EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY CENTER Sri Lanka Bard College Jennifer Lemanski, USA, Bard College Section I the Expressive Arts Therapy
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EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY CENTER Sri Lanka Bard College Jennifer Lemanski, USA, Bard College Section I The expressive arts therapy center in Sri Lanka was intended to provide a space for youth to process the harsh experiences of their lives through an art-making process that brought a diverse group of kids together. It was equally intended to provide an intensive training program in the techniques of expressive arts therapy for a group of future counselors. Many revisions were made to this project beginning first with its postponement to Feb.-May 2009 after news of a bombing near the Sarvodaya Headquarters in June 2008, and second to the abandonment of the training program due to my visa restrictions which prohibited me from collaborating with an NGO. Despite these unexpected events, I was able to conduct an expressive arts program for three full months for underprivileged youth in Colombo and our work culminated in a final benefit event that will allow the workshops to continue beyond the timeframe of the grant. Bringing together a group of students from varying backgrounds along with teachers, academics, and theater and dance professionals in Colombo, the expressive arts program was intended: 1. to nurture the creative aspirations of disadvantaged youth through an integrated program of expressive arts and dance theater; 2. to facilitate community-building among kids from different ethnic backgrounds by promoting a respect for diversity among those involved; and 3. to incite social change and sensitivity to the issues of imprisonment, abuse, discrimination and control through a final dance performance of these themes at a public event. This project was valuable for setting an example of the capacity of youth to work independently of an INGO and collaborate on the creation of socially relevant artwork that emphasizes their individual talents in the pursuit of strengthening confidence in their society following three decades of brutal war. Section II Organizing the Project and Successful Collaborations I came to Sri Lanka with the intention of collaborating with the organization I had previously worked for, Sarvodaya, because of its large network of childcare and community centers throughout Sri Lanka. Indeed, upon arrival, and with the assistance of one district coordinator, I identified a space in the Colombo area of Borella that might suit the project very well. Nevertheless, in the midst of Sri Lanka’s persistent civil war, the government had implemented new visa requirements for foreigners collaborating with NGOs that made my involvement with Sarvodaya virtually impossible. This situation was unexpected, but understandable. Since I had no intention of working in opposition to the Sri Lankan government and desired to make my work in the country completely transparent--and thus, I hoped, sustainable through uninhibited public exposure of a community-based art program--I was forced to rethink nearly all of my plans. My successful collaboration with the local community ultimately emerged with nATANDA Dance Theatre of Sri Lanka. Founded and directed by Kapila Palihawadana, nATANDA provides free dance training and arts workshops for underprivileged youth in Colombo who commit to a strict workshop schedule that meets four days per week. The group’s stage productions, as they describe, “concentrate on bridging the cultural diversity found in [Sri Lanka] and transforming different areas of tradition into contemporary dance forms, dance theatre, and Modern dance.” Though I was familiar with the group at the time of writing my proposal and had planned to briefly observe their work, I never expected to become so wholly involved with this burgeoning alternative arts program. It was a very fruitful experience. When I joined nATANDA there were approximately sixteen young participants involved, some of whom had been with the program since its start five years ago. All were Sinhalese and predominately Buddhist. The uniqueness of their personalities and their desire not to conform to one physical type excited me and, after learning about the social issues that were the inspiration for their earlier productions, I thought the collaboration would be fitting. My goal then became maximizing the diversity of the group by bringing in new participants from local Hindu and Muslim high schools and have them work together with the current Buddhist participants to develop a new socially-conscious dance theater show. The themes, as Mr. Palihawadana and I decided, would be: imprisonment (both psychological and physical), abuse, discrimination, and various other forms of control. Although a heavy subject, these themes, we agreed, were relevant to all societies--certainly the US and Sri Lanka. The themes would also allow us to explore aspects of the human condition that are universal, namely, self-confinement and an individual’s capacity to act outside of the barriers of what is expected of him. As a diverse group, we were all able to contribute to the discussion of these themes and throughout these three months we could be content knowing that we were producing a piece of artwork that addressed themes both necessary and neglected. The sixteen young dancers that had earlier been associated with nATANDA continued to follow the standard workshop schedule regularly meeting on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Sunday workshops were transformed into a mix of dance training (led by Mr. Palihawadana) and expressive arts (led by me). All new participants were obliged to follow a 15-week workshop schedule that would culminate in a final public performance intended to raise funds for the continuation of nATANDA’s free after-school programs. Workshops centered around education about the chosen themes--students read poetry by Sri Lankan authors related to the current conflict and created short dance sequences; a documentary on the well-known Stanford Prison Experiment was shown; participants brought in newspaper articles and observations for discussion; team-building games based on resistance and control such as mirroring, body-molding, and various partnered trust exercises allowed the group to explore subtle, even unintentional forms of dominance and restraint. The workshops also focused on dance and theatre improvisation, free writing, and exploratory drawing in order to encourage personal expression from each student and nurture the kind of confident creativity that eventually was needed for developing the choreography for a truly innovation dance show made by the participants. The majority of workshops were held in the main hall of the Goethe-Institut in Cinnamon Gardens. This hall has been the home of nATANDA Dance Theatre of Sri Lanka for many years, so we were able to occupy the space free of charge. Students traveled by bus to attend the workshops and some were provided a transportation allowance. Sunday workshops (which were the longest workshops, lasting 4 to 8 hours) provided snacks and sometimes meals to the participants. During the month of April, through contact with the Butterfly Peace Garden in Batticaloa, a small group of dancers were able to take a trip to the Eastern Province in order to learn about the center and conduct a training workshop for a group of twenty-five counselors. This was the first time any of these young students had been to the Eastern Province, a region that witnessed brutal violence between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Army for decades, and the friendships made among the youth through this positive encounter may be seeds for a future collaboration. The Butterfly Peace Garden has already expressed interest in bridging their community of Tamil and Muslim artist- administrators with the Sinhalese community in the West. On-the-Ground Experiences and Lessons Learned There were challenges on many fronts because we were working as an independent arts program with no staff. When we approached the high schools seeking out enthusiastic students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to engage in arts workshops (often because they did not have the money to enroll in after-school arts classes or were already following a non-arts curriculum) we had a hard time convincing some school administrations about the benefits of such a program for struggling kids/at-risk youth. Many schools had their own set of extracurricular programming and our project was viewed as a bit of interference. We did not abandon our goals, however. We continued to emphasize the need for youth to come from different schools and backgrounds to work together, rather than promote solidarity and cohesion within a pre- defined social network. Our best reception was at Hindu College, an all-boys school in the Bambalapitiya area of Colombo, where we recruited thirty boys during our first visit. Regarding the establishment of an expressive arts center, there were many lessons learned about the huge struggle for such an ambitious project. While it is very difficult to obtain the ideal studio space to conduct the after-school expressive arts workshops, there is a great deal that can be done by working independently in a simple seminar hall. In spite of all the hard work and disappointments, I have a renewed sense of hope in the power of the arts to incite social change and make an irreplaceable impact in the lives of even a small group of kids. Project Impact and Sustainability Solid friendships were made among the youth who entered the program seemingly timid and self-segregated into two groups: Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil. The final show is not only a performance piece that makes its audience reconsider imprisonment, discrimination, and control, it is also a true product of creativity from each and every one of the students involved. We have witnessed a renewed sense of confidence in many of the new participants and confidence, as well, in the experienced dancers who have learned to mentor their peers. A group of the boys from Hindu College have chosen to continue their involvement with nATANDA following my departure.