Arts Activities Support

1. Rakkas Minneapolis raised the profile of Turkish dance and music in the Twin Cities; audience surveys show 57% were first-time attendees to one of our events, and 57% responded their knowledge of Turkish dance and music greatly increased. 2. Dancers will travel to Minnesota for Turkish dance workshops; on a low-high scale of 1-5, 33 dancers rated all the workshops 4.83-5.0. 3. New collaborative networks have been formed. Offer a depth and variety of dance workshops. Achieved by offering 11 different dance workshops. Strength: Appealed to a broad range of dancer interests and skills. Challenge: Participants had to choose one workshop over another if they ran concurrently. Strategies: Hold fewer workshops; add more days to event to avoid scheduling overlap. Offer program for attendees to experience a range of Middle Eastern culture. Achieved via Open House and Gala Show. Open House provided a means learn about guest instructors dance styles, who inspires them, and why they dance. Gala Show showcased Turkish dance and music spanning ancient to modern times from countries that were part of the former Ottoman Empire. Strengths: Live music created a relaxed Open House setting; guest artists greeted and mingled with audience before the Open House Q and A session began; Gala Show featured a broad range of dance performances, vocals, and live musical performances. Open House Challenge: Possible audience reluctance to ask questions during Q and A. Open House Strategies: We prepared advance questions for audience to read. Gala Show Strength: Wide variety of music, dances, and costumes kept the audience engaged. Gala Show Challenge: Problems with the venue sound system. 3 hour sound check was insufficient for venue staff to get their sound equipment working properly for the musicians. The resulting monitor feedback detracted from their performance. Gala Show Strategies: A detailed report of technical issues was provided to venue manager. If we use this venue again, additional sound check time and better trained technicians will be requested to ensure proper sound system function. Strengthen participant technical and creative skills, regardless of dance experience. Achieved. Participants responded in exit surveys their technical and creative skills were greatly enhanced by the workshops. Experienced dancers were challenged by new dance styles, and newer dancers were given the tools to tailor the dance steps to their level. Challenge: Offer future workshops with instructors skilled in engaging, challenging, and inspiring all levels of dancers. Strategy: Continue to research high-caliber instructors through attending local, national, and international dance workshops. Develop collaborative partnerships. Achieved via natural collaboration that occurs when artists come together. Strength: Participants and guest artists have requested we begin to plan the next Rakkas Minneapolis. All expressed wanting to be involved each other’s future events. Challenge: Increase local Middle Eastern dance community involvement. Our event conflicted with events the local dance community participates in (Renaissance Festival, State Fair, restaurant gigs, and mandatory rehearsals). Strategies: Research event venues with more open schedules, hold event at a different time of year Community/Audience/Attendees Evaluation. Rakkas Minneapolis was the first local event to provide both Turkish and Egyptian dance workshops to the local dance community, and a positive example on creating an event welcoming for all dance styles. Participants had prior exposure to Turkish Romani dance, but few workshop opportunities to learn it. Our Romani workshops taught by Reyhan Tuzsuz sold out prior to the start of Rakkas Minneapolis, indicating an artistic need was met. Workshops taught by Serkan Tutar and Artemis Mourat also were filled, indicating another artistic need was met. Some of the participant’s comments: "I have learned so much and have so much information to take home and digest!" "Warm, generous, welcoming, and well-prepared instructors and organizers - impressive! This doesn't happen here for Middle Eastern Dance!" Audience response to the Anatolian Origins Gala Show was also positive, including this positive response from the local Turkish-American community: "Thank you for representing our culture so well. You did an incredible job!" We did not receive as much local Middle Eastern dancer participation as hoped. Despite notifying local dancers through social media, direct communication, and multiple local newspaper/magazine coverage, there were scheduling conflicts that could not be avoided. We will continue our outreach efforts with the local dancers to increase their participation in our Turkish dance events. Diversity: We are pleased Rakkas Minneapolis had an increase in the diversity of participants from our 2013 Romani Festival event: African-American participation increased from 2 individuals to 5; Asian-American participation increased from no individuals to 2; Egyptian-style dancer participation increased by 67%. Workshop goal of increased attendance of male dancers was not met: we had one participant in 2013 and one at Rakkas Minneapolis. To address the challenge of very few male Middle Eastern dancers in the Twin Cities our Artistic Captain, Benjamin Lamb, is exploring ways to offer Middle Eastern dance classes for men. Overall we will continue to explore ways to increase diversity from all backgrounds. Our collaboration with the local Turkish American Association has yielded very positive results, and we are developing strategies to continue working with Turkish American Association in the future. We were partially successful in meeting our accessibility goals: Early Bird and Build Your Own package pricing options were successful, and our 4 volunteer positions for the gala show were filled. We did not receive any accommodation requests from physically-challenged dancers, requests for a Sign Language Interpreter, or for Braille printing; payment plans for workshop registration and reduced fee scholarships were not utilized. Using social media data, we had over 975 views of the scholarship availability, therefore we are confident we successfully promoted it. We will explore additional options to promote scholarships in the future. One participant request for a vegan meal options was honored.