by Lina Paulitsch
On
an ordinary Monday afternoon the children of the New Life Orphanage had a
special event, lighting up their everyday life: a dance flash mob!
‘New
Life’ is an orphanage outside of Cape Coast, which is home to about 30
children. The building consists of several bedrooms, a dining room and a
library with a couple of tables for doing homework. In addition to the staff, young
volunteers from all over the world work at the orphanage, helping with home
exercises, playing games and providing a caring environment for the children.
Next to the building is a school for children, aged from two to fourteen years.
When
one of the volunteers, Sebastian from Denmark,
came to Ghana
he was instantly fascinated by the African dance moves even the smallest
children could perform. But what could be done with a group of talented
dancers? Having watched several videos on YouTube, Sebastian got an idea: a
dance flash mob where everyone could join in!
A
flash mob is a phenomenon of the 21st century, as they are usually
organized via social media or telecommunications. That is, because the purpose
of a flash mob requires a lot of people: a group gathers at a certain time and
place, performs an act and stops abruptly, as though nothing had happened.
Usually, one person starts dancing and many others continually join in, until a
huge crowd is dancing the same dance.
Sebastian
explained the system of a flash mob by showing an example of a T-Mobile
commercial on the Internet, which took place in Liverpool.
Once the children had got the idea how it all worked, they started practicing
immediately: Each child could suggest a move they liked and, supervised by
Sebastian, made their own choreography. The dance moves were mostly typically
Ghanaian and the children had fun teaching the ones who did not know them
already. The school’s principal, James, picked six different songs and made a
remix that would last for about two minutes.
After
practicing for one a half week the big day came on October 15th:
Without the schoolchildren and the teachers knowing, the 32 children of the
orphanage, a few students and the volunteers assembled innocently in the school
yard. All of a sudden, music was playing and one of the older girls started to
put on her moves in the middle of the yard. One after another, the other
children, both boys and girls, joined in until the whole group was moving. Even
the volunteers and James, the principal, could be seen dancing passionately!
When
watching the crowd, one could feel the strength of their community. And that
was the main idea: A project that unifies them, connecting their different ages
and abilities. As everyone had to participate and work together in order to
finish the choreography, the same goal united them and made them see, what a
small group of children could achieve. “The process of learning was a lot of
fun, but it will also bring them together, particularly in each grade”,
Sebastian said. Philomena, one of the girls said: “The others and I had a lot
of fun! I was happy to do it.”
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