GiveBack completed it’s first project, Barbados | Be Moved, in October 2019, touching the lives of over one hundred performing artists in the course of week. Be Moved, the documentary, is currently being edited, and a work-in-progess version of the film can be viewed above.
GiveBack is returning to Barbados this April to facilitate three weeks of activities as part of Dance Month 2020. The program will include over 160 contact hours with local performers, and the creation and staging of 10 different performances for the We Gatherin’ year-long community building celebration.
This project is entitled Barbados | Soul Dance. The GiveBack team will :
– Conduct technique intensives
– Mentor and coach local dancers, choreographers and teachers
– Create new choreography
– Stage and direct pop-up performances which will make dance more accessible to the general public
– Lead community outreach programs to bring the joy of dance to people of all ages
-Facilitate mindfulness and stress-reduction workshops
– Coach and mentor members of the street dance community
– Coordinate and facilitate a DANCE AWARENESS DAY to educate the public about the world of professional dance through:
* Demonstrations of training methods for different dance styles and techniques
* Lectures about the life of a professional dancer and the demands of the international dance industry
* Choreographic showcases
* Open Q&A between the GiveBack team, local artists and the audience
Our aim is to raise the profile of dance in Barbados so that it can be seen and respected as a viable career and not just a hobby. The filming of Soul Dance is an integral part of our educational outreach. A film episodic series will be created and will tell the stories of the lives of both individual performers and local dance groups. Their rigorous training, hopes, dreams, daily challenges, family support or lack thereof, successes and failures, will be captured and the series will be used locally for education as well as marketed regionally and internationally to highlight the lives of artists in the Caribbean.
This project is being planned in conjunction with the National Cultural Foundation of Barbados. We will work with hundreds of dancers, teachers, students, youth, and members of the general public over the course of three weeks. The project will positively impact every individual participant, and send ripples of heart-opening, boundary shattering, consciousness shifting inspiration out into the fabric of Barbadian society.
Soul Dance is part of an on-going incentive to cultivate a new dimension of the Performing Arts throughout the Caribbean and Barbados is the first stop. We are already in the process of establishing connections in Jamaica with the goal of launching our first GiveBack Performing arts and Fashion project there in the coming months. We are excited to unfold similar projects throughout the Caribbean, which are tailor-made for each island, taking into consideration their unique arts and cultural heritage.
GiveBack is an initiative which facilitates the sharing of ideas, skills, talents and passions between members of the Caribbean diaspora and their countrymen back at home.
Barbadian Celia Grannum and Jamaican Kris Jobson met during their freshman year at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. They became fast friends, aware of an energetic resonance beyond their Caribbean roots. They supported each other through the rigorous training of their program and the challenges of stepping into the world of professional dance in New York City. After graduating, they criss- crossed the globe, and their paths intersected in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Miami. As their lives expanded to encompass new career pursuits and family responsibilities, their friendship deepened, and they continued to giggle like the freshmen of years prior. Today, they bring their combined talents, experience and creative power together in a venture that is dear to both of their hearts – sharing their light with their community back at home.
Here is the first part to many segments and to ‘GiveBack BeMoved’ – Barbados Edition!
Directed by Ricky Mendez (USA)