Dancing in Mamelodi

For the last weeks the PULSE-2 team have worked with the Cullinan-Mamelodi staff and observed their work with the Field Band members. A part of the PULSE collaboration with Field Band is to learn and share teaching methods and reflect on the goals and purposes of various music and dance activities. As a task we challenged the tutors to come up with simple activities that would fit a Field Band rehearsal. The tutors taught us and the rest of the staff their activity. In this way the tutors could show their skills and teaching methods to each other and get inspired by one another. It also worked as a way to get the tutors outside their comfort zone and to put them in the position of a student or member.

On Thursday dance tutor Mary Aphane introduced us to her Ziyawa dance, a mixture of modern dance and traditional Zulu dance. This was a great way for us to experience how it is to be a dance member in the Field Band Foundation. As a Norwegian in South Africa you feel like a robot on the dance floor and dancing definitely makes you leave your comfort zone. Mary had prepared a dance that was easy to learn for beginners and the focus was on mastery and joy. The counting and steps were basic, familiar and easy and the dance also incorporated fun gestures and words like “Shh!” and “I don’t know” and high kicks! It is important to give new members the feeling of mastering something, having fun and getting into a flow especially on their very first rehearsal. The steps were easy to learn and the movements were fun, something that made us feel like we were actually managing to dance like real South Africans. Mary gave positive feedback along the way and was smiling and encouraging us in a lively and energetic way that made us enjoy the dance a lot. We documented the dance with video, step-by-step descriptions and pictures so that other dance tutors can use the activity and get inspired by it. We hope you also enjoy our first official dance performance as beginners in the dance section of the Mamelodi field band.