“The Man in the Mirror” dance project challenges young people to change their community by changing themselves, its co-ordinator says.
The two-week school holiday project has seen 18 enthusiastic people between 10 and 19-years-old dance in costume in urban and natural settings around Marlborough.
The performances have been filmed and will appear on YouTube as a music video next weekend.
Blenheim dancers, from left, Mele Moli, Vei Moli, Tisi Pulukamu, Cecelia Takitaki and Luisa Fotumoala.
Nicole Pereira, who co-ordinated the project along with fellow Becre8tive teacher Vita Vaka, said the aim was to get young people to explore their own identity and to see how they could change their community through performing.
The dance project used Michael Jackson’s song The Man in the Mirror.
Becre8tive students danced in different locations around Marlborough.
Dances capturing different historical periods and different cultures, such as Samoan, Tongan and European, would appear in the video, she said.
Some of the students would be singing as well as dancing in the video, Pereira said.
The course had been running throughout the school holidays and was focused on dancing, team-building and leadership-building.
“The whole message here was ‘it starts with me’,” Pereira said.
Becre8tive was part of the Breakthrough Centre New Zealand, a national community development organisation which began in Auckland, Pereira said.
Two or three of the students had attended dance classes but the majority were not dancers at all, she said.
It was great to see their confidence and their interest in dance develop over the two-week period, she said.
Locations for the outdoor performances included Seymour Square, in Blenheim, and a more natural bush setting near Spring Creek, which captured the forest, the mountains and the water, she said.
The group had received $1000 funding through Creative Communities New Zealand for the project, administered by the Marlborough District Council, Pereira said.
Pereira had a Master’s degree in dance studies, and was working towards a PhD in dance studies through correspondence with the University of Auckland.
She was interested in using dance as a platform for community development, and showing people how dance and performing arts could be a tool for them, she said.
She had enjoyed working with some of the Pasifika children who had signed up for the project, Pereira said.
“They can create just like that.”
Vaka also had an extensive background in the Pacific performing arts, she said.
They were keen to create a “hub” in Blenheim and were looking for more funding from Creative New Zealand and the council, Pereira said.
“I guess we wanted to do more of this stuff,” she said.
Marlborough Girls’ College student Sage Keen, 14, said the course had given her a chance to reflect, as well as reigniting her interest in dance.
It made her see that her identity was more than what she looked like, she said.
“It’s about your values, your personal traits and the way you are,” she said.
“The things you don’t really notice about yourself.”
Sage was dancing a hip-hop and ballet solo in Seymour Square, with full 1920s-style hair and makeup, she said.
She had enjoyed the whole course, she said.
“It’s fun, it’s energetic, it’s friendly. I’ve made a lot more friends than I thought I would,” she said.
She was really excited to see how the video looked, she said.
Marlborough Boys’ College student Tana Connor-McClean said he was also dancing a solo, which featured a football.
“It’s good fun meeting new people and learning some dance moves too,” he said.
SOURCE: Marlborough Express
