Hey Dance 4 Peace! Today we have some awesome insight to share from one of our senior PeaceMovers, Amanda Munroe, who has been involved with Dance 4 Peace since 2010. In this piece she highlights one of our domestic hubs, Baltimore, MD.
What if I were to tell you that I wrote a love song.
Imagine I told you that I wrote a love song not about a person, but a place. What
would you think? How would you imagine the place?
And then I tell you it’s Baltimore.
The love song is about Baltimore.
Were you expecting that? I sure wasn’t! Don’t get me wrong – Baltimore is great.
It’s home to Edgar Allen Poe and the Baltimore Orioles! Then again, Baltimore
ranks among the most dangerous cities in the United States, with the “fourth-worst
murder rate in the country” according to a 2011 report.
These discouraging facts did not hinder composers Mark O’Donnell and Thomas
Meehan, geniuses behind the highly acclaimed stage- and screenplay Hairspray, from
beginning their show with an audacious love song to Baltimore. It opens bright one
Maryland morning as protagonist Tracy Turnblad belts out her undying love for the city
on her way to school, crooning such memorable lines as,
“The rats on the street all dance round my feet
They seem to say, ‘Tracy it’s up to you!’”
Such words don’t faze the viewer – at least not if you’re like me - because seconds
after Tracy opens her mouth and starts grooving you are caught up in her energy,
taken by the beat, so moved by the music and Tracy’s love for Baltimore that you too
can imagine rats dancing and singing! You believe in Tracy as she sings:
There is a power in the combination of a young person’s spirit with music and
movement. Even if you’re not one for Broadway shows, surely you remember
a moment in your life when you were electrified by the sounds of James Brown, Jimi
Hendrix, or Tina Turner.
Dance 4 Peace believes in this power. We believe in the mysterious way music,
movement, and art can access your spirit, and in the strength of people with purpose
to create transformative change. We’re all about joining Tracy.
Tracy is on to something. Despite the fact that she is singing about rats, you want to
sing and dance with her. This is because the way Tracy makes music is contagious.
Because her spirit is indefatigable.
I’m going to let you in on a cornerstone of Dance 4 Peace’s methodology in a
moment, so stick with my analogy here: It may seem incongruent to sing with joy
about the prospect of rats dancing about one’s feet. But Tracy (and you, if you’re
singing along!) is authentically having fun. How does that work?
At Dance 4 Peace, we would argue it is because how you are is inseparable from who
and what you are.
D4P isn’t alone in our belief that how effects what. This equation is central to the
study of peace education, the core of Dance 4 Peace. What’s unique about our take
on peace education is that D4P uses the very contagiousness of dance and music to
engage young people around the world in the practice of peace.
And while we know it can be hard to be quite as chipper as Tracy when you roll
out of bed in the morning, whether in Baltimore or Singapore, PeaceMover facilitators
and trained teachers are dedicated to using our passions for moving and music to inspire
others as we change the world. At present, we’re moving in Newark, New Jersey,
Washington, DC, New York City, and on other continents as well (Asia, South America,
and Europe). And we’re growing!
So start singing Good Morning (Name Your City Here) – because you might be the
next Tracy Turnblad.