ty Alexander Cheng  reflected on the power of dance and cultural diplomacy after being impacted by the students in his workshops, and the dancers saw the Himalayas for the first time. The local audience in Kathmandu went wild when Spectrum performed Nepali traditional dance during their final performance in the country.

How Many Miles from Brooklyn to Bulawayo?

by Sophie Shackleton

Umkhathi Theatre Works performing in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Photo: Nick Schwartz-Hall)

DanceAfrica is a treasured annual event for BAM and the Brooklyn community to celebrate African and African-American culture. Behind the scenes, it's much more than a weekend: it's a story of an ongoing relationship between BAM and Africa. Baba Chuck Davis started DanceAfrica 36 years ago, and for more than 20 years, has invited an ensemble from the African continent to perform at BAM. Two years ago, a dynamic relationship began to form with Zimbabwe.

When in Idaho, eat the kimchi

by Sophie Shackleton

My first encounter with the American West started in ways I expected. The trip to Boise gives you a profound sense of wide, humbling American land—the Rockies stretching beneath you as you fly over Salt Lake City, the barren hills hugging a clean, organized city, the expansive streets lined with golden trees—it's breathtaking. And when the rental car guy grinned at me like a next door neighbor and handed me the keys to a bright white Jeep Patriot, I knew for damn certain I wasn't on the East Coast anymore.

But the land of potatoes is full of surprises. In a bright yellow studio in the Idaho foothills, three Korean women, a Korean-American hospital chaplain, and a group of nationally acclaimed American dancers are collaborating in four different languages: Korean, English, Spanish (well, a little anyway), and dance.

This is the work of DanceMotion USA, a State Department program produced by BAM, which uses dance as a vehicle for cross-cultural exchange. This spring, Trey McIntyre Project toured to China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and South Korea. Three weeks ago, dancers from Korea National Contemporary Dance Company (KNCDC) joined TMP in Boise, ID for a collaborative residency in the USA.

DanceMotion USA, 2012—Taking American Dance to the World

Rennie Harris and the company with participants in the “hip hop camp” at the Zafer Al-Masri Foundation, Nablus, West Bank in March

Rennie Harris Puremovement is one of four American dance companies participating this year in the second DanceMotion USA^SM, a cultural diplomancy program produced by BAM under the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. DanceMotion USA^SM allows companies to share America's rich and varied contemporary dance culture with international audiences through performances and cultural exchange—including workshops, classes, and arts management seminars.

Companies, tour locations, and dates:

Rennie Harris Puremovement — Philadelphia, PA; hip-hop
Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories, Mar 9—Apr 6

Seán Curran Company — New York, NY; contemporary dance
Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Turkmenistan, Apr 5—May 3

Jazz Tap Ensemble — Los Angeles, CA; jazz and tap
Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe, Apr 9—May6

Trey McIntyre Project — Boise, ID; contemporary dance
Cihina, South Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam, May 5—Jun 3

Follow the companies on tour on the DanceMotion USA^SM blog at http://dmusa.blogspot.com and at the website, dancemotionusa.org