Dance ~ Danse!

So I'm in the final days of my Peace Corps service, and I decided for my final "project" I'd do something a little different.  The girls youth group that I work with here in my village, Kounkané, and I have been meeting twice weekly to prepare for the project.  I've been working with the girls, consistently, teaching them different kinds of dance  (jazz, hiphop, latin styles, etc.) while also giving them a chance to express their creativity. They really seemed to enjoy our meetings! After a couple of months of just dancing around together, the girls expressed interest in sharing what they've learned with the community, so we decided to put on a mini performance for their friends, families, and neighbors.  We started preparation for the Kounkané Dance Performance around the beginning of March.  The girls told me what songs they liked and what they wanted to dance to.  I thought it was a good idea to mix up the type of music, so that it wasn't just American music or just Senegalese music.  There ended up being 3 groups of about 3-4 girls per group.  Each group danced to a music mix for the duration of about 5 minutes, with a mixture of 5 to 6 songs per compilation.  I did the choreography for almost all of the music compilations for each group, but I gave the girls the opportunity to dance freely, doing movements they created, for some of the Senegalese songs that were incorporated in each compilation. {Also, some dance moves for Shakira's Waka Waka, and Jennifer Lopez's, Papi, were borrowed/inspired for our own use during those songs---but the rest of the choreography is my own :)}The girls worked hard, meeting about twice a week to practice and learn.  They learned new types of dance moves and choreography, how to count music, spacing, and spins.  There were some days I made them come to my house and dance in front of a mirror so they could see themselves and the areas where they could improve (they loved that!!!).

The girls during a practice session

Some of my girls rehearsing

Practice! Practice! Practice!

 By the beginning of April, one of the groups was practically ready to dance in front of a crowd, and with the Senegalese Independence day on April 4th approaching, the girls asked if they could perform at the yearly parade.  This year, however, due to budget cuts at the mayor's office there was not an Independence Day parade.  Fortunately, (after riding my bike all over Kounkané) I found out that the local band/orchestra was putting on a show that night, and I asked them if my girls could participate and dance.  They said we could as long as we did it for free, so that night my girls had their first taste of performing.  They danced three songs, and they were a huge hit! For weeks afterwards people continued to approach me and congratulate me and my girls on how well they did (even though there were a few mess-ups, they still did amazing!)  After their first mini-performance, they were even more motivated for the bigger show we were planning to put on at the end of the school year.
So the girls continued with hard work and practice and finally on June 16th, 2012 we had our "Spectacle de Danse" for the community.  It was a free show, which took place in the evening at the Foyer de Jeunesse (where we had our weekly meetings).  I had the girls make invitations and hand them our to their friends and families and I even had skirts made for each of the dancers, so they could have something similar to a costume. (We didn't have any money to put on a huge show and get really nice costumes made.  I had the skirts made for my girls with my own money, and we cut up pieces of old material and sewed them on to the skirts to give them some "flaire"). The local DJ said he would come and play the music for free on his giant speakers, instead of my flimsy little stereo I usually used for practices, and the mayor's office donated 20 chairs to use during our show.  It was nice to see that the community chipped in to help put on a free show for the kids in their village :)

Group 1 during the Dance Performance

Oumy, Siradia, Aichatou: Group 2

Salimatou & Dienabou: Group 3

The performance was great! Each group danced twice, and as far as an audience, we had a pretty good turnout, mostly kids, but it was good that their peers could see how hard they had worked for the show.  I am so proud of my youth group! Although this was a secondary work project, it was by far the most enjoyable projects I've worked on!

Showing off their skills :)

 I feel like my girls learned a lot from this experience, not just new dance moves, but the importance of hard work, trying new things, and believing in themselves.  When we first started, many of the girls saw the choreography and said, "I can't do that. That's too hard." But in the end, I think they realized that yes, they can do anything they put their minds to, and with hard work, practice, and discipline, they were able to do what they never thought possible.


Here is the link to the youtube video I uploaded of group 2.  I want to upload more of the videos but the internet is super slow here.  Check back later for more videos if you're interested :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUOkrbCpuWo&feature=youtu.be