“Danç@ 100Fronteiras “Dance Without Frontiers” is a social artistic project that aims to promote dance as a way to encourage healthy lifestyles. It is targeted at children and teenagers with ages comprised between 6 and 18 years old that live in poor regions of São Vicente Island (Cape Verde). These will attend different styles dance training on a voluntary basis.
Considering the children and teenagers’ background and the cultural, environmental, linguistic and human resources that prevail in their community, we intend to develop short-term artistic workshops that will allow the learning of technical tools and the development of dance skills. After that, it is our goal to set up a dance show for the community based on a Cape Verdean traditional tale. Seeking to encourage healthy proactive lifestyle habits in dance and sport, this 7-day-artistic exchange programme, approximately scheduled for August, will promote the interaction of two groups: an enabling group, with 10 teenagers and 2 coaches (from Seixal, Portugal) and the receiver group, with 15 to 20 participants and 2 coaches (from São Vicente, Cape Verde). These are designed to work on a regular basis - With daily training, rehearsals and workshops – aiming to present a common result/project focused on the cultural backgrounds of both groups.
We are sponsored by a few partner institutions such as Espaço Reyel - Associação Arte, Educação e Terapias, Clube de Campismo Luz e Vida, Khapaz - Associação Cultural, among others.
This Project followed the MuDanç@sUrbanas (Urban Changes) Project financed by the Programa Juventude em Ação/EU (Youth in Action Programme), in 2013, which led to a set of dance activities performed in three towns - Arrentela, Seixal and Monte de Caparica. These activities included, for instance, regular dance rehearsals, workshops and dance residencies involving 44 teenagers and culminating on a dance show “A Lenda de Tamborinho”.
When the funding ended, the group “MuDanç@s” composed of 20 participants continued and embraced another challenge: the recreation of the African tale “As Tranças de Bintou” (“Bintou’s Braids”) through dance, which emphasizes the training element. The second phase of the project began in mid-2014 with the debut of "Tranças de Bintou" on the 15th of November, 2014, in the 8th edition of the Festival Imigrarte. Currently the show is on tour at several theatres.
It was on stage on the 28th of February at Auditório do Cinema S. Vicente (Paio Pires) and on the 21st of March, at the auditorium of Forum Romeu Correia (Almada).