After a week of working one-on-one with University of Idaho dance students, DanceBARN artists Ayumi Shafer and Molly Johnston will teach a class for community members Friday and perform at the Moscow Farmers Market.
DanceBARN — Build, Aspire, Reinvent and Nurture — was created by the pair four years ago in hopes of reaching out to communities and investigating how they work and interact through movement.
Shafer and Johnston are hosting modern and improvisation dance classes throughout this week, as well as a public lecture-demonstration at 3:30 p.m. and a community class an hour later — both on Friday. They will perform 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Moscow Farmers Market.
Based out of a small town in Minnesota, Johnston said the work they do is transferable elsewhere. They are excited to visit Moscow, which will be their first experience travelling out of state.
DanceBARN was originally created as a professional dance festival, but turned into more of an appreciation for small community support and a desire to have fun.
The program has an application process for dancers, choreographers and instructors from all over the country to share their love for dance and expand community outreach. The first regularly scheduled adult class began last winter, and they are looking to expand.
“We love collaborating with other people, schools, art galleries and different cities and surprising people with pop-up events too,” Shafer said. “We are excited to see what UI students have to say about what they like and dislike about certain communities and it is fun to have the chance to bring them into the collaborative process.”
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For the last five years, the UI Dance Program has invited guest artists to bring their ideas for the fall dance concert as well, showcased on Oct. 25 as a pre-professional opportunity for current dance students.
In the past, fall concerts have been titled “Pulse,” “Rising Momentum” and “Form and Transform,” but this year’s theme is “Convergence.”
The goal is to invite the community to understand the world of dance and hopefully identify with some aspects of it through the merging of different disciplines, which hopefully DanceBARN can help with.
“Dancers can easily feel alienated,” Johnston said. “It’s time that we let go of our ego and make dance a welcoming art form for people to support.”
Belle Baggs, a clinical associate professor and co-program coordinator of UI Dance, said guest artists offer students new and diverse experiences that empower and exemplify the creative process.
It is great to provide diversity for dance students and have passionate dancers be able to share their love with these majors and minors, as well as everyone in the community, she said.
“Creative processes differ from person to person and it is fascinating to observe the different aesthetics of dancers and where their inspiration stems from,” Baggs said. “All of our guest artists are chosen because they have the ability to be great, sensitive educators that offer something new in a healthy, safe and challenging environment.”
Baggs said that guest visitors certainly have a quick residency, but they tend to work fast and furiously through their creative processes.
Students deserve diversity and quality in their education and it is a priority to always be on the lookout for something unique to bring to them, Baggs said.
Allison Spain can be reached at [email protected]