(2008) – June 3 @ 7:30  Farewell: Parched Earth – The End of the World As We Know It (Remembrances From Tomarrow), a new evening-length dance work, created in collaboration with nine Kenyan Contemporary Dancers (six men and three women) during a three-week residency hosted by the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya (May 17 to June 4, 2008).  GoDown Arts Centre, the preeminent center for the arts in Kenya, under the direction of Judy Ogana, was the Kenya location for the residency. The technical aspects of the production were under the direction of John Kabiru Njoroge. Dancers participated, daily, in the creation and content of the new performance.

Maida Withers, choreographer/dancer/filmmaker and professor and Wendell Cooper, African-American choreographer and urban dancer (break dance, hip hop and modern dance) and Steve Hilmy, electronic composer/ musician, were USA artists in Nairobi as Cultural Envoys representing the Embassy of the United States of  America  -Department of State.  The larger objectives of the project were to build and strengthen understandingd betweend Americans and Kenyans through bicultural collaboration and presentation of contemporary American dance, music, and visual installation to the Kenyan dance community and public. The intension was to create new work through artistic exchange and build a foundation for a long term relationship between American and Kenyan participants and the Kenyan presenting organization.  Parched Earth was a new work that became part of the series of FareWell dances related to humans relationship to the earth and environment. There is an excellent United States Cultural Envoy Evaluation Report in the Dance Construction Company  archive.

Concepts and movements for FareWell:  Parched Earth were influenced by the photograph exhibit at the GoDown Arts Center – an exhibit of photo images documenting the deadly civil disturbance in Kenya that occurred the month prior to our residency as U.S. Cultural Enjoys in Nairobi, Kenya. The Kenyan dancers had experienced intense personal trauma through the recent upheaval in Nairobi. Together, through rehearsals to create Parched Earth we collaborated to reveal the dancer’s deep understanding and love of and respect for the Earth and nature by the African people and to, then, go further to express an understand of violence experienced through the current human disruption of cherished values due to the insurrection. Dancers worked a full day every day for the three-week residency.  Dancers participated in the creation of the work.   The authentic movements were so strong and beautiful.  Their improvisation skills and creative skills contributed immensely to the content and content of the work.  Statements by dancers regarding their current feelings were very powerful and meaningful.

Together, through a collaborative process, rehearsing 13 days from 11 am to 5 pm,  we created a 23-minute multimedia dance, Parched Earth: Remembrances from Tomarrow – six men and three women, professional dancers who represented the 2nd and 3rd generation of professional modern dancers in Nairobi (“core group”).  Several of the dancer are experienced choreographers and so the focus was on choreography and a specific process to crete a new dance work that included text, visual elements and new music.  The dancers’ materials were incorporated and restructured into the performance since the topic of the work related directly to current life in Kenya.  They knew the story they would tell.  Steve Hilmy attended rehearsal and created a sophisticated new electronic music score for Parched Earth.

Our desire was our hope that working together creatively would lead to a  deep understanding, trust, and acceptance among the artists and the audience. We were so honored to work with the amazing and talented African dance artists, administrators of the GoDown Arts Centre, and the Embassy of the United States in Nairobi.
Comprehensive Embassy report is available in Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company archives.

Wendell Cooper, Cultural Envoy, taught daily workshops  for two and one-half hours daily that featured break dance, hip hop, and house dancing techniques that attracted the younger, upcoming,more commercial dancers in Nairobi and created a performance event with Kunja Dancers.

Channel 24 in Nairobi was so interested in the project that they ended up spending almost two full days taping rehearsals and conducting interviews during the tech-in anddress rehearsal.  A large number of the audience stayed for the discussion following the performance.  See the extensive US Embassy report in the archive.
Dancers:  Steve Hilmy. Composer/Musician in the Nairobi Residency for US Department of State
Wendell Cooper was teaching, daily, acrobatic/aerial tactics to youth at the GoDown Center.  Very beautiful and joyful result in performance.