2009 – ROOTS

“ROOTS” – Youth initiative for and by youngsters from Erfurt with migration background

In summer and autumn 2009 during three months the Thüringer Jugendarbeitskreis ThüJAK in cooperation with CGE Erfurt e.V. organised a dance theatre project for youngsters with migration background from Erfurt, entitled “ROOTS – Wurzeln”.

Within weekly workshops youngsters from Erfurt, supported by professional dance pedagogues and choreographers, dealt artistically with their own cultural “roots” and with encountering the other.

Out of this problem less surprisingly arose the question for the concrete place in the world: Where are my roots? Do I feel rooted? Do I want to cut loose? What keeps me? Where do I possibly strike new roots? Here improvisation and composition also provided several approaches of answering the questions: themed “Dance the World” on one day answers have been visualised on a world map made of some sewn together bed sheets by an artist from Erfurt – the feet of the dancing participants had been brushed with paint and each one marked on the map by movements her/his origin, experiences in the world dreamt of or realised. The so generated encounters and crossings reflected impressively the juvenile’s state of searching and orientating, during the performance as well as on the finished painting. The topic of varied bonds in a positive as well as in a negative sense had been adapted dancing by using Thera-Bands, whereby the experience of bonds, boarders, freedom, tightness, and wideness became comprehensible. This had been one of the most intense activities during the project – it has been mentioned multiple times in the evaluation, as encourage in taking different ways respectively fathoming new perspectives for individual development.

Activities in dance of course had been the focus of the project, however there have also been juveniles, which were interested in the topic “origin and identity”, but did not want to deal with it dancing. Out of this situation additional work groups were formed, which primarily engaged in the documentation of the project: photography, web blog, feature films, respectively costume and stage design, drafting posters for the closing event, as well the design of a t-shirt on the project. This work in small groups had been organised autonomous as far as possible and exercised independent of the dance workshops’ schedules by the participants. At scheduled dates the particular results of the works have been presented to all and evaluated by all participants.

A presentation marked the closure of the project, by which the audience has been surprised and impressed with depth of contents, intense emotions, and technical quality.

Realised by ThüJAK – Thüringer Jugendarbeitskreis in cooperation with CGE Erfurt e.V.

Promoted by:

Junge Medien Thüringen – Junge Presse Thüringen e.V.
Andreasstraße 25a
99084 Erfurt
0361-600 59 49
0361-600 59 50
info@junge-medien-th.de

and:

KulturEtage Erfurt
Patrik Pavlik
Gorki Strasse 1
99084 Erfurt
0361-216 99 47
0172-399 22 22
info@kulturetage-erfurt.de

and with support of the YOUTH IN ACTION programme.