{"id":1271,"date":"2013-11-19T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rebeccadavisdance.com\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2013-11-19T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T21:06:07","slug":"broadway-dancer-lamar-baylor-travels-to-rwanda-to-begin-his-role-as-cultural-ambassador-for-rddc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/2013\/11\/19\/broadway-dancer-lamar-baylor-travels-to-rwanda-to-begin-his-role-as-cultural-ambassador-for-rddc\/","title":{"rendered":"BROADWAY DANCER LAMAR BAYLOR TRAVELS TO RWANDA TO BEGIN HIS ROLE AS CULTURAL AMBASSADOR FOR RDDC"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2013<\/strong>\u2026From Camden, New Jersey via Broadway to Africa, this week New Jersey native and dancer LaMar Baylor of Disney\u2019s The Lion King begins his role as Cultural Ambassador for the international humanitarian work that RDDC (Rebecca Davis Dance Company) is doing in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

For LaMar, it\u2019s a return engagement.\u00a0 He first travelled to Kigali with RDDC in 2011 and his current visit (November 18 to November 25, 2013) will enable him to expand his role, teaching dance and choreography to street children and disadvantaged Rwandan youth impacted by the aftereffects of the Rwandan genocide, and creating awareness in the U.S. about the plight of these children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty is the struggle,\u201d said LaMar.\u00a0 \u201cSeeing how Rwandan youth cope and how the country is rebuilding you realize nothing is impossible to deal with and you don\u2019t take things for granted.\u00a0 These kids show up for class every day physically, mentally and spiritually, willing to learn and soak up knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While in Kigali he will maintain a video blog of his work with the children, and this Thanksgiving, he will kick off an Indiegogo campaign for the LaMar Baylor Scholarship Fund.\u00a0 Reaching out to his more than 2400 social media followers, he hopes to earn enough money to send several of the best students to boarding school, carrying out one of the goals of RDDC. \u00a0A dollar from each of his followers would be enough to fund two students.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s looking forward to checking in with past participants who he helped develop into dance teachers for the program\u2014Ssali Joseph Eugene and Innocent Nkusi. Before their involvement in RDDC, Ssali and Innocent were both struggling to find a way to effectively channel their love of dance and passion for helping Rwandan\u2019s children. Identifying and training new dance teachers is another one of the objectives of LaMar\u2019s trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapacity-building for Rwanda\u2019s youth, like the work LaMar is doing to strengthen the skills of our local dance teachers, is one of the most important ways outsiders can assist in rapidly developing this post-genocide country,\u201d said RDDC Founder Rebecca Davis.\u00a0 \u201cRDDC has introduced standardized dance and IT curricula that focus on physical movement and vocational training.\u00a0 Street children need this type of dual preparation before reintegrating into society, and RDDC employs local teachers to provide this training,\u201d added Rebecca.<\/p>\n

LaMar grew up in Camden, began dancing at the Creative Arts High School in Camden, NJ and continued his training at Halliday Dance and Dance Sensations at New Jersey. He graduated from University of the Arts in 2008 with a B.F.A. in Jazz Performance. \u00a0He has danced with artists including Patti LaBelle, Ben Vereen and Jill Scott, and was a dancer for Philadanco before joining Disney\u2019s \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d<\/p>\n

RDDC is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit organization based in the USA.\u00a0 The company creates dance and educational programs for street children and underserved youth in post-conflict and developing countries.\u00a0 RDDC currently operates in Rwanda, Guinea and Bosnia-Herzegovina.<\/p>\n

To interview LaMar Baylor or Rebecca Davis, contact Sydney Skov at <\/em>sydskov@gmail.com<\/em><\/a> or 503-309-5267.\u00a0 Photos and videos are available on request. For more information on the Rebecca Davis Dance Company Program in Rwanda, see <\/em>http:\/\/rebeccadavisdance.com\/rwanda\/<\/em><\/a> <\/em>and rwandayouth.com <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2013\u2026From Camden, New Jersey via Broadway to Africa, this week New Jersey native and dancer LaMar Baylor of Disney\u2019s The Lion King begins his role as Cultural Ambassador for the international humanitarian work that RDDC (Rebecca Davis Dance Company) is doing in Rwanda. For LaMar, it\u2019s a return engagement.\u00a0 He first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usa-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindleaps.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}