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From Avenue of the Arts to the Sava River--Teaching Dance in Bosnia--A Personal Account

Rebecca Davis(Fox ’04), a 27-year-old entrepreneur, and founder of Philadelphia-based Rebecca Davis Dance Company, went to Bosnia during June and July to volunteer with the Bosnian non-profit organization Svitac.  She taught dance at Omlandinski Centar (Youth Center) in the city of Brcko, the only area of Bosnia where youth of Serb, Croat and Bosniak (Muslim) live together.  Most of the children had zero exposure to professional dance training nor any sort of dance shoes or clothing.  But, their sheer enthusiasm and desire to learn spurred a transformative experience for them, for their community and for Rebecca.   

Rebecca’s Story: Bridging an Ethnic Divide

When I arrived in Bosnia-Hercegovina in June, I really couldn’t have imagined what would transpire over the next several weeks.  I knew there must be something very special about dance itself because word quickly spread throughout Brcko that an American had come to teach jazz and ballet.  Within a couple of weeks, my workshops had grown from 8 to 25 kids, 99% of whom had never seen a professional modern, jazz or ballet performance, let alone taken a class where they could actually learn how to do the steps “we always see on youtube.”  Ultimately, this enthusiastic, eclectic group would transform an idea about reconciliation into the fruition of a multi-ethnic youth group dancing together about the same issues that face youth right here in Philadelphia.

In collaboration with the students, we began creating a six-part dance entitled Nas Svijet (Our World).  To start the process, I asked each student to answer two questions:

  1. What is the most important thing in your life?
  2. If there is one thing in the world you could change, what would it be?

The answers the students gave provided the choreographic impetus for each of the parts of our dance: porodica (family) and prijatelistvo (friendship) were important to them; ljudi (people), da rata ne bude (no more war) and zlo (evil) were things they wanted to change.

     

As we worked through the choreography, I was astounded at how quickly the group improved and came together as an ensemble.  The students could easily follow my warm up, some were already doing double pique turns, and all 26 students mastered the ballet jump pas de chat (“macka” in Bosnian, as little Ivana Minc yelled out daily). Teaching a portion of the classes in Bosnian language helped me bond with the students.

At the end of July, the students performed Nas Svijet for the first time. Inside a box, we put a balloon and a pin.  On the balloon was written the word zlo, which means ‘evil’ in Bosnian or Serbo-Croatian.  Twenty-six kids dancing to the song Scream by Michael Jackson lined up behind the box.  Then, perfectly on time with the musical phrase, 13 year-old Nikola Maric popped the balloon and all the dancers jumped into their final pose.  A surprised and engaged audience broke into applause as the ensemble took their bow. 

 To see how these diverse kids had grown to become part of one ensemble, sharing  a common experience, dancing and symbolically ending “evil,” together as a united group is the most rewarding moment of my teaching career yet.

                       

After the show, Armela Mujanovi, a 15 year-old who by the end of the summer had taken a leadership role, turned to me, thanked me and said, “I never thought I could do this, but you believed in me.”  Now, as an international community, don’t we have that responsibility to believe in each and every Armela all over the world?

Rebecca Davis

www.rebeccadavisdance.com