Dance class featuring island-nation artists streaming until noon March 18

Ocean-nation artists from the musical collective Small Island Big Song teach dances from their native traditions in a class that will be available to stream on demand until noon Friday, March 18, 2022. 

Visit on demand to register to watch the class, which was recorded March 1, 2022. 

A grant from the University Park Student Fee Board helps make the program free of charge.

Small Island Big Song artists will teach two dance pieces:

• Sega dance and music, from the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius, will be guided by Emlyn (song and dance) and Kokol (percussion). Sega is danced without the feet leaving the ground and using the rest of the body to channel movement.

• A warrior chant and dance from the Pacific Ocean nation of Taiwan will be led by songwriter-composer-musician Sauljaljui with support from vocalist Putad.

The dance workshop is the first in a series of engagement events and a Penn State residency that will culminate in an April 7 multimedia performance featuring artists from Small Island Big Song at Eisenhower Auditorium. Find more information about the April event. 

Small Island Big Song is part of a multiplatform project founded by Taiwanese producer BaoBao Chen and Australian music producer Tim Cole. They spent more than three years documenting more than 100 artists in communities at the forefront of the climate crisis, including Madagascar, Borneo, Tahiti, Bali, Guam, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

In addition to raising awareness of environmental issues facing island nations, the project explores a migration theory that seeks to establish musical links between cultures and accentuates similarities in regional instruments, voices and rhythm.

Penn State International Dance Ensemble Endowment provides support.

The presentation is part of “The Reflection Project,” funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.