Meet the creator of a new short film on Somali dance in Minneapolis

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: A local photographer and director is highlighting her own community in her debut short film. Dhaanto follows a Minneapolis Somali dance troupe and their coach, who hold the knowledge of traditional dances and are passing it down to young first generation Somali Americans.

MOHAMOUD OSMAN MOHAMED: It all started with my father, who's a great storyteller. He was telling me stories about a period of time when performing arts, such as folk dancing and theater, was thriving in Somalia. So it's because of those stories that inspired the idea of developing this dance program that would help revive the Somali culture.

After that, my dad instantly started traveling from one school to another to recruit students, who would be interested in studying Somali traditional dances, and later on performing them out for the community.

CATHY WURZER: Ah. Joining us right now is the woman behind the camera, Yasmin Yassin. And she's with us right now. Yasmin, how are you?

YASMIN YASSIN: Good. How are you?

CATHY WURZER: Great. Hey, congratulations. How do you feel about this?

YASMIN YASSIN: Thank you so much. It feels really good to actually have it out in the world. So we're really excited.

CATHY WURZER: Good for you. Dhaanto, by the way, what does that mean?

YASMIN YASSIN: Yeah. Dhaanto is the name of a traditional Somali dance. It's a dance that mimics the movements of a camel. And so, it's the most popular Somali traditional dance. Despite there being a lot of different other ones, this one is the most well known.

CATHY WURZER: Well, Yasmin, how did you decide that you wanted to do this film?

YASMIN YASSIN: Yeah. I've seen this dance troupe performing around the Twin Cities for quite a while now. And so, I was at a local Minneapolis Festival in the summer about a year and a half ago. And I spotted the dance troupe running around, and I saw the coach trying to corral all these teens to dance. And I was curious about his story and seeing what happens behind the scenes of this dance troupe. Because I've seen them perform on stage, but I never really saw whatever happens before they even get onto the stage and get dressed. And so I wanted to get to know them more.

CATHY WURZER: And there's a lot of work, I bet?

YASMIN YASSIN: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

CATHY WURZER: What were you hoping to capture with this short film?

YASMIN YASSIN: Yeah. I think, kind of, two pronged. The first thing I really wanted to capture was just the passion of the coach, Mohamoud. And the fact that he-- and the second thing is that he's preserving our traditional dances. Kind of bringing them over to the diaspora-- And him and the Somali Museum of Minnesota-- just with the sheer amount of passion that they have. They're really transferring all this cultural knowledge to waves of young Somali Americans and youth.

And so, I think, just really wanted to capture the magnitude of what they're doing beyond just being a performance troupe. They're also just cultural barriers that are hidden in the background with the sheer amount of work that they're doing.

CATHY WURZER: Well, you know what though. You're, kind of, joining them, right? I mean, you're preserving the tradition in a different way. You're documenting it.

YASMIN YASSIN: Yeah. I, kind of, consider this like a cross section of the present, like an archival piece for the future. I'm as excited about what they're doing, and they're doing it right now. But for me, it's just-- can I capture what they're doing right now as they're forming and changing? And the team is growing and expanding. And so, I'm hoping that eventually, this ends up being a snapshot for future people to see what's happening in the community at this moment.

CATHY WURZER: Say, go back for just a moment, if you could please, and talk about dance in the Somali tradition. How-- why is it important? And what role does it play in the culture?

YASMIN YASSIN: Yeah. It's a very important piece in the culture. There's so many different dances. There's different kinds-- I mean, dance is one of the most popular ones. But there's regional dances. There's dances for different groups of people back home. It indicates stories. It's told through storytelling. Sometimes, it's also told through, just like where you're from exactly, and lineage, and background. And so, there's just so much rich heritage and tradition in these dances that this museum is preserving and passing along.

CATHY WURZER: So, let me ask you a little bit more about the storytelling tradition, the East African storytelling tradition, which is also a part of dance, right?

YASMIN YASSIN: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: When you're dancing, it's also kind of a way of storytelling.

YASMIN YASSIN: Very much so. So in that sense, it's an oral storytelling culture. And so, we pass things on through doing, and teaching, and telling. And so, very much the sheer act of this dance troupe existing as a teaching mechanism-- they practice on the weekends. They practice in the evenings. They spend a lot of time together just learning these movements.

And now they're expanding it to doing workshops and teaching to other people as well, which they've been doing for a while as well. And so that dissemination is just a continuation of the culture of doing and oral storytelling.

CATHY WURZER: I bet you know the dances. I mean, did you learn something new watching the troupe?

YASMIN YASSIN: I mean, I did. I'm not the most coordinated person. So I can't say I would definitely film myself doing the dances. But, yeah, I did absorb a lot. And I learned a lot about-- initially, when I started, dhaanto was the main dance for me that I knew very much. And so learning about all these other ones was really cool to see, and just their names that I've heard for the first time, and watching them do them is just-- some of them some are more complicated and intricate than others. And so that was also a rich learning experience.

And my entire crew of nearly 20 people, who've been working on the short documentary with me, I handpicked as many people as I could from the community to ensure that it was largely East African crew as well. So people from our own community learning behind the scenes with me.

And so we all just followed this dance troupe for almost a year. And so that experience ended up being a lot of learning for us as well as we were able to exchange that knowledge with them in terms of how we were going to do the documentary and things like that.

CATHY WURZER: So I know the film's made its debut. What's been the reaction so far?

YASMIN YASSIN: It's been surprising. People have been really excited about it. We've had full houses. We planned three screenings. The one coming up this Friday is the third screening, last screening in their debut series.

And so it's just been amazing to see the reception people have been really, really excited. To just see a positive story about the community, and just get to know these dancers a little bit more, and just the story behind the coach, and-- people have seen them perform, like I said before. But it was just like peeling the curtain before they actually get on stage a little bit.

CATHY WURZER: I bet this whet your appetite to do more filmmaking?

YASMIN YASSIN: Oh, totally. Yeah. I'm currently working on my next script. I really enjoy documentary filmmaking. But I'm hoping to dip my toes a little bit into fiction now. And so it's been a good experience for sure.

CATHY WURZER: What did you like about documentary filmmaking versus doing other sorts of films? Because I'm a big fan of the art form. I love it.

YASMIN YASSIN: Documentary?

CATHY WURZER: Yeah.

YASMIN YASSIN: I like it too. I think it was a really fun challenge for m. As somebody who has a research background in the sciences, taking that experience a little bit and being able to apply the rules. I would do-- I had to do a lot of research, a lot of planning, a lot of project management, and things like that.

And so that was really helpful when applying a documentary in the sense of what you see is what you get. You can't really write a script or manufacture a story. And so, you really have to use the reality and then be able to build a storyline out of that afterwards. So it was nice.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I wish you all the best as you head into another chapter of your filmmaking.

YASMIN YASSIN: Thank you so much.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, it was fun talking to you.

YASMIN YASSIN: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks. Yasmin Yassin has been with us. She's the director of the documentary, Dhaanto.