So....last Friday was my one month marker in the Tanz....and I celebrated the way I know best...dancing!
Dance being my passion, I knew that I couldn't leave it behind when I left the states..that I would want to teach dance when I came to Ngara. I have been teaching hip hop weekly at our work/compound to my co-workers, but I wanted to go out and teach in the community. I was quick to put the word out as much as possible that I was interested in teaching a dance class. During my visit to Ngara Secondary School, they eagerly arranged for me to teach a hip hop (known as "Bomba Fresh" here) dance class on November 16th, after final exams. With how many students?
....250.
Yep, 250 14-18 year old students, boys and girls, showed up last Friday for my dance class, and my co-worker Hilary was kind enough to come and assist me with "crowd control" as she called it. We introduced ourselves outside, and then said "Karibu"...welcoming the kids to come into the auditorium. They rushed the building like their pants were on fire. We ran inside.
Hilary and I put on the music (using my laptop, ipod and some borrowed speakers from a World Teach teacher at the school), and started with a simple slide clap. Of the 250 students...only 10 kids actually moved their bodies. We had a translator, and tried to get everyone dancing, but they didn't get the concept. There are no extra-curriculars for these kids, so they aren't used to organized fitness classes. And never seeing white people,we were quite the spectacle in our spandex pants and hip hop shirts. I jumped off the stage, and slide clapped through the crowd to try to get them energized...to no avail. They just screamed and laughed at seeing my backside in such tight pants.
We then gave it a go at stretching (with our 10 participants, 240 onlookers), and then moved into hip hop skills (taught them the dougie, running man, etc). I got a great ego boost every time I demonstrated something and the entire place erupted in cheers. With each new exercise, a few more students joined in. Next we tried choreography, which was an epic fail. After trying to teach and do the dance one time through, we asked them if they'd like to do it again and got a resounding "no".
OK- time for a new strategy.
Hilary & I jumped off the stage and corralled the students into a circle. THIS they got. Battle? Heck yes. I started off by jumping into the middle of the circle, doing a quick spin, into a baby freeze and then a head stall. They loved it. Then the dance idea caught on like wild fire. There were boys doing round-off back-handsprings and various other acrobatics, sweet robot pop-and-lockers, and even one boy who went into the middle of the circle, whipped out his bandanna & safety goggles, and started rapping in Swahili. It was a free for all! But the kids were having fun and moving, so I was stoked. I ran around the circle and tried to encourage more and more kids to get involved.
Then, our "class" turned into a dance party/pure chaos. Every time I turned around, I had 30 kids in my face saying "Michael Jackson! Justin Bieber?" while they grabbed at our hair and clothing...so exotic. One boy even was brave enough to kiss my face. Something needed to change. So...knowing they wanted to hear the music, and needing something to distract from us two, I started to bribe the kids to dance:
"Yes, I'll play Chris Brown for you...BUT if I turn on the music...you have to DANCE! Deal?"
"Ok...yes ma'am. But...you have to dance with us too".
So I showed them some moves, and they showed me theirs. I was so impressed with how some of these kids could move! We were invited back again, and I'm not quite sure if it was to dance with us some more or if they just wanted to touch our hair and skin some more out of fascination...but either way, we felt very appreciated! We got several hugs and many, many thank yous that afternoon. And..during the dance party at the end, Hilary said she even had several kids come up to her to show her some of the moves we'd taught them...such as the running man and the heel-toe. It made me feel good to know that they got something out of it, and we're taking something with them. And I'm sure that if we go back, we will be better prepared for how to keep these kids entertained. And...we'll probably also have a sign up sheet and reduce the class to...oh...about 20.
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