I CAN MOVE community dance palestine NARRATIVE REPORT: FEB. 2012 - AUG. 2013 1 IMPRINT: Copyright © 2013 by YANTE All rights reserved. Reproduction or utilization of this work in any form – total or partial – is forbidden without the written permission of the publishing parties. PUBLISHED BY: Youth, Art & Levante (YANTE) AUSTRIA Stumpergasse 57/58, 1060 Vienna Mobile: +43 (0) 676 3193323 Tel/Fax: +43 (0) 1 9717946 PALESTINE 16. Al-jami’a Street, 72100 Ramallah Mobile: +972 (0) 592 123 218 / +972 (0) 592 123 216 E-MAIL & WEB [email protected] www.yante-icanmove.org EDITOR: Dylan Collins PHOTOS: YANTE Premiere pictures: Dylan Collins & Riyad Hamad TABLE OF CONTNET 1. Preface 1 2. YANTE 2 3. I CAN MOVE 4 P6. Pilot P7. Conclusions drawn from the pilot for the launch of the I CAN MOVE ToT programme P9. Structure of ToT 4. ToT Implementation 14 P15. Semester 1 P30. Semester 2 P42. Semester 3 P56. Participating Trainees 5. OutReach 58 P60. Performance - Street-Children/Child- Labourers P77. Work in Schools & Community Classes P78. Dance Library at Goethe Institute. P80. Exhibition: Smell the yasmine and taste the olives. P80. Research by the Interuniversity Institute of Social Development and Peace, Spain 6. Media Coverage 82 7. Conference & 86 Symposiuyms & Peize Nominations 8. Team Yante 90 9. Partners & 94 Supporters Coming soon 98 july - august I CAN MOVE . community dance palestine 2013 15 committed dance trainees in our training programme. 450 children participating in our dance sessions. 200 children on stage performing Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’, one of every four is a child-laborer. An awareness campaign on the conditions of street- children. Over 50 women engaged in the villages of Budros and Qibya. 12 intensive modules of 720 teaching hours. More than 320 hours of dance technique classes. 7 public showings, 2 of which incorporating 4 local elementary schools. Around 50 partnerships and support relationships developed. Numerous conference participations and prize nominations. 6 YANTE . youth, art & levante 1. PREFACE These few lines and the many coming pages are and psychological support. I would also like an attempt to encompass our journey over the to thank the personnel of the civil institutions, past 18 months. Each one of our 15 trainees, each dancers, choreographers, volunteers and woman, each child and supporter has their own supporters: Margit Schmidt, Roswitha Dienstl, Issa story and impressions of this shared experience, Kassis, Mags Byrne, Lisei Caspers, Angela Zimmer, and we – the team of I CAN MOVE – of them. It Asmahan Thabet and particularly, my parents and has certainly been an intense journey full of siblings Tayseer Arouri, Amal Ghadban, Faris and dedication, inspiration, and development to every Ghassan for the unconditional logistical and moral party involved. Achievements were overwhelming support. to ourselves, our participants, and I believe equally to our supporters and partners. When extending thanks we cannot forget the ones who reached into themselves with every difficulty On this note, I stand full of gratitude to the many we experienced, found strength, and brought people who believed in the potential of the I the project forward. Here I would like to thank CAN MOVE programme. I would like to extend the programme instructors for their empathy, my gratitude to the Austrian Development dedication and patience, and equally the I CAN Cooperation that made this possible for all of MOVE team for their valuable work and creativity. us. I would also like to thank the Euromed Youth Likewise, many thanks to the lighting designer Unit- Palestine, the Arab Fund for Arts and Pete Ayres and light and stage technician Attallah Culture (AFAC), the Qattan Foundation, British Tarazi for your spirit and the art you delivered. Council, Padico Holding, Ramallah Municipality, the Government of Styria, the Palestine Housing Last but not least I would like to thank Christine and Mortgage Corporation, OFFTEC, the Verein Rauch for pointing out the light every time it Internationales Jugendtanztheater Duisburg, seemed dark, Lina Höhne for her unyielding and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, dedication and expanding embrace, and my Arts & Culture for their generous support. I would sister and friend Natasha Aruri for the unyielding also like to thank the Birzeit University Housing support, both morally and technically. Cooperative, Ramallah Youth Club, Goethe Institute, the Representative Office of the Federal Each and every one of you has made a significant Republic of Germany in Ramallah, Ramallah contribution to the success of this programme. Cultural Palace, the Youth Institution for Young This success was recognized by various prize Boys and Girls Tammoun, Al-Mustaqbal schools, nominations and fellowships such as the King the Arab Evangelical Episcopal School, Friends Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation and Schools, Total Communication School Palestine Achievements, and the United Nations Alliance Red Crescent Society, the Episcopal Technological of Civilizations – “Living Together