The quiet streets of Sasmeer Estate came to life on Saturday as the Princess Vlei Dance Weaver procession wound through the neighbourhood, proceeding from the Retreat Civic Centre to Princess Vlei. Heralded by twenty-five young drummers, procession of over 200 nature enthusiasts included eighty young 'dance-weavers', teachers, volunteers and performers, as well as colourful banners and ten giant bird puppets.
The day began at Retreat Civic, as the young participants arrived to get ready for the procession. They had their faces painted, and made colourful shakers out of card rolls and scrap papers.
Other children from Lotus High, Primrose Park Primary and Jungle Theatre clubs in Khaylitsha and Capricorn joined the procession, as well as actors from Jungle Theatre Company.
We hope that these dances will help to heal some of the troubles in our communities and in the world, while giving the learners a wonderful experience of using their bodies to express themselves, and the power of moving together in a team.
The Dance Weaver project is sponsored by the City of Cape Town Grant in Aid fund, and the Princess Vlei Forum’s educational and environmental restoration work is funded by the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust managed by Nedbank Private Wealth. Thanks to Sarah Oliver for taking the photographs and editing the video.
To be used and adapted freely wherever healing is needed
Let’s listen to the heart of our great mother earth
Our ways make her sick, and it keeps getting worse
But the people who lived in the long ago times
Listened to the earth and danced to her rhymes
So let’s listen too, with our earth healing dance
If we all dance together, we might stand a chance
Let’s dance
Let's dance
Coal fired power is making us choke
Filling our sky with its soot and its smoke
Climate chaos grows week by week
Bringing droughts and floods and too much heat
Let’s dance down coal, and gas and oil
Let’s dance those fuels right back in the soil
Let’s dance
Let's dance
Some folks in the world got too much stuff
But too many people don’t have enough
There’s too much hatred, too much fear
Too much prejudice, not enough care
Let’s dance out hunger, dance out greed
Let's dance in sharing so nobody needs.
Let’s dance
Let's dance
Our great rain forests are the lungs of our world
But they’re chopping them down, and making them burn
All plants and beings on the land and the sea
They share our home, they’ve a right to be
Let’s dance out extinction, and dance in protect
Let’s dance
Let's dance
Our throw away lives fill the sea with plastic
For birds, fish and turtles, that’s been quite drastic
Our rivers and our vleis are clogged with junk
We gotta save our waters, or we’re all sunk!
Let's dance out disposables, and single use
Let's dance in recycle, reuse and reduce
Let’s dance
Let's dance
It aint so hard to change how we live
We just gotta stop taking more than we give
Let's dance for nature, lets dance for life
Le'ts dance for treating all bodies right
Let’s move now together, to give earth a chance
So please won’t you join our healing dance?
Let's dance!