The teens will meet via videoconferencing to create a dance theater performance together online. We will facilitate a process in which we ask the kids to make dance phrases based on the kind of movement and folk dances they may have learned in their native countries, thereby allowing them to reconnect with their native cultures through dance and providing an outlet for expression and sharing between cultures.

[Images from Cabula6 in the Macondo]

What they all have in common is that they have fled their native countries due to violence and hardship. As refugees, acclimating to a new culture can be a jarring experience. We hope to provide a virtual cultural exchange through shared creativity that will enable the youth to gain a sense of empowerment as they explore their identities through dance, inspired by their native cultures as well as their newly acquired cultures.

There will also be a workshop element inside the virtual world Second Life which will provide the students with the ability to explore identity through the use of avatars and roleplaying. The workshop will enable them to expand their notions of evolving identity, making it dynamic and creative precisely at a moment in their lives when their multiple identities are both in flux and in danger.

Kidz Connect Vienna<>Berlin will focus on questions about the complexity of contemporary identity while acclimating to a new place, meeting new people, and adjusting to culture shock, and will offer the space for alternate, expansive identity through shared creation in a virtual world, independent of their bodies and histories and hinged, rather, on the scope of their fantasies and dreams. They will be able to locate their past identity through personal memories and “traditional” dance and storytelling, while exploring ideas of current identity and cultural confluence by sharing these stories and dances in a virtual space which encourages collaboration and transcends cultural boundaries, thus offering the basis for creative interaction within their various “real life” worlds.

Okay, now, take that image and add to it.  What you’re looking at now is an island full of avatars (the little virtual people from before) who are building their own society on the island (think Swiss Family Robinson without all of the struggling for food).  And then, if that is not enough, add on the fact that each of these avatars have a real life counterpart and that some of these counterparts are from right here in Tampa, FL and some of them are from Amsterdam!  It really is the cross-section of techonology and really awesome internet communities.

These kids have quickly learned how to operate this complex program and have been communicating regularly across the ocean with kids doing the same thing.  And *cool tidbit warning* one of the kids involved in the Amsterdam program is a popular television actor in the Netherlands.  Think the Zac Efron of Amsterdam.

So, today these kids were rehearsing for their part in the Amsterdam show tomorrow and they danced and performed a song together.  It was funny to watch the Amsterdam students dance to the music and then move to talk and interact with them as avatars.  Talk about multiple personalities!

So, their big performance is this weekend and it will be live here at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and also streamed online.  They have rehearsals, more song and dance routines, and a world all of their own.  

What would I do if I had my very own virtual island?  I don’t know, but I’m sure that I would begin with the question: How do I make myself taller?

15-year-old Ivaniel had thought the workshop might be boring and he has been more than pleasantly surprised. Turns out he’s having a great time and the workshop has been anything but boring. Eight hours a day for two weeks these students been working, creating avatars and building spaces in Teen Second Life, learning songs and dance moves, getting to know each other here and video streaming and bonding with teens in Europe.

Vanessa had previously researched Teen Second Life and says she knew a bit what to expect. “It’s been fun learning what things are like over there because it’s different than here,” Vanessa says. Meghan, 13, plans to keep her avatar and stay in touch with her new friends in Holland.

Like them, the Dutch teens go to school and like to hang out with their friends, Vanessa observes. Director Lisa Powers has noticed that the teens are focusing on similarities, ties that bind them, so to speak. Then, they notice the differences, which have mostly been about styles of living, such as transportation. The Floridian youth are primarily driven from place to place, while the Dutch ride more bicycles and walk, Lisa says.

This whole cultural exchanges helps to prepare them to live together, to live in a world where we have many differences, but where fundamentally, we’re all alike. The way it’s going, these students have a real shot at making the “real” world better for us all.

“We can change the world, today, if we mean just what we say…
If we want to come together, the solution depends on whether…
We are real, let’s be real; there’s a bond that can be sealed-
Let’s be real, it is time for the world…to be real!”
–from the song, “What is Real?” written for Kidz Connect by James Crumbly

And while they’re experiencing all this, it’s clear to see they’re gaining confidence and making friends, possibly lifelong friendships. Two of the boys, who before last week had never met, are now writing
music together outside of class. This is creativity in action.

To help them see a professional show up close, and to watch Jason in action, the workshop participants are being treated by TBPAC to see “The Lion King.” Jason plays a hyena, and it will be interesting to hear the students’ reactions after they see the show.

Technology is truly a wonderful thing! You might wonder how much “cultural exchange” can really take place Watching the students in Amsterdam on the computer screen interact with our students in Tampa and “meeting” virtually

Just as moving has been watching our Tampa teens – several of which were inexperienced in and not too confident about dancing and singing – learn dance moves and songs by our awesome choreographers and composers, created just for this program.

What an incredible opportunity for these kids. Makes me wish I were a teenager – well, almost.