I had my final swan song, and it included a life size cardboard bus, mini Michael Jackson wannabes, and Chinese fans. Confusing I know, but stay with me. I am talking about the Africa Umoja Concert at the school where I teach dance. "Umoja" means spirit of togetherness, and that's exactly what the concert was about! Over a period of 4 months, I taught the kids how to do zumba, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, how to dance with props and acting. All of this was within the influence of dance throughout African history. The director of the show, and also my favorite counterpart because she gets me, based the concert of the popular African show titled by the same name as ours, Africa Umoja. The show takes you through African culture over the years by song and dance. Starting with the traditional dances, gospel songs, gumboot dancing, jive dancing that was found in the clubs in Metropolitan areas, and so on.
Our concert consisted of over 13 songs, combined with the senior school. I was in charge of choreographing the junior school. Since I don't have the capability to post a video of the hour long concert, I'll have to just tell you the play list.
1. Waka Waka- the dance group of the school, did a routine to the popular song by Shakira that was the theme song of the World Cup in 2010. FIFA World Cup South Africa may have been over four years ago, but the pride the continent felt for hosting such a big events is still as big as ever. This song, Waka Waka was the opening song of the concert. The girls were dressed in bright neon colors with sequins belt and wrist bands that moved when they shook their bodies. This song now has a special meaning to me, as I cried in the middle of the airport when I heard it weeks after the show.
2. Flag Parade- I'm not sure who the composer of this instrumental song was, but it was such a cool jazzy number where we did a lot of things. In this song, we had 19 flags of Africa represented on big glittery cardboard, we had 7 drummers, 8 ribbon girls, and 5 dancers. We filled the auditorium with this dance, coming in from all 4 wings, the 3 aisles in the back, and movement throughout the stage. The highlight was when the Swazi flag came down the center of the aisle and everyone cheered!
3. Africa Sunrise- This was such a powerful song by Helmut Lotti. It talks about the beauty of Africa. I had 20 grade 2 girls come on in a weaving pattern on stage, carrying giant 1 meter fans. At certain cues in the song, the girls opened the fans. Because the fans were so big and the musical cues where drastic, the movement, while not difficult, was very dramatic. In the midst of the moving fans, was "mother Africa", she came on the stage and danced here lyrical dance with ribbons across the stage. Such a beautiful piece
4. Jika- This is a very popular song by South African group Mi Casa. I would consider this song the crowd favorite of the concert. Not because the song, ok well maybe because of the song, but mostly because of the grade two boys who came on stage in a suit and tie with gold hats in tow. These little boys can move! I'm talking like "make you blush" kind of moves!
5. In the Jungle- this of course is the classic expected that song we wish to see performed by any little tyke. For the grade 1 girls, we had them dressed up a birds who were the main dancers. The cheeky little boys were the lions, and the rest were village people who walked on stage and conveniently got scared by a lion. Yes it was cliche, but its so cute when you see a six year old dressing in a big lion mane, carrying a stuffed animal lion on stage.
6. Penny whistle- this song by Mango Groove was the back drop to our "taxi scene". Our set director constructed a life size bus that the kids pushed on stage. We were acting out the comical and chaotic scene that is of the infamous bus ranks of Africa. We had bus conductors shouting, people dancing through the rank, girls on their cellphone, businessmen, mothers with babies on their backs, someone selling fruit, boys playing with toys, and of course one little white girl with a backpack on walking through confused with a map. There was a lot of activity going on, but it pulled off well!
Those were the big numbers that I choreographed, there rest were all choir songs, or just ones were the kids walked on and off stage. Overall though I am so happy with how the concert went. It truly was the highlight of my service.
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