1. MEET THE HABER PROJECT:
HaBer Project is a Non-Profit Organization based in Berlin, Germany created by Fidan Sirin. Their purpose is to bring artists with different backgrounds, cultures and dance styles from all over the world together at the same time and place. Their local projects include working with youth and organizing dance events, camps, and theater productions in connection with Berlin’s art network. Globally, HaBer Project offers classes taught by professional coaches from various countries to create performances and have conversations around various topics.
One of HaBer Project’s missions is to give individuals who don't have access to the same opportunities and privileges as others the chance to meet artists of diverse cultures and experiences, giving them new perspectives of dance and life. It aims to support emerging artists, encourage them to expand out of their comfort zone, and accompany them to grow personally and artistically.
A current collaborator with HaBer Project is The Concept Project, an art dance company based in La Havana, Cuba. We will know more about this organization next month, don't miss it.
The collaboration between different arts projects haS created a growing community whose mission is to bring professional opportunities, knowledge and experience together, and an international exchange to build resources and infrastructures in other places.
2. THE LEADERS OF HABER PROJECT:
- FIDAN SIRIN: HaBer Project’s founder, was born in Turkey in 1989 and moved to Germany with her family as an asylum seeker in 1998. She began using dance as a form of expression at a young age to liberate herself from the stereotypes placed upon her as a woman or immigrant. She began dancing in the urban dance community and later changed her focus to improvisation and dance theater. She has worked as a freelance artist for over five years and has directed numerous dance projects for young amateur dancers in Berlin. With her high levels of artistic demands for stage technology and design, she breaks subversively with all stereotypes that portray the hip-hop community as a male-dominated domain as well as with the image of powerlessness and passivity that women with a Turkish-Kurdish background are often ascribed by society. She also uses her art to question prevailing cultural and gender-specific images, habits and expectations within her family and community as well.
*(disclaimer: we acknowledge that the term "urban dance" holds different meaning in various countries and that in North America, is held as a derogatory term used to stereotype Black & Brown communities.)*
- MARLON TORRIENTE POMARES: is a Cuban native and currently resides in Berlin, Germany. He is a capoeira teacher and runs a group between Cuba and Berlin. He has invested all his life in the capoeira world, teaching people of all ages and nationalities. He has also found a passion for film and decided to follow this dream. HaBer Project gave him the opportunity to work through film in June 2020. Working with the HaBer Project has helped him develop as a professional filmmaker. His philosophy gives him the desire to keep learning and growing artistically and personally.
3. SUPPORT THEM:
As a Non-Profit Organization, HaBer Project currently depends on sponsors or financial funding from the German government every year. This is a big challenge to keeping the sense of the project alive and growing in artistic and social perspectives. Project Home Art wants to support their projects and invites you to help us. They are working in collaboration this year to bring two dancers from Cuba’s The Concept Project to Berlin, Germany to participate in HaBer’s various projects that include dance events, camps and theatre productions. Their goal is to provide professional opportunities, knowledge, experience, and an international exchange to build resources and infrastructures to artists in other places. This year’s goal is to raise $1,200 USD. This amount will cover part of the expenses including flights, accommodations, food, and classes in Berlin for the 2 selected dancers. Let’s support our global art communities like the HaBer Project so that they can keep offering safe, diverse, creative, and belonging spaces for the artists and communities they are connected with.
Donate to HaBer Project : HERE
Learn more about HaBer Project on:
- Instagram: @haber_project
- YouTube: HaBer Project e.v.
- Website: https://www.haber-project.com/
To finish this stories, our question is: What does home means for you?
FIDAN: "Home means for me a place where I can be myself and feel loved, also where I can give love too. A place where I can grow. For example a room where I can train and listen to music and make things that makes me happy. It's not only a place it's also the people I am with. My son is, for example, home for me. A human I feel unconditional love. And many more people like my family and friends".