All Stars Project INC.

On Saturday, February 13^th 150 young performers, spanning all five boroughs and ranging in age from 5 to 25, gathered at Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York, Brooklyn for the All Star Talent Show Network (ASTSN) workshop, where they had the opportunity to work with Javier Dzul, the Artistic Director of the Dzul Dance Company.  Javier has performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble and American Indian Dance Theater, to name a few.

Javier began the workshop by telling the young people some of his history - growing up in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, he performed the ritual dances of his Mayan tribal community. He learned to dance by following the movements of animals. The young people listened with a mixture of interest and disbelief - then Javier began to move. The formerly skeptical young people became captivated as Javier began to perform a ritual dance in which he manipulates his body to mimic the walk of a jaguar.

When he finished, hands shot up around the auditorium. The young people peppered him with questions about how he had learned to move like that, how long it had taken to learn and if they could learn how to do it too.  The youngest of the performers led the way in volunteering to join Javier and learn pieces of his dance. Reluctantly, the teenagers began to follow the younger ones' lead.

Javier was then joined by Robin Dzul and two other members of his company and the young people broke into groups. Each dancer led a group in learning an excerpt from one of their dances. In addition to the young dancers, the vocalists, rappers and even All Stars volunteers, tried out this new kind of dance - this new way of performing.

Javier led a dance workshop on Saturday, March 6^th as part of a series of workshops for the All Stars Hip-Hop Cabaret.