The IU African American Dance Company will present its 18th Annual Dance Workshop on March 4 and 5.
Guest artists who specialize in dance and music of the African diaspora will be instructors at the workshop.
Dance styles include West Indian, Afro-Cuban traditional and popular, African styles and contemporary modern dance.
This year, the workshop will offer a few new classes, including a drum master class and a class about the West African dance called bantaba.
The dance company is unique to the University and to the Midwest, said Hannah Crane, communications specialist for the African Americans Arts Institute.
“It’s storytelling through dance,” Crane said. “It’s a great treasure of the community.”
The workshops are open to the public and all ages.
60 scholarship students from middle schools and high schools around the Midwest will also attend the workshop, which Crane said will give them a chance to understand the opportunities offered at IU.
“It’s a really great opportunity and event for anyone,” Crane said.
The event will conclude with the 18th Annual Dance Showcase at 7 p.m. March 5 in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Grand Hall, where choreographic workshop participants are invited to perform the dances they learned.
It’s “a vital part of the African American Arts Institute and its great traditions and influence here at IU-Bloomington,” according to the AADC press release. The mission is to expose people to dance using the perspectives of both African American culture and the African diaspora.
“The dance workshop will give anyone a great opportunity to learn various dance forms and techniques that are not usually offered in the area of central Indiana. It is also about connecting, establishing new relationships and forging collaborations in the dance discipline with other dancers, teachers and performers,” AADC director Iris Rosa said in the release.
Brooke McAfee
