dance diplomacy

This week’s PD News focused on President Trump’s trip overseas, from the importance of Saudi Arabia to Melania Trump’s international debut as First Lady. 

The mood in Riyadh was in sharp contrast to Washington where pressure is building after fresh claims over the President Donald Trump team’s alleged links to Moscow. On his first foreign tour as the US President, Donald Trump joined in a traditional sword dance welcome ceremony ahead of a banquet at the Murabba Palace in Saudi Arabia. Video of the dance shows Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross dancing with swords perched on their shoulders as part of a line of men in traditional Saudi garb, CNN reported.

Verb Ballets embarked on their first international tour to Taiwan April 10-April 24, 2017 through the support of the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion program. During the two week tour, the company will reunite with choreographer Lee Ming-Cheng and Taiwanese dance company, BodyEDT. The two dance companies will then perform a shared program at the National Theatre & Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan for four performances running April 21-23, 2017. 

There's a new way of doing diplomacy in Ethiopia's capital, one that forsakes speeches in favour of music, sweat and bare feet. A troupe of New York-based dancers arrived in the capital Addis Ababa earlier this month to boogie their way to closer ties between the United States and Ethiopia, a major East African economy and counterterrorism partner for Washington.

"My dance aims at pitting women against challenges that are often thought to be men's domain. It's a very physical and powerful way to break the stereotypes and empower women from all sections of the society," says Kay. She mostly works in collaboration with dancer-choreographer Ajeesh K Balakrishnan, who is also a Kalaripayattu exponent.

This week in Gwangju, we also see cultural diplomacy in action. "With support from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, some 100 participants and their families and communities have come together with a team of dancers from Battery Dance, a New York-based contemporary dance company, to help build understanding and bridge divides." 

The first edition of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) International Television Dance Festival is scheduled to be held in Hyderabad; the city with royal patronage for arts, literature and architecture, on January 15. Prasar Bharati is hosting the event. The Dance Festival is conceptualised so as to bring the cultural diversities from across the world into limelight, by breaking cultural barriers.

Callejón de Hamel (Hamel Alley) — a vibrant street in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Central Havana devoted to Afro-Cuban culture —is where Elier Lima first fell in love with dance. [...] This significant cultural space, which also features music, theater and art became the first stage Lima danced son, salsa and rumba before joining the Dance School of the National Theatre of Cuba and the National Folkloric Ensemble of Cuba.

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