Nurturing empathy through the universal language

In December, the percussive sound of tap music will display the strife of those seeking literacy in a restrictive community. Literacy Volunteers of America, Essex and Passaic Counties, has partnered up with Hillary-Marie, an award-winning and internationally acclaimed tap dancer. She will choreograph a dance piece that will be performed on Dec. 8 and 9 at coLAB Arts’ MOTION: New Dance Works concert at 72 Lipman Drive in New Brunswick.

Hillary-Marie has connected with three volunteer tutor and adult student pairings, each pair beaming with stories that will serve as inspiration for the performance. She was linked to the pairs through Cristhian Barcelos, executive director of LVAEP, an organization with a mission to teach adults to read and speak English in order to foster a fully literate community.

The volunteer and student pairings meet for a duration that depends on the needs of the students. This can be a few months, or it can span a few years. The pairs try to meet four hours a week. During their time together, Barcelos said the tutors end up becoming family members to the students, and to his dismay, sometimes to the point where the two jointly decide to miss sessions.

“Of course we understand though, these are the students who have the most barriers. Yet if we want to be an educational program, they have to be meeting regularly in order for there to be some education taking place,” he said.

While there are different struggles within the LVAEP community, Hillary-Marie has chosen to place an emphasis onto the challenges a communication barrier presents to an individual and how the challenges are overcome through successful tutoring.

“It’s going to show the struggle of people who don’t have access to the appropriate education, and the change that happens when somebody has access to a resource such as this organization, because it makes people’s lives better” she said.

The disconnect between a person who has struggled in this way and his or her society will be conveyed through different time signatures, which Hillary-Marie explained through the example of two people trying to communicate with each other but in different languages.

“So if you’re speaking English and I’m speaking Spanish, it’s language, but we’re having a disconnect. Even though we’re participating in the same thing, we’re verbalizing, we’re communicating, we’re attempting to have a conversation, there’s a disconnect … That’s what I’ll be exploring musically,” she said.

She said there will be two separate musical components happening on top of each other and in the end they will be able to come together.

Hillary-Marie’s idea hasn’t always been so clear, though. In the simple beginnings of her process, she had to combat a small hurdle in order to move forward.

“Music and dance are the universal languages of the world, but what the organization deals in are written and spoken languages. So language is the common theme, but how do I communicate this without us speaking and putting up words?” she wondered.

Having conquered that, her overarching goal with the performance is to allow the audience to find a connection with the students if they do not already.

Hillary-Marie said, “I think what I’d want people to take away is an empathy for the people around us, an empathy for the people who come to our country ready and willing to communicate but don’t necessarily have the tools available to assist and support them.”