It all started with an Earth Monastery grant from the Abbey of the Arts, igniting a dream that is now reaching all around the world. Who knew that such a small flame could start something so big? You can read more about the Abbey and their grant here.
Our idea was is to unite dancers all over the world around a common theme. Because Dance Alchemy is all about connecting people and fostering peace, we picked World Peace as the theme for the project, which would be a documentary film. We knew this would have to be a progressive, collaborative project, involving dancers from around the world.
However, the Abbey’s grant was themed around stewardship of the Earth, meaning its care and preservation – not peace, per se. So we proposed to them that it’s a bit hard to concentrate on taking care of the environment when people are dealing with conflicts and wars. Peace and care of the Earth go hand in hand, we said. Dancers the world over would get behind this, we said. We wondered if they would agree.
Answer: Yes. On November 29, 2013, we heard they selected us to receive their grant for the Dance4Peace project. It wasn’t a large sum, but the whole point was for it to serve as “seed money” to get the project started. We were elated!
Work began in earnest through the Christmas holidays and into the New Year. First, we composed and arranged “Vast & Eternal River,” then choreographed a dance for it. Both the song and the dance moves are themed in tonal scales and movements from our own Native American (First Nations) tribes here in the U.S.. We had help from our First Nations advisor, Cynthia Vice, and assistance in the music post-production from David Janssen and Phil Esserwein.
In January 2014, we assembled our dancers and began rehearsals. We all worked like mad, right through one of the coldest months ever in Maryland. Shooting of the footage used in the movie, Vast & Eternal River as well as in the instructional video, was done in one weekend, February 1st and 2nd, at five locations around the Baltimore area. What you see in the movies is the result of 51 takes in the course of 14 working hours that weekend. The movies were released online at the end of February.
As of this moment, we are engaged in recruiting and assisting dancers and dance groups from around the world to be a part of the project. Response is growing steadily, and from some surprising places. What’s NOT surprising is that many of the international members are from countries that are having, or have known, conflicts and wars.
Future: Already we know this will be the first in a series of Dance4Peace projects. The final documentary movie from this grant will be released in Summer 2014, but we can see that the groundswell of support is too big to stop there. Plans are underway to seek more funding and – with or without funds – to start work on a second movie in the Fall of 2014.
