Natalie Roberts
Youth Culture and Empowerment - South Africa
Natalie Roberts is convinced that art has the power to transform society. For four years, she has been a member of Jazzart Dance Theatre, which offers youths the prospect of sustainable employment through dance-based training and skills development programs. Natalie believes that awareness through dance helps young people withstand peer pressures to become involved in drugs and gang violence. “Jazzart is a platform to help young people recognise hidden talents and skills within themselves”, she says. The company has received numerous awards in recognition of its talent development programs and choreographic excellence. As an Oxfam IYP2004 delegate, Natalie is keen to learn new techniques for integrating social and cultural influences into a performance workspace. Natalie hopes to develop new strategies to encourage communities to become more politically aware, socially responsible and multi-culturally inclusive through the performing arts.
Case Study: The international language of Dance
Natalie Roberts understood very well that dance is an international language that does not know boundaries. She is a professional dance teacher from South Africa at the Jazzart Dance Theatre. While working on a show for the opening of the International Youth Parliament in Sydney, she met with Orlando Vargas working with Circo del Mundo in Chile. Together, they have decided to integrate their skills, dance and the art of circus, and to pass them on in the marginalised communities of Cerra Navia in Chile. Since March 2005, Natalie is running classes four times a week within those communities, in a dance school as well as with Circo Del Mundo.
Upon her arrival in Chile, what Natalie discovered were communities that have never been exposed to art. It was a big challenge for Natalie, since for South Africans, art and especially dance, are an integral part of their lives. Paradoxically, African Dance is very popular in Chile, but only among the privileged people. Classes are only available for students that can afford them since there are taught in private and expensive dance schools. Therefore, they are not accessible for the marginalised communities. Natalie’s project responded therefore to an existent need of the community to have access to free dance classes.
The first task was therefore to inform the community about the classes. Unfortunately, Natalie could not count on the Department of culture of the Municipality of Cerra Navia. Indeed, the authorities showed little interest for her project. In order to make publicity about the classes, Natalie and Orlando decided to produce their own flyers.
After that, Natalie had to face the fact that the youth of the community were not very interested in arts and did not have any knowledge in dance. Natalie had to adapt to this new environment and change the way she was working. At the beginning, she wanted to teach the students rhythm work and the basic South African dance. However, having no previous knowledge in dance, the students had difficulties to pick up the moves and get interested. As a result the participation in the classes dropped dramatically with classes being cancelled because of a lack of participants. Natalie changed the orientation of her work and decided instead to adopt a more creative approach, letting the students express themselves. Also, she alternated the classes with circus and more technical workshops to keep the students motivated. Those students that showed more interest and willingness to learn pursued their training at the dance school, in a more professional environment, where Natalie was also teaching. There, they could learn more advanced moves.
Natalie also adopted a participative approach, showing basic steps but encouraging the youth to elaborate them. After each class, the students where given the task to work on the steps at home and to transform them in a way that will be the most comfortable for them. In this way, they could express their feelings but also their culture through their bodies.
Finally, Natalie had to accept the fact that teaching the marginalised youth was a slow process. Natalie was used to her fast paced work at the Jazzart Dance Theatre in South Africa. For the youth in Chile, learning dancing was much like learning a new language. Having never been exposed to dance before, Natalie had to go with them step by step
Natalie needed also to confront difficult young people. In general, marginalised youth express themselves with attitude and violence. Her students, aged between 7-12 years old were very sensitive but at times very difficult. As an experienced dancer, Natalie knew the effects that dance have on changing people’s behaviour and attitudes. More than just developing skills and competencies, dance instils in each student confidence and pride in his/her potential, capability and character, giving hope and a sense in life. The students learn another form of expression than violence. They are propelled to take action. The classes enabled the students to discover the possibilities of their bodies. To motivate them, Natalie found really important to constantly encourage their student and compliment them. For those young people, dance did not seem natural at the beginning. They were afraid to move. Dance helped them to feel more comfortable with their bodies, to trust each other and to connect more broadly to the world. Giving positive encouragement had great results. Natalie recalls to have complimented one student, who seemed to be very insecure about the way she moved. After that, she saw a change in her attitude. From a very shy girl, the student transformed herself to an outgoing dancer aware of the possibilities of her body.
Now, Natalie is working on a show that she hopes to put up in August. Their students are preparing together the choreography.
To maintain the legacy of this experience, Natalie wants to establish a permanent exchange program between South Africa and Chile. She has the support of the director of the school she is working in currently. Her home company is also interested. The project would involve a permanent cultural exchange between both students and teachers of the two schools.
In the end, despite the differences between the two cultures, Natalie managed to implement a traditional African art into a totally new environment. To achieve this, she used participatory methods to make sure that the students would always feel comfortable and motivated to participate in the classes. She had to take into account the specific personalities of each participant and work within this context. She also wants to make sure that this single experience can be beneficial in the future. An exchange program between the two dance schools could perpetuate the experience, reaching to two different communities with a single medium: the art of dancing.
