Schaumburg college student discovers dance is a universal language
Clare Donohue of Schaumburg has been described as a "mover and shaker" by officials at Indiana University, where she is a freshman in the Kelly School of Business.
It's not so much that Donohue is tearing up the business world - yet - but she's become an ambassador for movement, both in downtown Bloomington and as far away as Panama, after a unique trip in January.
Donohue, who was on the competitive dance team at Conant High School and a member of its Orchesis Club, joined the dance team at Indiana last fall. It was there she learned of the unusual, student-led, nonprofit organization that merged her two passions: dance and service.
Called the Movement Exchange, it was founded in 2010 by Harvard graduate Anna Pasternak, who believed dancers could make a difference in the world. Indiana is one of 20 college chapters, who advance the same goal, of changing the world one step at a time.
Karen Land, who works in IU's communications department, writes a blog about the arts at the university, and specifically about how the creative culture permeates the campus and beyond. She described Donohue and her classmates in a post last month.
"These exceptional students not only fit in with IU's strong tradition in the arts," Land says, "but they also embody one of the university's bicentennial priorities for the future - global engagement."
When Donohue joined the Movement Exchange, she began by participating weekly with outreach programs in downtown Bloomington, namely the Boys and Girls Club, as well as an organization called Girls Inc.
"Through the language of dance, you can bring an incredible amount of happiness and love to people's hearts," Donohue says.
Nowhere was that more evident than during her trip to Panama, when she accompanied other members of the Movement Exchange, including students from Butler and the University of Cincinnati, to the small village of Meteti, on Panama's eastern coast.
They worked with children for four days at the local school, teaching them some basic ballet, jazz, hip-hop and movement games, before holding a recital for their parents and friends.
"The kids ate it up," Donohue says. "They were so willing to do everything we taught and were never embarrassed. They truly wanted to be there and learn from us, but as much as I taught them, they taught me more."
Donohue says the language barrier was difficult at first, despite her five years studying Spanish.
"The language barrier helped me realize what Movement Exchange is really about," Donohue says. "The language of dance is universal. Even though we could barely hold a conversation with these kids, the bonds that were created were truly some of the most intimate relationships I've ever had.
"I really knew these kids because of how inviting they were," she adds. "They invited us into their culture, their community, their family."
As part of the exchange, the IU students traveled deep into the jungle, visited an ecological farm and two indigenous communities. At one of the communities, the young girls performed dances for the group, leading the Movement Exchange members to dance for them, making it a true exchange.
Yet Donohue says the real exchange was meeting these children and their parents, and seeing where they lived, taking them far beyond what most tourists see.
"These kids live in huts with metal scrap ceilings," Donohue says. "Many people would say they have nothing, but after our exchange I found that they really have everything. They have a loving family, a bed to sleep in, and most importantly they do not want anything more."