WORKSHOPS/CLASSES
““If I had to put our experience with the dance company into words, I would say it was nothing short of a freeing, exciting, and interactive experience. Our time with YSDT provided the opportunity for staff and participants to get to know each other in a fresh and creative way. The workshops improved team building skills and had a profound impact on the confidence and self esteem of our young people.”
— Arnold Adams, Program Coordinator for the Staten Island Youth Justice Center
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.