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daCi USA Days of Dance "Be Where Our Feet Are"

by Deborah Lipa-Ciotta

Covid kept us from coming together for our 7th National Gathering at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, originally scheduled for the summer of 2020. Nonetheless we persevered, organized and gathered virtually for our second annual daCi Days of Dance and what a wonderful three days it was! The weekend centered around our theme “Be Where Our Feet Are” as well as the National Day of Dance. Participants celebrated, danced, created and came together as a daCi community. Our feet were in Utah, Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Idaho, Maryland and Michigan as well as international members from Toronto, Canada and as far away as Genoa, Italy! Across five time zones, our daCi family of children, teens, college students, and adults came together in a hybrid format and moved their feet from homes, dance studios and school spaces. Old friends connected and new friends were made. discussion about the multitude of contemporary dance communities filmed around the world. There were site-specific dances with local dancers and interviews with artists about why they dance. Many connected to the simple beauty and universal appeal of physical contact featured throughout the film and mentioned how much it is missed during Covid. daCi college student Elizabeth Karpov shared how moved she was by a particular thought expressed by one of the dancers in the film: “The body is really the shortest distance between two people. It makes an immediate connection across the distance between where I am and you begin….Dance is the most immediate communication compared to other art forms — it provides the most organic connection to our environment and the people in it. ” In case you missed the film, or would like to view it again, here is the YouTube link.

The events began Friday evening with a virtual kick-off, welcome and introductions by daCi Chair Joy Guarino, followed by a viewing of the film “Dancing Around the World” by German choreographer and director Nejla Yatkin. It led into a rich

Saturday started with skills classes for elementary, middle, high school, college and multi-generational levels led by Kathryn Austin, Amy Crow, Vincent Thomas and Carlos Jones. The cultural classes were led by Yunjia Yang for Chinese traditional dance and Caribbean/Trinidad dance by Patrick Parsons.

Deborah Damast, the Director and Clinical Associate Professor of Dance Education at NYU Steinhardt, was our keynote speaker. She shared the five core competencies of Social Emotional Learning (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making) and their connections to caring, safe, and equitable dance education programs and classrooms.

We were treated to an amazing presentation by the daCi Youth Leadership group demonstrating their hard work over the past months looking into daCi history and our past and present leaders. They defined what is leadership is, why youth leadership matters and the applications to the daCi Days of Dance and our organization as a whole. Bravo to Heather Francis, Kathryn Austin, Jennifer Florey, Sara Malan-McDonald, Elizabeth Karpov, Natasha du Toit, Lauren Halversen and Bella Stahr. The full presentation can be viewed here on YouTube.

We ended the day on Saturday with a fantastic dance party organized and led by our middle school leadership group and advisor Kathryn Austin. They noted that the “shared expression of dancing socially is the act of being together, accepting each other and finding enjoyment in the gift of movement!”

On Sunday morning we were able to gather for a membership meeting with updates from our board members on initiatives and the state of the organization.

Three multi-generational creative sessions were led by Chara Huckins, Anna Mansbridge and Rachel Swenson. They organized the sessions around investigating “feet” and what they can do; about the idea of place and space through exploring “where our feet are”; and delved into the idea of “home” . They culminated in a final Zoom showing of the collaboratively-created works.

A big thank you to Dr. Susan Koff, the current Chair of daCi International, for delivering closing remarks embracing daCi’s vision and mission centered around the rights of the child. She reminded us of all that daCi International has to offer including the UNESCO goals, upcoming virtual conference summer 2022, Twinning projects, the website and more. Dr. Koff was thrilled to see us carrying on the daCi mission and her words were a wonderful way to end this fantastic weekend. Thank you to all who participated and worked on our Days of Dance!