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KABAWIL e.V.

a) "Move it 1" (2008) & "Move it 2" (2009) - Projects for 40 young adults without graduation and a variety of multiple hindrances and without perspective for their future. Move it applies to adolescents with negative school careers, truants and teens without a school leaving certificate. Most male participants are known for violent behaviour, macho attitudes and are previously convicted and on probation. Many girls are auto-aggressive, they keep on violating their bodies and souls. Both sharing the deficit of positive self-affirmation.

For the time of 8 months, 5 days a week, from 9am to 3pm every day a team of motivated, competent and open artists and educators work in pairs of two based on the concept of relation oriented cultural work with the group. The teachers assist and demand the group in the fields of dance, theatre, music, creative writing, fine art, biography work, application training, cooking and dietetics and achieving a cultural competence. The group develops their own little dance theatre piece together in creative writing classes, which is presented on a public stage. The topics are always emanating from their individual biographical backgrounds, such like: different migrating histories, conflicts in families, among ethnical groups, among religions and in love relations eg.

Move it enables its members to gather new and positive experiences, to grow a realistic self awareness and consciousness, to learn alternative behaviour patterns and to work on a perspective for their future. Some use the possibility to join KABAWIL’s annual dance theatre production. The evaluation proofed for every Move it student:

Acceptance and pride from their families, courage to speak up for oneself, more trust in oneself, choice of behaviour and habitual language use referring to the situation, the first time experience of completing and the first time experience of having been supported in a demanding way. Though for some the period of 8 months is too short to really change their patterns. A young man on probation managed to stay away from trouble for the project duration, but shortly afterwards he was in juvenile prison - but 8 months he was supported.

 

b) KABAWIL auditions every year in June a group of 30 teens the age of 13 to 21 for their annual dance theatre production. The group consists of different backgrounds (social class, education, nationalities). Besides training units in music, the performing arts and writers workshops on the weekends and during holidays, the group travels together for intense training units in a foreign environment, teachers and students cook and eat together, they coach each others homework, some parents support on a honorary basis, a family like situation originates (which is noteworthy, considering that there are mostly about 20 different countries of origin in the group). For the final rehearsals mostly 2 professional actors and a director join in to bring the dance theatre piece on stage together. At least 10 performances are shown in a theatre and in schools.

"Leyla and Madschnun" (2009) dealt with a love relation between a young Muslim and a Christian girl, love between different cultures and religions. Which was part of everyday life of almost everyone in the group. The kids referred to personal experiences and they realised that the problems didn’t really change that much over decades of time and that love can overcome any border. "Leyla and Madschnun had a guest performance in Istanbul at Istanbul Lisesi. The German group was confronted with young Turkish people so different from what the average Germans understand of being a typical Turk.

"Who is afraid of the Black Man?" (2008) is a dance theatre piece that deals with being a person of colour in Germany. It is about where you come from and where to feel home. And it is about love and friendship across any kind of border. The group translated the play into English and travelled to the Netherlands and to Ghana and performed there. The evaluation showed that they experienced a new way of caring and friendship and they learnt personally and physically that water is not always granted. That there is more to it than just opening the tap.

"Life Zero" - the current dance theatre production is dealing with online worlds and identity

 

Contact:
KABAWIL e.V., info@kabawil.de
www.kabawil.de

 

The project started in 2003 and is still running.
Last review: September 2014.

 

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