***For Immediate Release***
BALLET BEYOND BORDERS ANNOUNCES 5TH INTERNATIONAL DANCE CHALLENGE, DIPLOMACY CONFERENCE COMING TO MISSOULA JANUARY 2020
Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre to Host Global Cultural Exchange January 8 – 11, 2020 on UM Campus
(Missoula, Mont.) – The Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre announced Ballet Beyond Borders Grand Prix Dance Challenge and Global Diplomacy Conference is coming to Missoula January 8 – 11, 2020.
This marks the 5th global dance festival hosted by Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre and follows up on the heels of a highly successful premiere of Ballet Beyond Borders in Los Angeles and Westchester, California this past August.
“Ballet Beyond Borders has been such a success in Missoula that we were invited to bring the festival to Los Angeles and Westchester earlier this year. We’re thrilled to be back home, bringing the world to Missoula for five days of world-class dance competition and diplomatic exchanges is the heart of our mission and we are thrilled to be sharing this with the community,” said Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre artistic director and Ballet Beyond Borders president, Charlene Campbell Carey.
The five-day event kicks off January 8th with international and Montana dancers join the Missoula Writing Collaborative in visiting schools in Missoula and the Flathead Indian Reservation. The festival wraps up with a Gala Finale on January 11, 2020 at the Dennison Theatre. In addition to the dance challenge, Ballet Beyond Borders will feature substantive discussions on the role of dance in global diplomacy. Thanks to support from sponsors including the Drollinger Family Charitable Foundation, all events are free and open to the public with the exception of the Gala Finale. Tickets for the Gala are available at www.griztix.com.
Ballet Beyond Borders 2020 will feature four inspiring individuals who have overcome incredible challenges while pursuing excellence in the performing arts. Their stories are both uplifting and unifying and highlight how dance breaks down barriers and fosters cultural diplomacy.
Ballet Beyond Borders 2020: Featured Guest Stars
Roman Baca
Baca is a US Marine who served in Iraq in 2007 as a machine gunner and fire team leader. While looking for insurgents and intelligence, Baca also became immersed in humanitarian work, bringing water and school supplies to those in need. Home from Iraq in 2007, he found himself having a tough time transitioning to civilian life. "I remember a couple of instances where I was mean and angry and depressed," says Baca. "My wife sat me down and said, 'You are not the same guy I knew before.' " She suggested Baca return to his roots in dance. Baca had trained at The Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in Connecticut and spent a few years as a freelance dancer before feeling compelled, like his grandfather had, to serve his country. "I walked into the recruiter's office and said, 'I want to help people who can't help themselves.' Ten years later, Baca is a Fulbright Fellow in London, working to educate audiences about the realities of war through dance. Mr. Baca will speak at the BBB MT diplomacy conference, and to veterans and individuals at risk or identified and suffering from PTSD.
Lizt Alfonso
Alfonso has earned multiple awards and recognition include the BBC’s list of the 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world in 2018; International Spotlight Award by the USA President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, granted at the White House, by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, in 2016; The National Culture Order of Cuba; Ambassador of the Cuban Artist Fund of New York. At the age of 23, she founded Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba that has become one of the most popular and prestigious in the dance and musical world for its novel style. Lizt will teach, serve on the jury and will present her vision of her unique school during the Diplomacy Conference.
Sophie Rebecca
Rebecca is an English ballet dancer who was the first openly transgender person to train at the Royal Acadcemy of Dance’s courses for female dancers. The academy changed its policy in 2013 and no longer insists that students taking these courses must have been born female. Sophie is an articulate representative of the transgender community and can share her journey to womanhood and how dance has played an important role. She explains how dance saved her. She will speak at the Diplomacy Conference, moderate a panel discussion at the film festival and perform.
Ahmad Joudeh
Ahmad Joudeh is a ballet dancer and a choreographer from Syria. He moved to the Netherlands with help of the Dutch National Ballet Company. He is currently internationally active as an artist. Joudeh grew up in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. His mother is Syrian, his father Palestinian, and while his father did not approve of his interest in dance, Joudeh persisted. From 2007 until 2016, he lived in Damascus, studying dance, and teaching ballet to support himself, and to orphaned and disabled children free of charge. His mother still lives in Syria. In 2016, a documentary about Ahmad called Dance or Die was made. It depicts him dancing in the ruins of the camp where he had grown up, visiting his family's former home in Palmyra, which has been destroyed, and the ancient Roman theater of Palmyra. Joudeh also takes the filmmakers to his dance studio in Damascus, where some of his young students talk about their lives, and what dance means to them. The ancient Roman Theater in Palmyra was subsequently destroyed by ISIS.
All four of these important artists along with a dozen other BBB leaders will be part of discussions and informal meetings with BBB attendees, will present their stories during the diplomacy conference, teach master classes and share their experiences with the BBB and Montana community. Their stories of hardship, war, alienation, loss of country and their stories of struggle and perseverance are vital inspiration to the global humanity we all share.
Learn more about the Ballet Beyond Borders Experience here.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BALLET THEATRE CONTACT:
Charlene Campbell, BBB president and executive producer
406-549-5155
MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACT:
Kathy Weber
406-698-3150
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