{"id":431,"date":"2025-02-27T19:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T20:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/?p=431"},"modified":"2025-03-13T11:54:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T11:54:44","slug":"behind-the-nelken-line-dance-protest-in-dc-and-the-organizers-hope-to-take-it-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/behind-the-nelken-line-dance-protest-in-dc-and-the-organizers-hope-to-take-it-national\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind \u201cThe Nelken Line\u201d Dance Protest in DC\u2014and the Organizers\u2019 Hope to Take It National"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A sharp wind was blowing in Washington, DC, on the morning of Monday, February 17, as 36 dancers processed single file around the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Threading in front of the modernist white marble edifice, then across a plaza with views of the Potomac River, they danced the spare but meaningful gestures of the late choreographer Pina Bausch\u2019s \u201cThe Nelken Line,\u201d from her 1982 work <em>Nelken<\/em> (\u201ccarnations\u201d). One participant pulled a portable speaker playing Louis Armstrong\u2019s bright \u201cWest End Blues,\u201d Bausch\u2019s choice of music. It was both a performance and a protest, a reaction to the orchestrated takeover of the nation\u2019s performing arts center by recently inaugurated President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"D.C. Dancers Protested Trump\u2019s Kennedy Center Takeover by Performing Pina Bausch Choreography\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hlTU05lgWb0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When Kelly King, who directs DC\u2019s Contradiction Dance, heard earlier this month that Trump had been made chairman of the Center\u2019s board, she felt compelled to act. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we in the streets yet? When are we getting in the streets to march?\u201d she remembers asking herself. On Friday, February 14, she put out a call on social media, inviting dancers in the area to a protest at the Kennedy Center the following Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs dancers,\u201d King says, \u201cwe know how to quickly, effectively pull our community together. Sometimes we just confidently make decisions and move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fellow choreographer Keira Hart-Mendoza reached out to King. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, her Bethesda, MD-based UpRooted Dance Company had used the simple repetitive gestures of \u201cThe Nelken Line\u201d for a socially distanced outdoor dance event. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s such a calm, delicate, and useful way to make a statement,\u201d says Hart-Mendoza. Prior to the protest, King and Hart-Mendoza convened two weekend Zoom meetings to teach the choreography to the group of volunteer dancers.<\/p>\n<p>While King and Hart-Mendoza were in communication with Kennedy Center staff, King noted they didn\u2019t ask permission. On the morning of the 17th, with no shows in the building due to the Presidents\u2019 Day holiday, security outside was high, King reports\u2014but by the end, those sent to monitor the dancers were chatting and sharing videos of the protest dance.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"629\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"A long single-file line of dancers, wearing a variety of winter coats and accessories, processes in front of the Kennedy Center&#039;s white marble exterior. Each dancer is raising their right arm over their head. \" class=\"wp-image-54074 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/dancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/nelkenline_kencen-David-Dowling-courtesy-Dowling-1024x629.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dancers performing Pina Bausch&#8217;s &#8220;The Nelken Line&#8221; in front of the Kennedy Center. Photo by David Dowling\/Dancing in the District.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The 30-minute performance was meant to foster solidarity among dance artists, and to demonstrate their visceral response to President Trump\u2019s recent firing of all Biden-appointed Kennedy Center board members and subsequent takeover of the board. Dance artist, director, and educator Jessica Martin\u00e9 Denson says her choice to protest was personal. \u201cHaving lived in the DC area for almost my entire life, the Kennedy Center holds a lifetime of memories for me and so many of my friends and colleagues,\u201d she says. \u201cI cannot idly stand by as it is under siege\u2014<em>not<\/em> participating was not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Longtime Washington choreographer and dancer Deborah Riley, director emerita of Dance Place, received an email invitation from King to participate. \u201cIt really sparked something for me,\u201d Riley says. \u201cWhatever statement we could make collectively about this corner of the world\u2014the Kennedy Center and the arts\u2014I felt was important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kelly is planning another dance protest for Saturday, March 15, this time at the Lincoln Memorial, one of Washington\u2019s grandest monuments. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dcdanceprotests\/\">She hopes this second round will go national<\/a>. \u201cWe invite dancers around the country and around the world to meet in their communities, choose a culturally significant landmark in their city, and learn \u2018The Nelken Line,\u2019&nbsp;\u201d she says. \u201cLet\u2019s do this as a simultaneous eruption of dance as protest.\u201d Tutorials on the Bausch choreography <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MZI4cgGRhzE\">can be found on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After seeing the Kennedy Center protest video on social media, Chicago dancer and choreographer Ram\u00f3n Mu\u00f1oz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DGOlXZQyeyI\/?hl=en\">made his own<\/a> version, recording himself dancing the Bausch choreography in front of Chicago\u2019s Trump Tower. \u201cI have to see the Trump Tower every day when I go downtown,\u201d he says, \u201cso I knew in my heart that someone had to be in front of that building echoing the message of the DC dancers.\u201d He plans to convene a group of Chicago dancers March 15.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want dancers to feel very empowered to take this into their communities and to get in practice with protest,\u201d King says. \u201cWho better to peacefully protest than the dance community?\u201d She adds: \u201cWe may need to do this for the next four years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/dancemagazine.com\/nelken-line-kennedy-center-protest\/\">Behind \u201cThe Nelken Line\u201d Dance Protest in DC\u2014and the Organizers\u2019 Hope to Take It National<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/dancemagazine.com\">Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A sharp wind was blowing in Washington, DC, on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tanzania-gazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}