Educate and empower at risk children through dance

The year 2021 is comming to its end, but the lective year at DANZÁREA is already over.

It was a year of great changes for the better within our program. We were gradually able to return to face-to-face classes, and that means, among other things, AERIAL DANCE LESSONS!

After a full year without being able to give aerial dance lessons and concentrating the program only on contemporary dance and physical preparation (virtually), finally, as of June, we were able to start bringing small groups of students to XIELO to take, some for the first time, aerial dance lessons. It was a total success!

We can proudly report that we ended the year having served 105 students (ages 4 to 20) throughout the year. These students received classes (both virtual and face-to-face) in contemporary and aerial dance, physical preparation, dance workshops with external teachers, both local and foreign, and participated in cultural activities too.

This year we not only presented a full year-end presentation; "Aventuras de Plenilunio", but we also graduated three of our oldest students: Génesis and Valeria, who particpated both in DANZÁREA for the last 7 years, and Álvaro, who holds the record for the longest permanence in our program, with12 years in DANZÁREA (he started with us when he was only 5 years old). This is a source of pride for us, as we are sure that these three young people will be agents of positive change in their communities and already have great plans for their future.

Although this was a good year for us, both at DANZÁREA and at Fundación Gramo Danse, we are very excited about the arrival of the new year, as we have great plans for 2022. For example: DANZÁREA will return 100% to face-to-face lessons, and our CIA. Gramo Danse will be working on a new piece of contemporary and vertical dance that will be presented in the first quarter of the year, and after this, they will start a vertical dance residency with Brenda Angiel from Argentina, thanks to the support of the IBERESCENA Fund, which we have won for fifth time, and the third consecutive year. We couldn't be happier!.

We will also have the participation of other CÍA. Gramo Danse works in both national and international festivals, and we hope to be able to carry out an educational tour in the capital and the interior of the country with works such as k.IROS (morpho se fue) and ONEIROS.

We are very happy to have had your support this year, and all previous years. But we are more happy to know that we will continue to count on you, as long as we continue dancing. 

Greetings and happy holidays from our family to yours

Links:

• Our website

Our program has returned to the heights! The gradual lifting of some restrictions in July allowed us to resume aerial dance lessons at our dance studio, Xielo.

While keeping the space capacity low and maintaining all the biosecurity measures recommended by the health authorities, DANZÁREA students returned to their training on aerial devices after more than a year of focusing only on fitness and contemporary dance remotely from their homes.

Currently, three groups of 15 students each, are attending 6 hours (weekly) of in-person lessons at Xielo. Some of these students are resuming their training while others are receiving for the first time, their aerial dance lessons, as well as contemporary dance.

The adjustment of DANZÁREA to a hybrid format has allowed us to reincorporate personalized attention to each child in the program, while we continue reaching a large number of children through virtual classes that will continue indefinitely. More than 90 children have been part of DANZÁREA so far this year.

If everything we lived with the pandemic has taught us anything, it is to be resilient and to always seek to obtain the best results with the resources we have at our disposal. For this reason, we continue to count on you, our support network, who allow us to continue doing our work, and educating hundreds of children through dance, despite the difficulties that arise.

We are very thankful for that!

DANZAREA continues to thrive despite the current global and local challenges. Among our goals for 2021 are to continue the virtual dance classes. We will transition into the in-person dance classes in small groups starting mid-year always taking in consideration local sanitary rules and conditions. We are also happy to announce that we have started a class of contemporary dance for the younger brothers and sisters of our students. These are children between 4 to 6 years old and our goal is to create learning and happy environments for our students and their families. Our program will continue to serve up to 60 students this year. Our motto is Educating through Dance. However, our approach to education is holistic. We started the school year with an “organization campaign” to empower our students to organize their time and chores. We continue with the tutoring sessions for our students who have had difficulties with school assignments as they proved to cause good academic results. We are also in the process of hiring our Academic Coordinator who will oversee all issues related to academic support for our students. It has always been important but more relevant in today´s world since our students live in at-risk neighborhoods with low to no connectivity. Our goals are to avoid school dropout and to encourage academic achievement and high school completion. In alliance with one of our sponsors, our students have received a workshop on basic financial education. It is one of several workshops, they will receive to learn the importance of saving and managing their individual and family resources. We are also a place for professional development of our teachers. Between March and April, all our dance teachers participated numerous hours of training in preparation for the new school year. The training consisted of contemporary dance classes, aerial conditioning, and dance technique. In addition, one of our dance teachers participated in a Social Circus Training which is very important to be able to use circus techniques to develop a learning environment connected to the community. Social Circus training also uses the Arts as a tool for individual development. We have been very active and finding learning opportunities for the growth of our students, our teachers, and collaborators. We will continue to adapt to the current situation but always doing our best to provide with learning opportunities for our students, their families, and the community.

This year started with a bright future like any other year to turn into a year with unexpected challenges. It brought important changes that forced us to be more creative than ever, to adapt and continue with our mission of creating and educating through dance.

It will be a year that, like you, we will never forget. However, we are now READY to receive 2021, loaded with lots of energy and dance, to make it a year full of CULTURE.

At Gramo Danse, we will continue working to ensure that CULTURE is understood and respected as a vital part of the educational process of every citizen, which must be granted as a fundamental right for all Panamanians.

To us, DANCE is much more than a way of life: it is our way of contributing to our country in the construction of a better, fair and more inclusive society.

THANK YOU so much for being a vital part in achieving our goals and objectives this year, and we hope to count on you next year.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Links:

• Nuestro cuento de NAVIDAD
• Website

• Thank you notes (Spanish) (PDF)
  

Dear sponsors and supporters: 

Since our last report on May 5^th, the situation in our country and in the world continues to evolve. We are experiencing uncertainty and do not know what to expect for the future. Nonetheless, we continue to address the needs related to education and health which in some cases remain the same, and in other cases have worsened.

In Panama, we have faced a strict lockdown for the last 6 months, and we are just beginning to see some ease. Businesses prepare for reopening with some limitations and strict sanitation requirements, in September.

However, this new flexibilization does not allow us to resume physical contact with our children. We continue working to find and maintain the connection with our beneficiaries remotely and securely. The situation for many has not improved, as many parents have lost their sources of income, and the economic recovery of our country (and of the entire world) will take some time. While we await for a recovery, we continue to provide them with humanitarian aid, in the form of food bags and supermarket vouchers so that our families can survive this crisis in the most dignified way possible. To this date, we have delivered 193 bags of food and 85 supermarket vouchers.

The conversion of our dance classes to virtual format has been difficult due to the lack of internet access, and/or adequate electronic equipment (hardware). To solve this problem, soon we will be launching a microproject to provide tablets and monthly  internet contracts to those beneficiaries who do not have them, so they can continue to participate in DANZÁREA, to attend school and to complete their school assignments remotely.

We still count on your support to keep our operation running and our children learning and making the best of this situation through our dance program. DANZÁREA has not and will not stop!

Thank you again! 

Links:

• Our webpage