PTK to bring Chaddah Dance Company’s ‘Encounters of Hope’ to WSRE

Feb. 5 event will raise money for scholarships for human trafficking survivors By Troy Moon Pensacola State College Pensacola State’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society chapter Theta Chi undertook human trafficking as a service project in 2019 and started the PTK Transformation Through Education Scholarship to help human trafficking survivors attend College. Pensacola dance group Chaddah Dance Company tours nationally with a dance performance, “Encounters of Hope,” which is inspired by and tells the story of human trafficking survivors. So, a collaboration between the groups – PSC’s PTK chapter and Chaddah Dance Company – seems a perfect fit to do good. The Chaddah Dance Company will perform “Encounters of Hope” at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Jean and Paul Amos Studio. The performance is a fundraiser for the PTK Transformation Through Education Scholarship which is administered by the Pensacola State College Foundation. Tickets are $14 and can be purchased online at www.eventbrite.com/e/encounters-of-hope-tickets-245849882617. According to the Chaddah website, the “Encounters of Hope” production “tells the true stories of human trafficking victims through powerful imagery and dance.” “When our students began researching human trafficking, they learned that Florida is top spot in the nation for human trafficking,’’ said PTK Theta Chi chapter adviser Jeff Wooters. “The students wanted to do something to help, even though it’s such a massive problem.” PTK members Sebastian Gordon and Eleni Ayoub were the students who helped coordinate and facilitate the performance. Ayoub had previously seen the production and had forged a relationship with Chaddah Dance Company founder, Amy Jo Pernie. Pernie established the Chaddah Dance in 1997 and was inspired to produce a dance piece to bring awareness to human trafficking after a visit to India in 2006. That piece is “Encounters of Hope” which Chaddah Dance Company performs across the nation. The group will perform in Las Vegas, one of the worst cities in the country for human trafficking, on Feb. 12 and in Saginaw, Michigan, later in February. The “Encounters of Hope” production features 16 dancers who pay all their own fees, including travel and lodging fees. “These are young people who raise all of their own support to do this touring,’’ Pernie said. “They all have the same heart.” There will be information on human trafficking distributed in the lobby.