Think globally, dance locally. (News).

The Labor Day weekend saw the culmination of a four-month-long experiment in international communication. During this period, two groups of young dancers--one in California's Silicon Valley, the other in Senegal--built virtual bridges that spanned their cultural differences. The project culminated in the artists exchanging Webcasts of the works they had created for each other.

"Dancing on the Web, Dancing Over the Ocean," is the first live performance project of GroundZero, a nonprofit Silicon Valley organization that sponsors collaborations between art and technology (see Presstime News, Dance Magazine, February, page 40). In Dakar, Senegal's capital, GroundZero hooked up with the Joko ("connection") Clubs--computer access and training centers designed to overcome the emerging technology gap between more developed and emerging nations. The clubs, which were started by renowned musician Youssou N'Dour, facilitated auditions that led to six young women dancers--three from urban, three from rural environments--being selected for the project.

In Silicon Valley, the Kusanovich Dance Company and its artistic director, Kristin Kusanovich, worked with dancers from Santa Clara University, where Kusanovich's company is based, and a group of club dancers from San Jose. The groups demonstrated a range of dance styles. The club dancers specialize in Groovin', which started in the San Jose area in the mid-'90s and integrates hiphop with rave moves. Kusanovich's work is Limon-, Horton-, and Lewitsky-inspired. The dozen or so American dancers worked together over the summer in a series of classes and workshops and learned almost as much from each other as they did from their transatlantic connections.

The project also involved kids with other talents. Open Voice, an East Palo Alto nonprofit teen organization, helped develop a Web site through which the dancers sent back and forth diary entries, visual and oral images, and whatever information about themselves and their lives they thought suitable. Local students studying French provided translation services.

The American group received a popular Senegalese song that Kusanovich, with the assistance of her dancers, choreographed into CrossCurrents, much to the delight of the Senegalese audience who watched the progress of the piece through Webcast rehearsals. The Senegalese, for their part, showed the Americans a piece they were developing called The Village Square, which told the story of a girl who had been left for dead because of a spell. Her friends subsequently carried her body to a marabout, an intermediary between the spiritual and the physical world, who succeeded in reviving her.

Finally, Labor Day visitors to the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation saw live performances of the American pieces, which were also viewed via live Webcast by the Senegalese. CrossCurrents, which incorporated both club and modern dance moves, was performed by all the dancers. HipHop Suite, in which the club dancers performed both individually and collectively, was also shown. And a suite of modern dances was performed by Santa Clara University students. One section in the suite involved four dancers who were given seven moves to perform at will. Also included was a short performance by Sunugal Ballet, a San Jose-based Senegalese dance troupe. "It was mind-opening," said Kusanovich. "It was beautiful to see what a wealth of knowledge there was--internationally and from right down the block."