What can we do here on Long Island to support people struggling to break through and transform negative and traumatic experiences?
The film, “What Better Looks Like,” follows six dancers from the acclaimed Battery Dance Company who travel the world, working with youth who’ve experienced war, poverty, prejudice, sexual exploitation, and severe trauma as refugees.
The dancers taught some of the most vulnerable youth about expressing themselves through movement and creativity.
Addressing issues from gender violence and poverty, to persecution and prejudice, these students respond in extraordinary ways as they prepare to perform in their communities after only a week of practice.
The film follows them to India, where they work with girls rescued from sex trafficking and gender violence; to Romania, with Roma (gypsy) kids from one of Europe’s worst slums; to South Korea, with young North Koreans who risked their lives to escape; and to Iraq, where they work with a gifted young Muslim dancer, fighting to survive.
As they struggle to break through, the dancer-teachers confront their own frustrations.
Yet their students respond in extraordinary ways — and as they prepare to perform in public in what seems an impossibly short time, both students and teachers experience surprising transformations, unlocking feelings and stories in wellsprings of creativity.
The Cinema Arts Centre will host a screening of “What Better Looks Like” as part of their Moving Stories series that includes a reception and discussion with the film’s director, Rob Fruchtman, on Monday Sept. 24 at 7 p.m.
The Cinema Arts Centre is located at 423 Park Ave. in Huntington.
For more information and tickets, go to www.cinemaartscentre.org.
