Alicia Gbaho, a dancer with Springboard to Learning, visited Brown Elementary School to teach fourth-grade students the next step in the Red Thread Project®. Brown students are among those from six area schools participating in the project.
The Red Thread Project® is community art made by the community for the community. Since February, hundreds of people in the metropolitan area knitted and crocheted hats, and later this spring, they will attach these hats to a one-half mile long red thread, perform a simple dance wearing the threaded hats and finally, donate the hats to a local charity. The project takes its name from a Chinese legend that says an invisible red thread links people who will meet.
Gbaho met the students in the gym, where they stood in five rows and at least three feet apart. Set to a Brazilian beat, there are five parts to the dance, which she demonstrated. First, she stepped in place for three steps then, with her arms extended to her sides, she moved each leg four times. Then she clapped four beats, alternating it with hand gestures and arm movements. Next she made an alternating lunge type of movement to both sides of her body, punctuated with hand claps. Finally, Gbaho pointed at herself and then pointed at various students, causing initial confusion. She explained the movements are part of some African dances and mean “you and me together.”
Before they practiced with recorded music, Gbaho noticed certain things students did during rehearsal that will not work at the actual performance. She stressed to them that they must do all of the dance steps in one spot. Twirling around or moving out of place would pull sections of thread out of alignment and pull other students’ hats off of their heads, disrupting the show. Another point she stressed is that the music at the actual show will come from live musicians, not a MP3 file or a compact disc.
“You have to be safe. It’s your job to be safe and it’s my job to make sure you are safe,” she told the students, some of whom will intersect with sections of dancers from the other participating schools. “If you can’t be safe, I will ask you to sit out.”
After learning the Dance of Hats, students and their families will be invited to attend a family day event on April 16 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Laumeier Sculpture Park in Sunset Hills, where storytellers will perform, students can bring their looms to work on hats and families can add to the Red Thread’s construction.
A few days later, Brown students will affix their completed hats to the one-half mile long red thread at school on April 20 between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. The project culminates on May 12, when the Dance of the Hats performance will take place at Laumeier from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Students will then donate the hats to a local charity of their choice. The project takes its name from a Chinese legend that says an invisible red thread links people who will meet. Hats range in color from pink, red, yellow, light green, blue, purple to black. For more information, please visit www.theredthreadproject.com