Peacefully in and Vocational training center, Dar Al-Tifl Al- Arabi a Diverse World” prize. We have accomplished School, the Circus School and many others for their theses achievements with your support and the interest, assistance, and for having opened their perseverance of our beneficiaries. Those prizes doors for us over weeks of training, rehearsals, and are but a thank you to every one of you. Looking performances. forward to the next segment of this fulfilling journey. I would especially like to thank my mentors and companions for the extensive conversations, Nadia Arouri constructive debates, and the mental, physical Project Director 1 july - august I CAN MOVE . community dance palestine 2013 2. YANTE YOUTH, ART AND LEVANTE 2 YANTE . youth, art & levante LEGAL ENTITY: AUSTRIA As a legal entity and organizer of the project, the Stumpergasse 57/58, 1060 Vienna non-profit association YANTE – Youth, Art and Mobile: +43 (0) 676 3193323 Levante – was founded and registered in June Tel/Fax: +43 (0) 1 9717946 2010. The goals of the non-profit association are: PALESTINE • To use and promote Art as a possibility to 16. Al-jami’a Street, 72100 Ramallah create open meeting places for a vivid cultural Mobile: +972 (0) 592 123 218 / exchange and an intercultural dialogue. +972 (0) 592 123 216 • To plan and implement intercultural Art projects E-MAIL & WEB for young people. [email protected] www.yante-icanmove.org • To give access and support to the Artistic education of children living in conflict zones and/or economically weak environments. MISSION: Our mission is to strengthen society as a whole through the essential foothold of inclusive art projects for all ages with a specific focus on children and youth. This will be achieved by empowering the participants as individuals to make the difference in their own lives, as well as their communities. Participants will identify with the principle that all goals can be achieved when worked on diligently. Palestine is a society that has been forced back into its self, reducing the availability of oppotunities dor indivisuals, communities and societies, as well as stunting their ability to grow and expand. Lack of opportunities builds frustrations that lead to violence and aggressive behaviour due to sadness and disempowerment – keeping in mind the humiliation caused by the occupation; ergo, our aim is to encourage participants to utilize art as an instrument to express one’s self, therefore, imparting each participant with the power to convey his or her viewpoint non-violently. VISION: Our vision is to see people of all ages and social parameters participating in various art projects, within and for communities, around the globe. Participants express themselves while believing that the uniqueness of an individual lays in the diversity of the whole, coming to the consensus that a rich culture is one nourished by all social strata. 3 july - august I CAN MOVE . community dance palestine 2013 3. I CAN MOVE 4 YANTE . youth, art & levante INTRODUCTION : I CAN MOVE COMMUNITY DANCE PALESTINE I CAN MOVE is a programme aiming at creating high artistic levels with various target groups: a Community Dance movement in Palestine as like a.o. Pupils, street-children, the displaced, the a tool for addressing specific social development elderly, and those differently abled. obstacles, such as inequality, exclusion, We believe Community Dance cultivates self- fragmentation, and trauma (Post Traumatic- esteem within the individuals. It offers the Stress-Disorder.) The project seeks to break participants a social, physical, emotional, cognitive stereotypes and enable individuals from different and intellectual experience and conveys values social strata to communicate across the fault such as commitment, respect, passion and line of their differences. Through this process we particularly empathy. seek social empowerment of the marginalized by With mutual appreciation, the participants at means of providing the hundreds of participants Yante encounter each other eye to eye. Yante with the tools for self-expression, effectively strives to connect cultural initiatives and foster raising their self-esteem and body awareness. inclusive policies. Yante’s inclusiveness means any Medical evidence shows that by strengthening individual with an interest can become an active 1) Physical, 2) Emotional, 3) Social and 4) Mental member. resiliency, an individual is able to avoid suffering Accordingly Yante dedicates itself to new artistic from Stress Disorders derived from a Traumatic initiatives, helping peoples fulfill their aspirations. experience and can rather use the experience as Our mission is to strengthen society as a whole a spring board to achieve self-development, i.e. through the essential foothold of inclusive art transforming “Post Traumatic Stress” into “Post projects for all ages with a special focus on children Traumatic Growth”. [Tedeshi & Calhoun, 2004] and youth. This is achieved by empowering the participants as individuals to make the difference This programme is based on know-how developed in their own lives, as well as, their communities.