My collaboration with U.M.K.C.’s Her Art Project at the Plaza Art Fair was designed to explore sharing plant art and dance with as many people as possible. I was excited for the opportunity to be in such a highly traffic-ed area. It turned out to be way more people than I had expected.
There were more kids than there was space at the art making table from the moment I arrived to the time I cleared the table. The kids were determined and focused – they seemed absolutely starved to create. There was little time to talk about their creations or about dance.
After the table was converted to another project, I issued the dance invitation to people who passed by U.M.K.C.’s tent dance, and then I went into the crowd. The invitation was for a dance dare: go up behind someone and do a great dance – without them knowing it – in exchange for an art card.
Everyone who took the dare had a blast – and everyone who saw it got a good, long, good-natured laugh.
There’s something about self expression and dance that brings so much happiness and satisfaction. It was amazing what joy a simple invitation could bring. It was equally amazing at the number of people who turned down the invitation.
Of the other dance dare projects I’ve done (see the videos on my YouTube channel), this one had the lowest level of participation. About one in eight accepted the dare, where a more normal rate is about one in four. I was really disappointed more kids didn’t participate. I’m going to take that as a challenge, to find a situation where lots of kids want to dance and be creative, and give them the opportunity to be expressive and create some joy.
