Local artist featured at dance festival in Texas

Kit Stafford. Photo provided

Sisters resident Kit Stafford recently returned from Dallas, Texas, where she was the featured artist at the Seventh Annual Dance for the Planet Festival.

The festival is the largest outdoor dance festival in the country and attracts more than 25,000 people annually.

According to Stafford, who is coordinator for the arts program at Camp Caldera and performing arts teacher at Sisters High School, "every dance known to man was represented." Aztec, ballet, jazz, modern, hip-hop, break dancing, folk dancing and East Indian were just a few.

Traditionally, the festival has focused solely on dance but this year organizers wanted to reach across from one art form to another and combine dance with poetry. Stafford is gifted in both areas and so was asked to be the featured artist.

"The Dance for the Planet Festival was a celebration that brought poetry and dance together," said Stafford. "It couldn't help but be a place where the sparks of creativity were flying, illuminating something in each participant's experience."

Stafford arrived in Dallas two days before the festival to promote dance education and poetry.

The promotion included television and newspaper interviews and teaching a writing class at Girls, Inc., an after-school program provided for girls without opportunities or access to arts training.

Stafford spoke at various schools in the Dallas area and worked with students ranging from pre-school through high school.

Stafford explained that dance is a language that not many children know they speak. She feels that's true of poetry, also.

"Many children I worked with hadn't participated in those art forms before and they found they had what it takes," she said.

"They just hadn't been encouraged or exposed in those areas and after I spoke with them it was like it clicked. I could see them thinking, 'I can do this. I'm good at it. I can communicate who I am in the world.'"

Stafford was overwhelmed with the hospitality she received.

"It was so cool! I was so welcomed, " she said. "And the whole experience really honored the art forms. At every school I attended they had a reception with beautiful flowers and refreshments. It's really true what they say about Texans doing it big. Their hospitality was something else, I'll tell ya!"

At the Dance for the Planet Festival, Stafford danced, read poetry and encouraged everyone "to feel the beat of the arts."

She led participatory workshops and hosted the opening and closing ceremonies each day.

Performers could be found at any of the five huge outdoor stages plus several smaller stages in the area.

Classes were also taught in these venues and many participatory dances took place with the audience.

Stafford described the festival as "the peak of my professional career. It was like being with my tribe and speaking my language. It was so exciting! It was so all-encompassing because my heart is in art and to be surrounded and immersed by people who live the same kind of life was a celebration.

"I'll never miss it again," she said. "I'm already writing my job description for next year. I'm going to bring artists from our incredible community back with me next time."

Stafford has been teaching for the past 20 years and is passionate about the inclusion of dance in the arts curriculum at every level of primary and secondary education.

"I can't say enough about the importance of a full arts curriculum in our schools," she said.

"Young people are thinking about big issues, not just trivial things. Huge responsibilities (both personal choices and community decision) are going to be theirs.

"Through the language of art a student is able to navigate the complexities of life and express and communicate a much fuller range of understanding. That the arts support, enhance and strengthen core academic subjects cannot be disputed.

"Arts are essential!"