It didn’t start out as anything incredible. Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company simply needed some children to participate in a dance class. But somehow, over the course of a week, 20 Somali refugee children, ages 6-9, found their way onto the stage to share the language of dance.
“I was just looking for a group of kids to teach,” Ririe-Woodbury education director Gigi Arrington said. “We needed to do a demonstration teaching class for our new dancers who will teach kids in schools.”
Somali refugee children enjoy a moment on the stage with other children at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City.
Professional dancers with Ririe-Woodbury are expected to participate in dance outreach programs in elementary schools, so they have to be good with children and they must be able to teach. Because the company added three new dancers to its ranks this year, Arrington wanted to be sure they knew how to help children get the most from those experiences.
But her simple plan grew into something much bigger.
On an impulse, Arrington contacted a longtime friend, Merrie Lee, who is deeply involved in work with the refugee community in Utah.
“Gigi told me she was putting together this dance workshop and she asked if I thought these kids would be interested and I screeched ‘YES, they would be,’” Lee said. “These kids came from families that weren’t literate and they didn’t have electricity or anything, but one thing I saw is that in the refugee camps they would just dance.”
Lee began working with refugee children in 2006 after watching a Sundance Film Festival production about the lost boys of the Sudan. Coming out of the film, she knew she had to do something. She and her husband began inviting refugee families into their home and tutoring the children. Soon, their neighbors wanted to join in, and after only a few months they were teaching more than 60 refugee children each week.
“It was not that big a deal to us,” Lee said. “We just thought, ‘let’s do what we can and be friends.’ We didn’t really plan to turn it into anything huge, but it just sort of grew legs, and I’m really happy about it.”
Since most refugee families do not have cars, the children are often stranded at home during the summer while school is out. With Lee’s help, Arrington decided to include as many children as she could in her dance workshop.
“They have no way of coming to us,” Arrington said, “so we took our company van to them. We could safely seatbelt 10 kids at a time, so that is what we did.”
“It was so nice that (Ririe-Woodbury) wanted to help,” Lee said. “They couldn’t take all the kids, but you have to think, ‘if I help one, that is better than none.’ ”
Some of the children came in regular street clothes, but many of them came in the colorful garb of their home nation.
“I was a little worried because you have girls who have long skirts on, and I kept saying, ‘you be careful’ so they wouldn’t trip. But they didn’t need anyone to tell them. They live that way, and they know how to handle it,” Arrington said.
For two days, refugee children who might otherwise be stuck at home were able to prance, twirl, skip and glide across the stage at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center with professional dancers smiling at their every move.
One little girl arrived with her family from the Congo only three weeks before the class. Neither she nor her parents understood one word of English.
However, Lee managed to pantomime to her parents what the class was, and they agreed to let their daughter go. Lee walked with her to class, but the girl couldn’t understand any of the instructions.
“I just went up on the stage and moved her and danced her, and she was the happiest 6-year-old cutie-pie I have ever seen,” Lee said. “These kids, you can’t believe it, but they are all really good dancers. They have dancing in their blood. They love it and they just come alive. It erases the communication barrier that we have because they are able to express themselves.”
Arrington was able to see that expression as well.
“The kids were very involved and happy. It was the whole experience of not only having a class but getting to go somewhere in the van to be on a stage,” she said.
Being invited into the heart of the community through events like Ririe-Woodbury’s dance class encourages these children, who are working to create a new life.
“I’ve known some of these kids for six years now,” Lee said, “and when our community reaches out to them like this … it makes them realize that they really matter to us.”
Spending time with these children has influenced the Ririe-Woodbury family as well.
“I think what this is doing is giving us ideas on how to continue this outreach to this community in the future,” Arrington said. “Dance is part of their culture anyway, so they are excited to dance and excited to share with us the kind of dancing that they like to do too. It has been wonderful.”
Lee hopes that members of the community will continue to reach out to refugee families, even in simple ways.
“The biggest thing I would love is to see people take one family and get to know that family as friends,” she said. “Don’t worry about getting trained or being involved in a certain organization but just as a neighbor invite them into the community. Say, ‘there is a family that could use some friends.’ That’s what life is really all about. That is the real bridge builder.”
With 20 new young friends of their own, the dancers of Ririe-Woodbury have to agree.
Melissa DeMoux is a stay-at-home mother of six young children who lives in West Valley City, Utah. You can email her at mddemoux@gmail.com or follow her adventures in motherhood at demouxfamily.blogspot.com.
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