Professional dancers from around the world will share their art, and personal stories of resilience, at Ballet Beyond Borders next week, albeit in a new online format.
The ninth-annual dance and diplomacy conference usually brings its participants right to Missoula, where residents can watch in-person dance challenges, discussions and film screenings.
The guest list is still high, with some 300 participants from 40 countries. Only this time, all the action, verbal or choreographed, will be screened at home.
The guests will include familiar faces from prior visits “along with fresh faces from Nigeria, Syria, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia — many destinations we haven’t had before simply because of travel issues,” said Charlene Campbell-Carey, the director of BBB and the Missoula-based Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre.
“Obviously, we can’t hug each other but I think it’s a great introduction to the new people who will participate, and hope we can hug them in person in August in Montana,” she said.
The event had originally been planned for January in Los Angeles — a break from Montana winter — but couldn’t go on in person, hence the online move. The conference will be held live in August in Missoula if conditions allow.
“Dance is a contact sport,” she said. That's made the year challenging for the artists, who may be deprived of performing in a normal fashion. Like everyone else, they’ve been exploring “how to be accessible without contact.”
The chance to perform, take classes or discuss their work seems high, based on the number of dancers who’ve signed up. (The schedule will go live this weekend on rmbt.org/bbb and updated as events are added.)
One of the most popular features for spectators are the dance challenges, where youths to professionals compete in categories like classical and contemporary. Those will go on as normal online. They start at 10 a.m. Montana time and run for two and a half to three hours on Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 6-7. Thursday the 7th also features a sampling of work by Israeli choreographers.
The Diplomacy Conference is on Saturday, Jan. 9, along with the evening gala. All of the events are free.
The pandemic will be part of some of the cultural exchanges, which normally focus on common grounds, “what do we all share that’s similar, and that also is very illuminating in the sense of how the pandemic has affected us socially, and reveals many of the injustices at home as well as away,” she said.
Also expect new additions, like cooking classes, dance health talks and video tours from artists' home bases.
One special guest is Tanin Torabi, an award-winning choreographer and filmmaker from Iran. She’ll give a special event, “In Plain Sight,” that addresses the visibility and constrictions on dance for women in her home country. It will be recorded and posted online to view on demand.
A returning guest is Roman Baca, U.S. Marine who served in the Iraq War. Now based in London as Fulbright Scholar, he’ll present a new work, “War Leaves Pieces,” based on words and stories by fellow artist-veterans.
Ahmad Joudeh, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp, is returning this year, with another screening of his documentary, “Dance or Die,” where he performs at sites from his home that have been destroyed. He’s bringing two guests — young dancers who are stateless refugees, who who will share their experiences.
Local dancers can take master classes, from classical ballet to Cuban and Samba, with teachers from Cuba, Russia, the U.S., South Africa and more.