Libraries We Love:
Dancing Among The Stars
When working collaboratively with Robert Dekkers, anything can happen. Dekkers, who is famously the artistic director of both the Berkeley Ballet Theater and the avant garde dance company Post:Ballet, is now booking-it a bit. Recently The BBT Studio Company collaborated with the Berkeley Public Library Foundation to help celebrate the latest newly renovated Library in the Berkeley Public Library System.
For the dancer and choreographer Robert Dekkers, books have played in integral role during every phase of his life.
"As a child, reading ignited my imagination, inspiring me to dream, play, and create.
As a teenager, reading sparked my curiosity, encouraging me to explore, discover, and learn.
As an adult, reading enlightens my perspective, inviting me to grow and evolve as an individual and a member of our collective society.”
Dance performances by the BBT Studio Company were presented in a new film that premiered at the virtual event held on March 6. Other creative talent included an engaging lineup of music, dance, theater, storytelling, and poetry. The funds raised by donation and an online auction will be used to do all of the amazing things needed by the six branches of the library. The most recent accomplishment is the renovation and creation of new teen space at the Central Library.
About the collaboration Dekkers commented, “I'm so grateful for this opportunity to bring my love for dance and reading together in the Berkeley Public Library's new Teen Room. Berkeley Ballet Theater Studio Company dancers Sydney, David, and Ian collaborated with me on this film, along with cinematographer/editor Clare Schweitzer and the Berkeley Public Library Foundation."
Many public libraries across America get their budgets from the municipalities and counties where they reside. Additional funding comes from grants and fundraising. The monies donated to libraries gives them the ability to do amazing things, ranging from building renovation to the offering of groundbreaking new programs. For the ultimate in innovation, take a look at the Berkeley Public Library.
Libraries typically have children’s story telling, book clubs and learning programs that are customized to fit the needs of the communities they serve. The BPL system has raised the barre by looking ever upward toward the stars. Each week, the library offers a sky report that includes current positions of the heavenly bodies and constellations. One recent news tidbit reported that the astronauts on the International Space Station were planning to take a six-hour 250 mile-high Sunday stroll through space.
Each month, we profile a library: Large, small, urban, rural, post-modern, quaint or neo-classic, but this month we are presenting a new and different way of looking at libraries. Patricia Vaccarino writes about a fundraising collaboration between the Berkeley Ballet Theater and the Berkeley Public Library Foundation.