Photos & Videos
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Ghana,
Hungary,
Indonesia,
Israel/Palestine,
Italy,
Mexico,
Serbia,
South Africa
Featured
HaMapah
HaMapah/The Map is a multimedia dance journey that traces the intersections of dancer Adam McKinney's African American, Native American, and Jewish heritages. HaMapah/The Map weaves contemporary dance with archival material, personal interviews, Yiddish and American songs, and video set to traditional, contemporary, and classical music. In the piece, McKinney explores issues of identity, ancestry, and family.
Ghana
Christian Children's Storehouse
Adam and Daniel taught at the Children’s Christian Storehouse Conservatory, an after-school and weekend arts and education program that serves youth from a wide range of backgrounds – from homeless and village youth to diplomats’ children. With the NYU and University of Ghana students, DNAWORKS choreographed and created an end-of-term production, Kofi’s Story: From Accra-way to Broadway, that sold out the Efua T. Sutherland Drama Studio, a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre at the University of Ghana, Legon.
We are All One: The Jews of Sefwi Wiawso - Ghana
Several Jewish men from Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana recount stories of The House of Israel community and its return to ancestral Judaic beliefs and practices.
DNAWORKS was funded by the U.S. Embassy in Ghana to lead an oral history project with the Jewish community, some 200 strong, in Sefwi Wiawso in the Western Region of Ghana about 120 miles from Accra. Adam and Daniel spent Purim with the community, their first celebration of this holiday, led a Purim spiel, and taught songs. They also spent Passover with the community and three Shabbatot.
Hungary
Roma and Friends Camp
For three years, DNAWORKS has led drama and self-expression workshops at the Roma and Friends Camp in Balatonlelle, based on the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative methodology. For the past two years, DNAWORKS has also led an annual teacher training workshop with the teachers of the campers, based in critical pedagogy and alternative modes of engaging youth in the classroom.
Artist Roundtable and Lauder/Joint Camp
Artist roundtable in Budapest co-hosted by DNAWORKS and Golem Theatre to discuss the state of performing arts in the US and Hungary; and arts and dialogue workshop for counselors and staff at the Lauder/Joint International Jewish Youth Camp in Szarvas following a performance of HaMapah/The Map.
Indonesia
Namarina Youth Dance - Indonesia
In 2008, Adam was invited by Namarina Youth Dance (Jakarta) to teach master dance classes, lead dance teacher trainings, and to choreograph a new work, Pathways, which revolves around women's journeys to their present places in society and the manner in which society creates the pathways we all take. This piece remains in Namarina's repertory.
Israel
Peace Child Israel, Nazareth - Israel
As part of a grant from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Daniel and Adam facilitated a day-long Hip Hop Theatre workshop in Nazareth for Peace Child Israel with high school students from a Jewish and an Arab Israeli high school. Assisted by Brandeis alumnus and PCI counselor Walaa Sbait, the youth created short performance pieces to share with each other and their teachers.
Italy
La Mama in Umbria - Italy
In 2009, Daniel was invited to give a week-long Hip Hop Theatre workshop at La MaMa Umbria’s International Symposium for Directors. Sponsored by La MaMa ETC, the symposium is a training program for professional directors, choreographers, playwrights and actors. Daniel conducted workshops on the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative’s methodology with participants from Singapore, Korea, Russia, Australia, Taiwan, and the U.S. Out of this workshop developed on-going partnerships with artists Anthem Salgado and Mei Ann Te.
Mexico
Fuser's Crew, Oaxaca City
In Oaxaca City, local Hip Hop activist Fuser and his community of artists discussed the history of Hip Hop, shared their skills – ranging from Rap and Emceeing to Breaking to tattooing, and collaborated with peers to begin creating interdisciplinary pieces. Together, the community identified issues and began brainstorming solutions, including writing to their government leaders.
José María Morelos
In José María Morelos, community leader Israel greeted DNAWORKS/HHTI in his rural town and introduced the team to parents and their children. Here the youth of Costa Chica centered their work around the long absences of family members searching for jobs in the North, and drug prevention. They did writing, improvisation, and visual art exercises that were shared with the older members of the community.
Serbia
Passing the Flame Festival - Serbia
Hip Hop Theatre workshop at Dah Teatar in Belgrade, Serbia, which included young members of the local community, as well as professional theatre artists from around Europe, the US, and New Zealand.
South Africa
Agulhas Theatre Works
Adam co-choreographed “Pretending to be Something, Now Coming from Nothing” with Agulhas Theatre Works of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Atlantis Township
Adam and Daniel led a self-expression and empowerment workshop through dance and art making at the Community Center in Atlantis, a Coloured township outside Cape Town. Participants aged from 9 months to 94 years collaborated in the project. We devised dance work and later paraded through the streets in an visual art-clad car which traveled from the Community Center into the streets. A dance block party concluded the day.
Hip Hop Theatre Lab
Daniel was in residence at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, where he directed a workshop production of the Hip Hop Theatre play Blurring Shine by U.S. writer Zakiyyah Alexander. He then created a Hip Hop Theatre Lab in which he trained young artists to make Hip Hop Theatre and to lead youth empowerment and arts workshops, which they then did at Sibikwa Community Theatre in the East Rand. He also taught two days of masterclasses at The Actors Studio and led a day-long workshop in the Langa township near Cape Town.