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 Trouping
Through Europe
By Marla Stroupe
One school’s educational approach to international travel
In November 2006 Litchfield Dance Arts Academy director Ilka
Doubek broke the traditional boundaries of dance education.
The Pawleys Island, SC–based teacher, along with 12 dance
company students and their 28 family members and friends,
stepped outside the school’s walls to take a dance-focused
educational journey through Germany, France, and the Czech
Republic.
“Taking my students to Europe had long been a dream of mine,”
says Doubek. “I performed for more than 20 years in Germa ny
and France, and I wanted our girls to see how other countries
recognize dancers and the art form. Europeans believe that the
fine arts are a critical part of their education.” Doubek also
wanted to expand the awareness of options available in other
countries for students who were considering a dance
profession.
At a chance meeting between Doubek and Dance Masters of
America adjudicator Jill Gorrie, Gorrie asked the school owner
if she would be interested in taking her company on the road.
She offered them the chance to perform at a dance festival she
and partner Wolfgang Bäumler were organizing through their
business, Commonground Entertainment, which organizes
performing tours for school groups. That was all Doubek
needed. Gorrie’s invitation ignited the idea of organizing a
“European adventure” that combined sightseeing with
performing, observing professional dance ensembles, and
attending theater productions.
Doubek crafted a 12-day itinerary of cultural abundance that
focused on Germany with si ghtseeing
side trips to Strasbourg, France, and Prague, Czech Republic.
The Litchfield Dance Company (composed of the school’s
career-track dancers) gave a Thanksgiving Day performance for
U.S. Army troops and their families in Heidelberg, Germany
distributed to the military hospital six cartons of supplies
they had gathered before they left, and danced, along with
four dancers from Amber Perkins School of the Arts in Norwich,
NY, in Augsburg at Bäumler’s New York Feet festival.
Early in the planning stages Doubek asked a friend, for mer
University of South Carolina German-history professor Peter
Becker, to present a geography and history lesson to the
travelers. That was step one in her efforts to ensure that the
trip included a strong educational component. Then, working
with the students’ academic teachers and principals, she set
up a series of learning tasks. Students kept journals
detailing their impressions and thoughts about daily events;
presented reports about cities, landmarks, and cultures during
bus travel; and completed homework assignments while on the
road.
Orchestrating a trip of this length and complexity requires
attention to detail (see sidebar on p.
 65)
and a continuing effort to keep participating families
informed. Doubek exchanged frequent emails and phone calls
with Bäumler and Gorrie, and LDAA office manager Rachel
Hutchinson served as the communications lifeline for parents
and students. Hutchinson updated tour participants about
additional costs, meal plans, and other helpful tips via email
and answered parents’ questions at the dance studio. “Ilka
kept me updated throughout the tour planning process so that I
could be a backup for her while she was traveling and
teaching,” says Hutchinson.
By traveling in early winter, the group was able to k eep
travel costs low, and the 40 participants comprised just the
right number for one tour bus. In the eight cities where they
spent the night, they stayed in clean, comfortable hotels that
served hearty breakfasts. On many days, the bus call was an
early 8:00 a.m., which allowed the group to see the sights of
each city as well as attend dance performances. They saw both
traditional and contemporary works, including William
Forsythe’s Three Atmospheric Studies in Frankfurt, the
world premiere of John Neumeier’s Parzival—Episodes and
Echo in Baden-Baden, Swan Lake in Munich, and mixed
repertory in Berlin.
 As the
icing on the cake of their European adventure, LDAA students
visited two ballet companies—the Bayerisches Staatsballett in
Munich and the Berlin Staatsballett—in their home studios. The
dancers autographed photographs and posed for pictures with
the students, who had a chance to see the dancers they’d seen
onstage “up close and personal.”
Doubek was thrilled with the success of the tour and hopes to
organize an educational dance trip every two years. “This
inaugural tour was very special,” she says. “The exposure
these students received to world-renowned ballet ensemble
dancers and professional performances was beyond what I’d
hoped for.”
If you're interested in taking your dancers on an educational
trip through Europe, check out our article "10
Tips For International Travel Planning."
Photo captions
(from top to bottom):
Litchfield Dance Company members pose outside the Deutsche
Staatsoper in Berlin.
LDAA students Kate Mueller, Abigail Earnest, Katie Brackett,
and Kaela Rogers line up at the barre while waiting to meet
the Bayerisches Staatsballett dancers.
Sarah Hepler performs her solo,
Prayer,
at the New York Feet dance festival in Augsburg, Germany.
Bayerisches Staatsballett ballerina Lucia Lacarra (center)
meets the Litchfield students after company class.
LDAA students learn about the life of a professional dancer
from Berlin Staatsballett company member Kathlyn Pope, one of
90 dancers from 24 countries who perform in Berlin’s three
opera houses.
LDAA dancers (with teacher Ilka Doubek in center back)
received certificates in recognition of their performance in
Heidelberg.
Doubek (center) introduces student Lida Fox to Bayerisches
Staatsballett dance mistress Colleen Scott, whom Doubek worked
with during her 20 years of dancing in Germany.
All photos by Marla Stroupe.
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