They Dance For Rain

YOU CAN EASILY DONATE $5, $10, $20, $200 or more to THEY DANCE FOR RAIN’s upcoming return to Nairobi via our Fractured Atlas account or mail check made out to Stefanie Weber to PO Box 3094 Pittsfield MA 01202. For end of year tax-deductible contributions please contact Stefanie #413.281.6734 or Stefanie.Lynx.Weber@gmail.com. THANK YOU!

A Meeting Of Cultures Through A Shared Value Of Dance

They Dance For Rain is an dance-making project that works with arts-for-social-change organizations in urban Nairobi, Kenya. We bring Tap shoes and the art form of Tap Dance to people with an interest and need for this unique kind of artistic self-expression. We bring hoops to dance with and teach others the skills of making long-lasting dance hoops. We bring visibility to an otherwise unrepresented population of slum and ghetto dancers and dwellers through photography and film.   

In this area of the world, Tap Dance is still quite young and the eagerness to learn it is immense. Through this continuing global exchange of artistic dialogue They Dance For Rain inspires a new generation of Tap Dancers. These dancers will innovate the form through use of their own culturally distinctive ideas and styles. 

They Dance For Rain is created and directed by action-based dance artist Stefanie Weber in collaboration with fine art photographer Monika Pizzichemi.

Project History

The project began on December 1st 2011, when I launched a campaign to carry a suitcase of Tap shoes with me on a journey to Nairobi, Kenya. After successfully raising enough funds to bring those shoes, I took flight January 3rd 2012. I traveled and lodged under the sponsorship of a very good friend living and working in Nairobi. We had met in New Hampshire during a term of service we shared in Americorps in the mid-90s. She had gone on to pursue a career of international service in food-security while I focused on my profession as an action-based dance artist. 

While in Nairobi that first time, I was introduced to Kenyan musician Eric Wainaina who in turn introduced me to a number of grassroots art-for-social-change organizations ACREF, VOCAL and SARAKASI. These were just a few who were interested in adding Tap Dance to their programming. I taught workshops in Rhythm Tap and shared Tap shoes, leaving some behind for them.  I also introduced some of them to Hoop Dance.

During my second residency in Nairobi (Dec/Jan 2013), I brought professional photographer and artist Monika Pizzichemi along to artfully document and expand the project’s reach and goals.  We also added two more stops on our outreach trail. First,  Shangilia, a very well-established rescue center for children on the streets with a focus on performing arts as the core value in strengthening the community. Secondly, GoDown Arts Center a lively center for creatives which under the direction and collaboration of Nairobi- based dance artists  Sara Kwala Opondo and Adams Lucas hosted a series of Tap Dance workshops with professional contemporary dancers that I led.  We also brought hoop-making materials to ACREF and had the pleasure of training them in making their own durable and colorful hoops to dance with and sell.

Monika and I had the pleasure and the challenge to return to Nairobi for another residency December 2013/Jan 2014 and get in deeper with the groups we work with and strategize further on making the project more sustainable. (Check back for a more updates and images from our most recent residency.)

This project, which started with a small crowd-funding campaign in December 2011, has already produced an enthusiasm for Tap Dance in the Nairobi art and social-change scene way beyond anything I would have expected.  Success has been measured in a number of ways: capturing thousands of artful and engaging images that inspire, donating over 50 pairs of Tap shoes to individuals who studied  Tap and will continue to share with each other and pass along to others in need, introducing established dance artists to the possibilities inherent in an art-form such as Tap Dance, witnessing dozens of smiling faces, connecting youth to new options for expression, dialogue and employment, and listening and documenting the stories of courageous dance makers.

Art and Dance making is one way in which we take care of each other.  The goal is to continue to develop and deepen the relationships with the organizations and artists we have started this journey with and increase the amount of intentional art and dance making in our widening circle with the knowledge that all circles somehow overlap and effect one another.

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After much success with our 2015 and 2016 residencies in Nairobi, we took pause while Stefanie cared for her mother diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After her mother’s passing Christmas 2017, Stefanie took 2018 to transition into the long-term care for her father with ALZ.

We use your hard-earned donation to represent with dignity, inspiration and love.

Your spirit of giving accompanies us on this journey and will touch those we are lucky to reach out to.

Make the movement bigger.

Please share the information about this project with the people in your lives who may want to support it.

Every dollar and idea is significant and helpful.

They dance for rain and we too dance because we must. Let’s dance together.

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie. -Agnes de Mille

♥

Thank you to all of our donors and supporters!