Saturday's festival, sponsored and run by Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, was a wonderful event. I wore several different hats (although they all looked like my brand new Red Sox cap purchased on the way to the Festival):
- I displayed info about dance/movement therapy and the American Dance Therapy Association. I met several people interested in knowing more about the profession, which I was glad to share.
- I exhibited the Octaband. Many wonderful people, adults and children, were introduced to and played with the Octaband for the first time. Several suggested that OT.s and PT's would love it. The people who bought it were very excited to try it out, with family, after school programs, and creative dance for 4 y.o.s among others.
- I thoroughly enjoyed dancing with Back Pocket Dancers in Bouki Dances the Kokioko plus a short improv with the Octaband, a first. Looking out into the audience, I saw friends and family looking joyously back up at us.
Several people were on their way from here to there and wondered aloud to me, "What is happening here? Why dancing?" I told them that the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre which was housed there was sponsoring an event to raise awareness of the value of dance for social action. One man asked quizzically, "Dance for social action?" He sounded cynical. "How does dance do that?" I showed him images of me dancing with elders in wheelchairs, others dancing with children with cerebral palsy, and then gestured to the people dancing in the streets, of different ages, colors, cultures, dancing together to build community. He was impressed and agreed that it was dance for social action.
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