Dance for All

Dance for All has a very nice main office in Athlone, with beautiful dance studios where the company and specialized dance programs take class. I arrived there thirty minutes early (we're still working out the kinks in our transportation schedule) and sat awkwardly in the waiting area until I was supposed to leave for a township with one of the outreach teachers. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself, and they weren't quite sure what to do with me, but everyone was very nice. These first couple of days I'm only observing and meeting people. In the coming weeks I'll start talking to the kids, and hopefully getting them to open up to me. I'll also be working in the office at Dance for All in the mornings. I'm still getting a feel for how this organization works (it appears that nobody's going to just sit down and explain it to me...that's not how they roll in South Africa), but hopefully I'll get my responsibilities straightened out soon.

Finally, I piled into a Dance for All van with several teachers, and we drove out to the townships, dropping off teachers at several different locations. They all spoke loudly in Xhosa as we drove through dusty streets lined with small metal shacks, and I had one of those "What the hell am I doing here?" moments. 

I ended up at a school in Nyanga with a teacher named Bruno, a nurturing young man who obviously cared a lot about the kids who came to take his class. Young girls and a couple of boys came trickling in around 3:30 and automatically started stacking desks and chairs against the walls to make space for the class. Some of the girls undressed in a back corner of the classroom, not shy at all about changing into their dance clothes in such an open space.

One girl, maybe eleven years old, walked in with a young baby, I'd guess 6 months, on her hip. She handed the baby to Bruno and explained her situation in Xhosa. From what I gathered, she was responsible for the baby but still wanted to take class. Bruno smiled, gave the baby a kiss, and asked if I would mind holding him. The kids were far more focused than I expected as Bruno led them in stretches and a few simple dance combinations. A few of them were surprisingly good.

So, there I sat on a wooden desk, watching a dance class and rocking a sweaty baby boy to sleep in a dingy school classroom in Nyanga township in South Africa. Day one of service-learning.