Making a global positive impact – and having fun with it!
Inform us!
Information that we need includes:
1. Information/contact on any person/organization that would wish to contribute to the project. Please do not simply send us suggestions listing those we could contact – we have no time for that! Rather contact them yourself, and only let us know if they will be definitely interested in collaborating with us. Ask them how specifically they envision our cooperation and contact us with the most concrete suggestions possible.
2. The dances. We need information on specific dances and their geographic origins. Please note that we are aware that many dances are ‘fusion’ dances with many influences from across continents. What we are looking for is the most specific location where each specific dance came to be in its current form. Thus, Lambada, for example, can have various roots, but it has solidified as its own style of dance in Brazil, and specifically grown roots in Porto Seguro. Porto Seguro thus would be our destination as the ‘place of origin’ of Lambada.
The dances can be internationally known, wide-spread, or virtually unknown, local folklore dances – as long as you can point to a location where the dance has taken its current form and/or where it has been practiced for the longest time and is/was most wide-spread.
Please note that in some cultures some dances may be considered as ritual; for that or other reasons, an outsider can be restricted from learning the dance. Also, some dances are gender-specific to males only. If you know of such dance and it can be at least filmed, then feel free to inform us about it. If you know of the dance that Leah can neither film nor learn as an outsider/ female, please do not send us information about such dances.
3. Dance schools/teachers (in Prague and in our upcoming destinations). In Prague, these would be schools/ teachers willing to offer dance classes in all possible genres of dance.
At each of our upcoming destinations, we’d need a dance school/ teacher(s) who would be able to teach Leah (and, potentially, her partner/s) a choreography of the local dance that will be consequently performed and filmed to close each episode.
4. Local projects.
We are looking to support local long-term projects that tangibly improve lives of the people. The projects will vary depending on our destination, as the needs of local communities vary. However, generally we are looking for the following characteristics:
A long-term project that is little known but contributes to significant improvement of people’s lives in the local community. For example, a project that works with former prisoners to provide them with psychological training and hands-on job training, as well as actual employment (this is a great example statistically: in the USA average national relapse rate for former detainees is about 75%. People who happen to go through such rehabilitation projects have a relapse rate of under 10%). Any educational projects (unless it is specifically religious education – as a non-religious undertaking, we cannot support any projects with any religion-specific agenda), skill-acquiring projects, whether or not any of them are related to dance.
The projects need to be transparent and trustworthy and show an actual significant impact on people’s lives over their entire history of existence.
Newly emerging projects will be considered, but they need to be solid, trustworthy and reliable in terms of actual execution.
If we cannot find any single project to support in the specific city we will go to, we will look for geographically closest regional project or any other small-scale project in the country. If even this will be found impossible, we will support a larger international organization active in that country. We will also constantly monitor Kiva for local entrepreneurs needing support that we can fully back.
5. Costumes/make-up etc
We will need authentic costumes for some of the final performances. In case the dance school/s will be unable to provide them, we need to know where to get them for the shoot. We will also need someone to do the hair and make-up for the dance shoot (and it can involve doing it for a whole group of people, depending on the dance). Please check our upcoming locations in the MAD Calendar to send fitting suggestions.
6. Locations for the shooting.
The locations can include any hidden/beautiful/remarkable spots in the city/region/country of our upcoming trip that you think is worth showing to the world.
The location can also be a suggestion for the specific location to shoot the final video. Note that specifications for each locations may vary depending on our destination. Sometimes a bigger open space may be required, sometimes a location where the dance can be filmed from above will be needed, sometimes just a small spot will suffice. In either case, the location should be flat and have either a very scenic or a very famous spot as its backdrop.
If you can find out about the possible permissions needed for the shooting of the video, please do so too. Some countries have limitations on public video filming of certain sights/buildings.
Another option (especially for smaller village folk dances) is local festivals.
7. Music for the videos
We would be happy to feature any undiscovered musical talents either based in the country/region that we are traveling to, or making music that is of that region’s style in our videos. We will need background music of all genres for all our videos!
8. Local festivals and celebrations.
Local festivals are colorful displays of the local cultures. New Year celebrations in accordance with different calendars, festivals, carnivals and other types of celebrations (for example, witch-burning in the Czech Republic) - we want to know about them all! If we can time our trip around such festivities, we can show the world additional beauty and traditions.
Please try to find out if you can if the participants of the festival would not mind being filmed and have Leah perform with them.
9. Local arts/crafts/fairs and hidden treasure-spots, unknown stories.
If we can show the making of an art/item live, that would be splendid. Tell us also about the history, origins and purposes of the craft. Also tell us about the specific appeal of the unknown little places or extravagant ones (haunted house?..); the little-known history and legends of the well-known places and anything else a typical tourist (and maybe most locals) are unlikely to have heard about.
10. Any fun activities
Different places have different traditions – some include tomato fights, others releasing the lanterns into the skies. Some are time-specific, others happen all year long (like flea-markets) of for several months at a time. Let us know – we will be happy to participate!
11. Where to sleep/eat/party
If we would have any time to party 
. But we will definitely need to eat and sleep, so suggestions on the most delicious places for food and most comfortable places to rest will be welcome.
12. Any other information you think will be relevant to any of the upcoming trips or the project in general.
Got info? Let us know!!!
