How do we dance the living waters?

This was the challenge for the seventy learners  from primary schools around Princess Vlei who attended the Living Waters field trips in August this year.  
     The two field trips were the first events in the Princess Vlei Forum’s Living Waters Project, funded by the City of Cape Town’s Grant in Aid fund. This is a collaborative creative project aimed at celebrating youth, and focusing on our water bodies, what keeps our water bodies alive, and what threatens their vitality.
    The learners were encouraged to explore the way animals, plants and water moves at Princess Vlei, and to create dances inspired by these movements. Learners were also encouraged to consider how plastic pollution restricts the movement of water; how plastic might trap animals and prevent their movement, or might cause fatal internal blockages in their digestive tract. Learners cleared ten bags of mostly plastic litter during the two field trips.

The damaging impacts of plastic pollution were clearly demonstrated when a leopard toad, startled by the learners, leapt into a plastic bag that had been discarded in the grass, and became trapped.
    The learners came up with creative dances to celebrate the movement of the living waters and ecosystems. Their dances were aided with drumming by Siya and Marvin from the Jungle Theatre Company, and dance instructors Xoli, Lolly and Tariq. The schools involved are Rosmead, Harmony, Hillwood and Levana Primary.

In the coming weeks, learners will be developing their dancing and drumming skills with the instructors. They will perform these at the Living Waters Celebration on October 12. The celebration will include a procession, a performance by the Jungle Theatre Company, and the dances by the learners. There will also be an outdoor art installation at Princess Vlei to raise awareness of the need to look after our water ecosystems.

Thanks to the City of Cape Town Grant in Aid fund for making this project possible

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