Workshop to expose Bloomington to African Diaspora

Graduate student Deara Ball thought she would have to choose college over dance, but the African-American Dance Company gave her a way to do both.

Ball, now the company’s road manager, helped the company’s director, Iris Rosa, plan the 12th annual African-American Dance Company Workshop, which will take place
Friday and Saturday at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

“The mission is to expose students and the community to traditions, practices, history and culture of dance from the perspective of African Diaspora,” Rosa said.

Rosa said people often think there is only one type of African-American dance, but there are many different types that have been influenced by other countries and cultures.

Five artists will teach at the workshops, with classes ranging from African dance to different types of modern technique.

“We’ve had a good record,” Rosa said. “In the beginning it was just volunteers, and the second year we only had two artists, so it’s growing.”

Elana Anderson has taught at the workshop since its second year in 1998. Ball said Anderson’s return to the workshops each year helps unify the program, and people who remember working with Anderson want to return.

Rosa and Ball agree that the workshops are also a recruiting tool for IU, allowing high school and middle school students who are thinking about college to see the campus.

Those in attendance will include IU students, dance teams from Indiana high schools and people of different ages from around the state, Rosa said. For each of the past
three or four years, she estimates 80 to 100 people attended the workshops.

Charles Sykes, executive director of the African-American Arts Institute and Multicultural Initiatives, said that the workshop is an opportunity for the University, the Bloomington community and people from the local area to experience black dance with professional artists.

Ball said the workshops are community-friendly because classes such as these would cost hundreds of dollars at New York dance studios.

In addition to classes, there will be a panel discussion with the artists who teach the workshops 7 p.m. Friday in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

It is free and open to the public.

Rosa said the panel provides a chance for students to ask questions about dance and the artists’ motives. She said the panel will show students there are more possibilities in dance than just becoming a dancer.

To end the workshop, a showcase will be performed at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Willkie Auditorium. The showcase is free and open to the public, and it will begin and end with performances from the company.

Rosa said the showcase is an opportunity for attendees to exhibit their choreography and receive feedback from the artists as well as to engage in other types of dance not taught at the University.

Ball said the company also helped Rosa plan the workshop by working behind the scenes and raising funds to pay the artists through donations and raffles.

“We want to bring a little bit of African Diaspora to Bloomington,” she said.