Festival Spectacle - Summer Trip 2009

[Jeroen Mourik]

As part of the upcoming trip to Masaka, I shall be creating what I call a 'Festival Spectacle'. This theatrical dance performance will be presented to the town of Mas
aka on Friday on the school grounds...and yes all 1,000+ pupils of Mbiriizi Primary School will participate in the spectacle!

Now Sylvia keeps telling me how talented the pupils are and how good they dance, so you can imagine that I am very excited and can hardly wait to start working with the kids. However, producing this event takes a lot of preparation, so my work has already started.

Sylvia asked me to focus on the theme "Uganda - America", celebrating both culture and this is why I started this discussion. It would be great if could make your personal suggestions of what you think I should consider including in my artistic process.

To start with America these are some of my first thoughts:

- Dance of the Bald Eagle (this could have a counter part dance of Crested Crane Bird)
- Cinema - Hollywood: Charley Chaplin
- Having a Parade ( the American culture of Parades as part of your festivals is special)
- American Folk Dance... Line Dancing

The concept of the Finale is to have a line dance that is a fusion between American Line Dancing and Uganda Folk Dance.

Any suggestions for music or tunes that I should consider for the Festival Spectacle, that are iconic for American culture?

Any other elements of American culture that should be celebrated in the performance?

I welcome any kind of input!

Cheers,

Jeroen
www.jmef.com

[Jeroen Mourik]

NOITCE: I have created a micro-website in relation to the above project. Please visit www.summer2009.shorturl.com and read about the project in more details with the ability to comment on each element of the Festival Spectacle and its logistics.