CULTURAL EXCHANGE

steptext dance project/ young artists with the Kearsney College Choir from South Africa

Would you like to be on stage for a very special highlight?

Dance the famous gumboot dance together with the young people of the Kearsney College Choir from Bremen's twin city Durban. On its current concert tour "The Legacy of Nelson Mandela", the 54-member Kearsney College Choir is also celebrating 30 years of democracy in its home country of South Africa in Bremen.

The cultural exchange with the choir takes place as part of an intensive workshop at the beginning of the Bremen school holidays and culminates in a joint showing and performance.

In the workshops you will learn various African dances and dance techniques - including the basics of the "Gumboot Dance", a dance that was invented by miners in South Africa for communication and is now practiced as a protest dance.

You will be taught by the Bremen-based Togolese dancer Kossi Sebastien Aholou-Wokawui and the Ivorian dance artists Koffi Desiree Larissa and Tchinvier Konan. At the end of the project, on June 30th, you will meet the members of the choir and, under the artistic direction of Helge Letonja, you will be brought together in joint rehearsals in the Linnemann Hall of the Bremen Philharmonic. Here you will present your results at a public showing.

On the same evening, you and the dancers will perform during the Kearsney College Choir concert at the Bremen Metropoltheater. Using the means of art, dance and song, you will set an example for living democracy.

Participation in the project is free of charge.