Video (above) introduces BROKEN FLOWERS. Subtexts tell why it’s important. Note: this is not the ‘reward video’, to be made from scheduled Portland performances – professionally shot, edited, authored by year’s end.

BROKEN FLOWERS is dance theatre, casting in high relief the burgeoning tragedy of teen-sex-slavery, aka: human trafficking. BROKEN FLOWERS connects audiences to this tragedy and serves survivor/victims.

We are requesting support for this: 

1)   3 performances at ZOOMTOPIA; 810 SE Belmont; Portland, Oregon; October 12, 13, 14, 2012

2)   Workshops with victim/survivors of sex-slave human trafficking at regional safe houses

3)   Professionally made movie of Portland performances. 

4)   Additional support (details below) will help us tour ALD to Mexico for 3 performances, pitch BROKEN FLOWERS to regional and national presenters and submit the movie to international film festivals.

WHY

BROKEN FLOWERS is especially pertinent in Portland, Oregon, where ALD is based. Portland is identified as a national hub of teen-sex-slavery trafficking. Portland has the nation's greatest per capita concentration of strip clubs — more than Las Vegas.

Teen-sex-slavery might look easy to walk away from. The problem is psychological bondage. Traffickers hold victims in coercive relationships. Insecure teens, abuse victims — many from broken homes — are common trafficker targets. They are easily victimized and brainwashed into hopeless resignation to self-worthlessness.

HOW

Social service agencies are working intensely with victim/survivors. We are in contact with several locally and have done significant research toward making BROKEN FLOWERS effective, both artistically and socially.

We are not only making art for the arts community, we are taking it to victim/survivors and doing workshops in Dance Movement Therapy (DMT). DMT is proven effective in overwriting traumatic body memory. We are in training to learn how best to execute these workshops. This is not high-profile work. Privacy and security is essential at safe-houses where most workshops are held. Depending on how this work goes, one or more victim/survivors may join ALD on stage in BROKEN FLOWERS’ October full-length premiere.

OUTCOME

We know that edgy, challenging, artistic productions like BROKEN FLOWERS barely serve to remedy problems so severe. We can, however, bring this tragedy to the attention of the arts community, while making a strong, deeply informed artistic contribution, and offer something to victim/survivors through our workshops.

ALD has a history of award-winning, intense topical productions — activist, or polemic art, it's sometimes called, e.g. THE FALL 01, LAMENTATIO. We know how to promote work like this in community media and networks.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION is Tax Deductible

Raising $3,000 will help pay for ALD’s DMT training, performance hall and rehearsal space rental, dancers’ honoraria, publicity, videography, DVD editing and authoring of October 12-14, 2012 Portland, Oregon premiere.

Raising $6,000 will pay for travel to ALD’s scheduled performances in Querétaro and San Miguel Allende, México, October 19-21, 2012.

Raising $9,000 will help pay expenses (time and materials) to pitch BROKEN FLOWERS to presenters for touring regionally, possibly nationally, and to help pay for entering the movie (made from the Portland performances) into 25-30 film festivals, each with entry fee ($15 - $50).

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Agnieszka Laska Dancers is a public benefit 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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VIDEO CREDITS: work in progress, presented March 17, 2012; Concept, choreography and lights: Agnieszka Laska;  
Music: Randy Raine-Reusch, Jack Gabel; Dancers: Sissy Dawson, Heidi Nelson, Lauren Richmond, Marcella Sweeney, Richard Sokpor, cover photo: Chris Leck