Educate and empower at risk children through dance

We at Fundación Gramo Danse, feel really happy with the success achieved during last year. 

We are very happy to announce that DANZAREA is continuing in 2019, and that we already have plans to make this year even better, by adding two important complements to our program: a Parents Club, to reach the whole family and have them engaged with our children's personal evolution, and a Tutoring Program, aimed to help the kids who are facing some specific academic issues at school. Both of this programs, are going to be planned and executed by our new Social Worker, who will be working close with the boys and girls of DANZAREA, to asses their family and personal situation, and recommend specific courses of action for each one of them. 

Of course this is big work we have ahead of us, but we are hopeful that with all your support we are going to be able to not only meet our goals, but even go further. 

Thank you.

On September 29th, the annual show of our successful social program DANZÁREA took place in Xielo, Gramo Danse.

"Insecticalia" had a cast of 55 dancers, children and teenagers between 5 and 17 years old who gave life to the characters of this original work, which relates the journey of "Elián" to the world of insects and spiders.

"Elián" is a child who likes to play with insects abruptly and mistreats them, until one day he is taken to the depths of his own garden by the protective spirit of the insects, where he coexists with them and manages to understand the evil that he has been causing them, and from that moment on he becomes their protector forever.

In "Insecticalia", the children and teenagers of the program tell this story with enthusiasm showing all the knowledge of aerial and contemporary dance acquired during the year.

DANZÁREA has taught aerial and contemporary dance to more than 2,500 children and teenagers from at-risk neighborhood such as El Chorrillo, Santa Ana, Curundu, Cabo Verde, Llano Bonito, Panama Viejo, Lefevre Park and Rio Abajo, managing to touch their lives through of the benefits of art and dance as a tool for social change, that instills in them leadership, conflict resolution skills, values, confidence, creativity, self-esteem and respect towards their peers, teachers and institutions.

Photos are courtesy of Luis Mendoza.

Links:

• Foundation's Website

Fundacion Gramo Danse and DANZAREA have the pleasure of presenting the final product of the 5th Festival of Coreography for Children and Teenagers of Panama: BRIO 2018. After two months of hard work and preparation, the young choreographers are ready to present their creations to the public.

This year, we have 12 choreographers participating, among which we find EMILY, MEIBYS, MARITZEL, TATIANA and SUSANA, 6 DANZAREA students with ages between 9 and 14 years old. The rest is made up of dance students from various academies like STUDIO 9, BRISAS DEL GOLF, ARTE BALLET STUDIO, MOYRA'S PRODUCTIONS and ACADEMIA DANZA LABERINTO.

The 48 participants of BRIO 2018, including 22 from DANZAREA, attended the following workshops: "Panama, City of Encounters" central theme to be developed in their choreographies, music and dance workshops, choreographic collaboration, use of aerial elements to create, interpretation and finally a lighting workshop.

Additionally, each group/choreography had two sessions of feedback from dance professionals, who could appreciate the progress of each piece, and provide their opinions and recommendations to both young choreographers and dancers.

Now, we are reaching the end. It has been two months of hard work, long hours of assembly and rehearsals and we are ready to present these wonderful creations to the general public, through a gala presentation. We will also take some of the dance creations to Juan B. Sosa public school.

You can contribute to this beautiful task of instilling leadership and the creative capacity in our youth, acquiring tickets to come and see the presentation in Xielo on July 21st at 7:00 p.m. And if you can’t come, we can donate your tickets to people who cannot afford them. Do you want to support BRÍO? Contact us at info@gramodanse.org

We are proud to announce that we have graduated from the GlobalGiving Accelerator program, gaining entry into the GlobalGiving marketplace and becoming a recognized partner of GlobalGiving, by successfully raising $9,217 from 66 unique individual donors to support our project, "Dance education project for 60 at-risk children."

"We're thrilled to have Fundacion Gramo Danse as part of our community. Fundacion Gramo Danse has met our rigorous vetting standards for trust and community support”, said Mari Kuraishi, President and Co-Founder of GlobalGiving.

Since many of our supporters did not know this platform before we introduced it to them, we would like to let you know that GlobalGiving is the first and largest global crowdfunding community that connects nonprofits, donors, and companies in nearly every country around the world. GlobalGiving makes possible for local organizations, like us, to access the funding, tools, training, and support we need to become more effective and make our communities a better place.

We really want to thank you once again for supporting us, showing that you are committed like us in helping our youth to thrive, and we encourage you to visit our project page again, and set up a monthly donation (even $10.00 means the world to us) until we reach our goal of $50,000 so we can continue doing our job to promote social change through dance.

Links:

• Want to learn more about our experience? read this!

DANZAREA is the social program of Fundación Gramo Danse which offers scholarships to children and young people from communities that present situations of violence, social risk, and lack an integral education, since 2008. Children and teenagers accepted in the program learn aerial and contemporary dance along with values, conflict resolution skills, and cooperation with others. 

This social program offers its students six hours a week of aerial dance classes (silks, aerial hoop, trapeze and rope), contemporary dance, classical ballet, theater and choreography. Children also have the opportunity to present themselves to various audiences on several times throughout the year.

During its ten years of operation, DANZAREA has taught classes to more than 2,500 children, between 5 and 17 years old, from at-risk neighborhoods of El Chorrillo, Santa Ana, Curundu, Cabo Verde, Llano Bonito, Panama Viejo, Parque Lefevre and Río Abajo touching their lives through the benefits of art and dance.

Discipline, concentration, and the development of self-esteem and creative abilities are an integral part of dance learning. The greatest achievement of the students has been to transform positively their self image, in addition to expanding their abilities and changing the projection of their future, which will allow them to become agents of change in their respective communities.

All of this, is possible thanks to our many supporters, both individual or corporate, and also some gubernamental authorities.

Thanks to you all!