By James C. Helicke *

Young Iraqi ballerinas in pink costumes gracefully glided
across a stage to a concerto by Mozart as a veteran dancer of U.S.
theater stages watched their every step.

"Listen to the music," Quae Simpson gently told the girls, members of
Baghdad's only ballet troupe. "Watch your posture!"

The workshop was one of dozens at Iraq's National Unity Performing and
Visual Arts Academy held in July in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.
The academy provided an opportunity for around 300 of the most talented
performers from across Iraq to train with acclaimed U.S. artists, and
reinforced a sense of unity, normalcy and hope through the arts.

Ten professional musicians and performers from the not-for-profit
organization, "American Voices" provided the free training to the Iraqi
ballet dancers, folk dancers and musicians, classical musicians, jazz
musicians and hip-hop performers. The program was supported by the U.S.
Embassy and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Culture.

"I'm a teacher. This is my passion and I have to share it," said
Simpson, a Baltimore native who has been a featured dancer in popular
New York musical productions. , "I think it's up to us to let people
know we care."

Mahasin al-Khatib, director of Baghdad's Butterfly Ballet Company, added
that the arts academy promotes reconciliation and national unity for
Iraq.

"We feel there's a strong love that binds us here together. Everybody is
one on the stage," said the Russian-trained ballerina. "I brought
Kurds, Assyrians, Shia and Sunnis together. I wanted to bring all these
people together, to unite the Iraqi people through dance."

However, she also acknowledged that pursuing her love for ballet has
often proven challenging amid violence in Baghdad. In 2005, on the day
of a wedding for one of her brothers, another brother was killed. Her
ballet group had been scheduled to participate in a cultural event in
Cairo the next day.

"I was almost finished. But because of my love for ballet and the arts,
I realized that life should continue. I needed to prove this, so I
went," she said.

Optimism that the arts might contribute to healing Iraq's wounds from
conflict was a sentiment echoed by many artists at the arts academy.

"I don't care about war and fighting. I care about dancing," said Brwa
Abdulrahman, a self-taught hip-hop dancer from the northern city of
Sulaimaniyah. "It's a reality that we lived in war. But we didn't take
part. We just danced."

The intense training - sometimes beginning early in the morning and
ending late at night - -culminated in two gala concerts that emphasized
national unity. A "Jazz Bridges Concert" on July 22 featured blends of
Iraqi Kurdish and Arabic folk music with jazz themes along with
traditional music and dance. A July 23 "National Unity Concert"
concluded with a performance by a National Unity Orchestra that combined
the talents of the Iraq National Symphony Orchestra and orchestras from
the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.

Organizers also worked to ensure that the training and belief in the
arts would not end with the close of the program. American Voices
donated many musical scores, teaching methods, ballet slippers, and
other supplies that are difficult to find in Iraq. It was a gesture that
the young ballerinas are unlikely to forget.

"They slept with their slippers under their pillows," al-Khatib, the
ballet director, said of her dancers. "They were dreaming like
Cinderella."

* James C. Helicke is a Public Diplomacy Officer for the Iraqi Kurdistan
Region Regional Reconstruction Team. He can be reached at
jhelicke@usaid.gov.