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SESSIONS Exploring the Use of Laban with orphans in Uganda, Africa by Begoña Caparros, Spain/USA Paper In my quest to share movement with often forgotten people in our society, I spent three months at an orphanage in 2003 in Uganda, East Africa doing movement and creative dance. Using the Laban system and concepts as my main tools, I worked with over 100+ children several times each week to explore the power of movement to create a sense of belonging, connecting, joy, and a safe place for expression. I will use the film footage of my work in Uganda to make a video which, first, documents the use of Laban system with disadvantaged children in Africa and, second, documents my own journey where I sought, and continue to seek, ways to overcome language, cultural and economic barriers to bring this system and more art to their lives. More often than not Africa is depicted as "without"—with extreme levels of poverty, sadness, suffering especially with the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. This piece, however, challenges some of these perceptions and seeks to share another face of Africa with the dance community. Life is very difficult in an overcrowded, under-resourced orphanage in Uganda. These children do have minimal amounts of food and basic shelter but lack time, motivation and spaces to express themselves or explore their creativity. While dance is deep in the fabric of everyday life and cultural celebrations, I wanted to create a space for these children to learn and explore in forms largely unfamiliar to them. We engaged in various forms of movement and dance most new and unfamiliar to them— sometimes the children drew, worked with props, worked in teams to learn new possible movement range and to interact with each other in different ways. To ensure that the project continued and flourished, I created links with various local artists who then came and worked with the children exposing them to various genres of art. Together we launched an ‘artist volunteer program’ at the orphanage where the local artists and I held regular classes with the children on dance, drawing, art. As a consequence of this work, an organization committed to bettering the lives of African children is contributing resources to artists to work with the orphanage. Showing this film at this conference will provide me the opportunity to share this work with the Laban community, and apart from my personal satisfaction, it may serve to open the minds and doors of others seeking to explore the uses of Laban system around the world. Begoña Caparrós currently serves as a visiting research scholar at Stanford University on a National Science Foundation funded study exploring human movement using Laban Movement Analysis. She also teaches, performs and works as a movement consultant in Spain and San Francisco. More recently she has taught classes and explored the uses of the Laban System with seniors and disadvantaged children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently she directs a project which aims to support the artistic and creative development of young people and artists from disadvantage communities in the developing world.
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