"Dances for the Blue House" and "Dancing to Connect"

From 2006 to 2010 Drastic Action and the Battery Dance Company led “Dances for the Blue House” and “Dancing to Connect” which featured Geismar’s successful creative dance curriculum. Company members from the two dance companies led intensive week-long creative dance classes with middle and high school students in cities throughout Germany. The students explored the elements of dance and then created their own dances on the topic of tolerance – an especially relevant subject in the very stratified Germany of today. At the end of each week in a given city the students performed their own dances alongside the professional companies who performed repertory related to social justice in a professional theater. In each region communities and local officials were moved by the power of the students’ work. Within individual classes there were often significant personal journeys. For example, a Palestinian student in one class in Berlin initially said she didn’t want to work with Geismar because she was Jewish. At the end of the workshop she said, “I think that it is really unfair to judge someone based on their racial background.”

Press for "Dances for the Blue House"

• US Consulate, Frankfurt, Germany, Click here for more
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, english translation, Click here for more
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, original, Click here for more
• All About Jewish Theater, pdf, Click here to view 
• Hadassah Magazine, Dance Lessons, Click here to view pdf

Images from "Dances for the Blue House"

Images from "Dancing to Connect"