A major congratulations to members Anna Mansbridge and Carolyn Russell-Smith who have recently been published by Taylor & Francis in an issue of Dance Education in practice. The article, "Connecting Across Countries and Cultures", spotlights a daCi Twinning Project from the Virtual Dancing Into Communities conference and is exemplary of the cultural exchange and enrichment made possible by Twinning and other daCi initiatives.
The article describes how these two dance educators brought their students together to embody elements of eighteenth-century European court dance and Jamaican and Caribbean folk forms on a virtual platform, and to create short choreographic studies combining elements of the two dance genres. Carolyn Russell-Smith is the Artistic Director of Khulcha Theatre School of Dance in Jamaica, and she is also the daCi National Representative of Jamaica. Anna Mansbridge is the Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope Dance Company in Seattle, Washington, is a past chair of daCi USA, and is the current secretary for daCi.
Past daCi Chair Susan Koff says, "Everything in that class, with students from two different countries and many different backgrounds, embodies what daCi is all about. It was so thrilling for me to see it all in such a warm and genuine expression. Your students are really exemplary in their commitment, focus and generosity." Here is an image of the group from the artice being lead through Ann Green Gilbert's BrainDance by Anna Mansbridge.
We hope that you will enjoy the article as an example of how Twinning can bring dancers from various backgrounds together and see how you and your dancers may get involved in a future Twinning project for the 2024 Slovenia Conference!
Details on submitting can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the 2024 conference registration page here. https://daci2024.org/registration.html