Dance :
This afternoon we had our first movement session with 18 young students of Friendship schools. They are in between 8 and 14 years, both boys and girls.
We opened
the floor with a very simple game that allowed everyone to show up.
Yes, they had been shy at the beginning and this very simple game relaxed them.
One of the students even wanted to sing a song spontaneously!
We stepped into the dance with a very basic warm up.
There is a strong desire to move, but it was easier for the boys to let go than for the girls. The challenge is to find a way to give space to this awkwardness and not to try to « undermine » it. The challenge is to encourage them to make a dance out of it.
As we try
to work in parallel with Robert, I intended to introduce resilience, but in a
very simple and child adapted way. Basically, I wanted to make them aware of
the shapes the body takes when they are
– discouraged or sad or helpless
VS
– joyful, daring and full of energy
Of course, they know all these feelings. What matters is that they feel the possibility to shift, to change shape.
The children had fun, and we had fun!
Even if the body language is the most important, we are going to be assisted tomorrow. A translator has supported Robert during his works with adults today and he told me that it helped quite a lot.
But not speaking the same language makes you search for other possibilities: I’m aware that we are going to speak a lot in images here. We have been very creative already today.
And we are
going to play some Bangla music as well. A good mixture of familiar and
unfamiliar music is probably best.
I’m looking forward to the program of tomorrow, Robert and I will work with the
same group op boy and girls but sequentially.
Music: here is what Robert writes about his first session:
First TOT
session at FC
In this first session, 20 trainers are registered. Among this group we have
teachers, supervisors, paralegals and some youth volunteers.
The topic of today is “resilience and music”.
At the beginning I ask myself how I am going to explain the resilience to them knowing surely that all, anyhow have this capacity to develop themselves despite difficult surroundings.
So I just start with simple game of “breaking ice”. Quickly I noticed that through this simple game where each participant has to make any kind of movement for others to follow, there is a great potential of creativity among this young group, especially in dance and music.
This makes things easy to conduct the topic. So I just call them “bamboo trees” for despite winds and storms they are still standing.
And as for the question “if resilience is the question, is a music the answer?”, we all decide to meet again tomorrow so by changing entirely the program.
I’m really amazed by the splendid motivation of such a group
Robert
BornToBeMoved 