Contact: Annie Dwyer, Dance Specialist

This was a project that went far beyond what we have dreamed of and shifted the perspective of the participants. As part of the Upper School Advanced Dance Class, we set up an outreach dance experience for residents of the Forest at Duke, a retirement community located about 5 minutes away from our school. We had a sequence of 3-4 afternoon experiences for the residents there, working with 15 Carolina Friends School Advanced Dance students. The dancers would interview the residents and dance with them. The theme of our dance concert this year was limitation and possibility, and the theme “home,” which gave a sense of history and meaning to these students. Videotaped segments of these interviews with the residents were later edited in to our Dance Concert in December, so that we could have the residents be part of our concert without having to have countless rehearsals or intrude on their lives.

The dancers from Carolina Friends School quickly made friends with the residents. The residents expressed their delight in working with teenagers. The dancers developed an appreciation of the residents that was evidenced in their journal entries and observations.

This project gave the school visibility in the Durham community and with people who we would ordinarily not have the opportunity to interact with. It broadened the definition of dance and home for all the participants and viewers. The concert and therefore the edited videotapes of the experience were shared by the CFS community in four performances in December 2005. It was an incredible experience.