WORKSHOPS/CLASSES
“Thank you so much for the opportunity for our young dancers to participate with Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. You provided clear and helpful communication along the way and managed to organize such a massive project. It was stunning to watch all of the pieces come together so gorgeously. The performance was incredibly joyful and moving for us. Thank you again for this once in a lifetime. opportunity. I think our children will remember it for a long time.”
— Gili Warsett, parent of youth performer, When fear is a raging bull
Past and current program partners include: The Ailey School (NYC), BOOM! Health (BX), Fort Hamilton High School (BK), Kobe Art Village Center (Kobe, Japan), Lower East Side Girls Club (NYC), Middlebury College (VT), Mountain Star Rehabilitation Center (Surdna, Palestine), Recess (BK), Staten Island Youth Justice Center, and University of Virginia.
Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre views technique as a means of furthering our bodies as instruments for creative expression. Blending contemporary dance and theater to explore themes of repertory works, YSDT classes draw on visualization, improvisation and play to facilitate experiential, process-driven classes and workshops rooted in the following core values:
Facilitating an environment of imagination/play in order to help participants make connections and find new solutions for problems inside and outside of the classroom.
Validating the individual through empowered choice-making.
Modeling the power of collective action by honoring diverse perspectives and a multiplicity of bodies, abilities, and experiences while working together as a group.
Centering the power of storytelling in pursuit of social justice.