Camilla Dodson                                              

                                                                                                (505) 332-3779

                                                                                                popysele@yahoo.com

 

          Hoohoo the Cat                           Camilla at work in Ireland                          Danny the Dog

 

This is a true story

I was having guests at my house in Dublin when a little Irish girl
came up to me with a strange look on her face.
With the total solemnity only available to the innocent,
she asked me "What are you black for?"
I didn't quite know how to answer, so started telling her
how my parents had been black, and all my relatives,
and how genetics works. Well, she was just becoming more and more lost.
So I stopped and said "Well, what are you white for, anyway?
The little girl said simply "That's the way I came."

That's the way I came...

  

Camilla Dodson is the eldest daughter of a rural village chief in Lesotho, a small country in Southern Africa.  There she showed a special aptitude for learning, and was trained as an elementary school teacher.  Since that period, her teaching experience has spanned three continents and all grade levels.  After moving to Ireland, she developed and taught a multicultural educational curriculum for public and private schools throughout Ireland.  Now residing in New Mexico, Camilla has continued her multicultural education efforts by working with individual schools throughout the state through the auspices of the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities.  Camilla’s efforts in the area of multicultural education have led to considerable activity within the diplomatic community, who honored Camilla some years ago by asking her to speak in Ireland at a tribute to Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his release from political prison in South Africa. 

In addition to being an accomplished and talented teacher, Camilla offers a breadth of other skills and abilities.  She was a Commissioner of the Girl Guides (roughly equivalent to the Girl Scouts) in Ireland, having worked up from a very enthusiastic troop leader to this national post.  Camilla is an accomplished musician and dancer, having performed and honed her skills from an early age.  She was leader of an Irish band which was largely responsible for introducing the sounds of traditional African music to the Irish public.  She is proficient with the range of percussion instruments, but is especially known for her skill with the djembe, a traditional African drum.  She directs African Sounds, an African drumming and dance company, and an African song and dance group, the Friendly World Quartet.  In other areas of performance, Camilla is a successful playwright, director, choreographer, and actress, and is justly renowned for her storytelling abilities.  

Camilla and Brian share their lives with Danny and Hoohoo (shown above), both rescued animals!

Here following are some interesting links to Camilla's Irish work!"

Choreographed 'Africa to Aran', an original production, for the debut of SPRAOI, an Irish performance group which has now become one of the major forces in Irish entertainment.

Camilla tells stories for a fall 1999 Festival in Bunclody, which is a picturesque riverside town in County Wicklow in Ireland.

Camilla and Brian appeared on a television production called 'City Folk', which descibed their lives leading up to their 2002 nuptial celebration in Ireland

Camilla's singing is featured on an Irish CD, Time to Time, by Gerry O'Connor

Camilla was one of the founders of the Irish Black and Migrant Women Council, a group promoting the introduction of black and migrant women into the traditionally white male-dominated Irish society.