The week before

So, away we go--at least with the planning stages of our trip to the Dominican Republic. We leave next Monday, January 25th at o'dark thirty (I believe it is 3:00am) from the parking lot of the Mahaney Center for the Arts, or MCFA. There will be 14 of us in all--dancers, teachers, designers, musicians--loading into vans and lurching toward Burlington. It's a much smaller and tighter group than the one that went to Cuba in '03. That group consisted not only of the company and folks from the dance program, but also friends, parents, tour guides and a couple of local teachers. I was one of the teachers then, but a member of college staff now. I will be working with the members of the company as they work with two different groups of elementary students, creating their own work about their neighborhoods and communities. I will also be taking pictures and video and trying to maintain this blog on a daily basis while we are in Puert0 Plata.

The organization of a trip and tour like this is astounding. Penny has been working for months to line up performance dates and venues for the company as well as cultural exchanges and teaching experiences. I think there will be something like four or five performances while we are there, plus all the rehearsals and classes. Jenn and Nic have been working as well on the 1001 details that go along with touring a company of college students in another country. ( I still need to get that receipt envelope from Nic...) As for me, well, I am a little bit behind. For the Cuba trip I had books, read up on the history and brushed up on my 20+ words of Spanish. But this time, there just didn't seem to be time. And so I am madly trying to quiz myself on how to say foot, hand, arm, back, again, faster, slower, energy, and instead of Spanish I am thinking in high school French which is decidedly unhelpful. But it will come to me in time.

Everyone has been so excited, and the Company has worked so hard on the pieces for the Concert, it all seems a little unreal that we are going. After the earthquake happened in Haiti, I was unsure about how everything would proceed. But Penny contacted her people in Puerto Plata and they say everything is okay there. So we will push forward and make connections and art with the people and places there, because moving forward and having a positive impact where you can is essential in life and art. Si? Si.