Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
If a “Jeopardy” category was city nicknames and the clue stated “Riga, Latvia,” the correct response would be, “What is the Paris of the Baltics.”
Josephine Garibaldi, associate professor of dance in the Idaho State University School of Performing Arts in the College of Arts and Letters, reminisced about her favorite time spent as a Fulbright Scholar in Latvia being her time spent in the nation’s capital, Riga.
“Beautiful city, oh it was just gorgeous,” Garibaldi said. “Riga is such an awesome city, very inexpensive, it’s not really crowded, everybody walks regardless of the weather and when it’s cold you walk really fast to keep warm.”
Garibaldi served as a Fulbright Scholar from February to June 2014.
During her time in Latvia, Garibaldi taught at the Latvian Academy of Culture in the contemporary department of dance, as well as the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, which was serving the National Opera Company and National Ballet Company.
In addition to teaching contemporary dance technique, vocal work and composition over 40 hours per week and six out of seven days, she directed Global Corporeality: Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space.
This project utilized consumer technology such as Google Hangouts and laptop computers to allow students from the Department of Contemporary Dance at the Latvian Academy of Culture and students from the dance program of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Idaho State University to work together in real time digital space to choreograph different works collaboratively.
“The whole idea of it was a sort of DIY project,” said Garibaldi. “My questions were, ‘how do you create works across the pond? How do you create dance works collaborating together? Then, how do you make it easy for anybody to do it so that it doesn’t cost you anything?’”
Garibaldi said that Riga was named the European Union’s Cultural Capital for 2014 and in light of such an award there was an incredible amount of art, music and festivals celebrating the medieval pagan holidays that were celebrated in the past.
Latvia as a country gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in May of 1990, meaning the country has been independent for less than 25 years.
During the celebration of the nation’s independence in May, a corner-house known as the “KGB building” was opened up to the public.
“In Riga, tagging was everywhere but nobody would tag this building, nobody would even occupy this building,” said Garibaldi. “People were executed there, people were incarcerated there and they opened it up to the public. Once you entered the lower floor where people were processed you were handed this ticket, which was a replica of what they used to be handed. On the fifth and sixth floors there were art exhibits that featured different installations as to what had gone on it that building.”
Garibaldi said some of the different ethnic groups were still very tense following the nations relatively new independence.
Since 2008 Garibaldi has been an associate professor of dance at ISU.
Before coming to ISU, Garibaldi became heavily involved in Capoeira, an African-Brazilian martial art, which is how she met her husband.
Garibaldi and her husband started directing a Capoeira Company, hosting performances and gigs all over, including going on tour in Brazil.
From there the couple obtained a joint position starting in the Cal State system in Los Angeles.
After spending some time apart at different universities, the couple found employment together at a university in Iowa.
Eventually, the couple decided they hadn’t completed their bucket list quite yet.
“We moved to the Pacific Northwest and built our own dance studio, art gallery and performance space in Tacoma, Washington,” said Garibaldi.
“A bus went through our building, wiped out a quarter of our building so we had to rebuild in a new building and once the recession hit we just weren’t making enough revenue to sustain, so we moved here.”
Idaho State University’s Dance department offers a Bachelor of Arts in Dance with an emphasis in choreography, the only degree in the program in dance of its kind in the state of Idaho.
As a teacher, Garibaldi loves being able to see students become successful; those moments in which students finally understand what they are trying to accomplish keep her going.
“Those ‘aha’ moments I have with students, you know when it all connects and they are in the zone,” said Garibaldi. “Teaching is always performing for me. I love watching students go on in their careers. I have these different generations that are going off and being successful and because of Facebook I can keep in touch with them, and that’s really awesome.”
