CORPO APRENDIZ – Paixão pelo Movimento/ THE APPRENTICE BODY – A Passion for Movement
An energized and strengthened BODY reflects attention and productivity.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
other
If Field of Work is “other” please define in 1-2 words below
art and culture
Year project started (or projected start date) (yyyy)
2008
YouTube Upload
Project URL (or link to any media coverage)
What is the primary problem your venture is trying to address and how are you addressing it (or planning to address it)?
Political and historical processes have sent African-Brazilian knowledge and practices into the shadows in Gioânia, which has resulted in fragile identities and low self-esteem among African-Brazilians over time. The Apprentice Body—A Passion for Movement initiative seeks to build and educate this group about the African-Brazilian citizenship values, democratize the access to knowledge about their African heritage through sensitization workshops, and thus contribute to the strengthening of identities and a sense of cultural belonging within the group.
Name Your Project
CORPO APRENDIZ – Paixão pelo Movimento/ THE APPRENTICE BODY – A Passion for Movement
Describe Your Idea
An energized and strengthened BODY reflects attention and productivity.
Innovation
Project Description
An energized and strengthened BODY reflects attention and productivity.
Unique and different
Our project is different because it allows for the learning of African-Brazilian cultural knowledge and practices through a focus on the body and its movements. In our sensitization workshops (rhythms, dance, drums, chants) youth get involved in a powerful chain of solidarity, tolerance, and affection. The Apprentice Body stands out in the state of Goiás because it legitimizes in Central Brazil the influence of the African heritage on the local culture, traditionally known for its heartland, countryside culture. The project expands the range of means of expression for the local youth. By focusing on the body, we seek to dilute stigmas, stereotypes, and hang-ups. We promote life skills we believe to be key to a more just, tolerant, and solitary society. This project aims at the development of a culture of peace to counter the physical and symbolic violence to which this group is massively exposed. This attitude is innovative in Goiás and emblematic of the creative capital city of Goiânia!
Project plan
In the next six months we plan to expand our artistic and educational work as well as the outreach of our workshops by presenting our results to the public and offering residency to Black artists visiting Goiânia. We understand that it is absolutely essential that, in addition to the support they have garnered from the Pró-Cerrado Foundation, these youth have an opportunity to establish and disseminate this dialog in more and more fruitful ways in their schools and local communities. To that end, we will create the Movement Caravan, a traveling group that will visit communities and democratize the content of our workshops by helping the youth mobilize and transform other youth.
Partnerships
Fundação Pró-Cerrado (Pró-Cerrado Foundation); Casa da Cultura Digital (House of Digital Culture), Quasar Cia. de Dança (Quasar Dance Company), Centro de Referência Negra Lélia Gonzáles (Lélia Gonzáles Center for Black Resources), Sebrae Nacional, Grupo Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa Rituais e Linguagens – Unicamp (Interdisciplinary Group for Research on Rituals and Languages—University of Campinas), Grupo CNPq Interartes – UFG (Interarts Group, National Council for Research, Federal University of Goiás). All of The Apprentice Body’s current partnerships have been built over the years, as the project leaders have studied, developed skills, and worked in this area. We have been involved in activities in various fields such as environmental sustainability, digital inclusion, artistic dance education, black militancy, ethnic entrepreneurship, and academic research. We have developed a powerful network of individuals working in Goiânia and neighboring towns.
Impact
Impact
Positive buiding and strengthening of ethnic and cultural identities among the youth of Goiás
Effectiveness
Four thousand youth were serviced by the program in its first implementation. The cultural lectures and workshops have the potential to service many other youth in the city.
How do you engage and impact the community?
A traveling group mobilizes youth by giving presentations in the local schools. The project was well received in its initial stage. The scarcity of information about the African-Brazilian culture and the Black-African ancestral heritage in Goiânia is profound. The project was so well received that the need arose for specific spaces that would meet the needs of the city’s residents such as an Afro beauty salon, a bookstore carrying only books about ethnic and racial themes, etc. We are also seeking to stimulate the creation of co-ops among the parents to meet some of these needs.
How do you measure this impact?
Citizenship and self-esteem can be achieved! An energized and and healthy body reflects attention and productivity. The impact of our work is already visible in the interest the youth have shown in learn more about their origins. The physical expression of many has already changed--their relationship with their curly hair, their body type, the overall care of their body, of their attire. In the long term, we will measure academic achievement, declines in attrition rates, and the qualitative improvement of their relationship with their family.
Obstacles
We need to expand our team of disseminators because we have not been able to service all the youth that invite us to come into their schools and talk to them during culture week. We have not been able to service all the parents who look to us and our work for an opportunity to learn how to deal with everyday situations of racism and prejudice. Previously, they had not been equipped to deal with them, let alone educate and strengthen their own children to combat intolerance and violence.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
Financing source
(or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)
This project is currently funded by the Pró-Cerrado Foundation and by the House of Digital Culture, who provides us with the space and equipment we need for our lectures. All our workshop instructors are volunteers, and publicity in the media has depended upon the willingness of local venues.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and sustain your project?
This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
Finance details
This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
Creative funding
The project leaders founded a cultural production company—Rasga Saia Productions—to qualify for funds created with the passing of a city- and country-wide law of incentive to entrepreneurs so that we would be able to promote activities benefitting the Apprentice Body project. These recourses are reinvested in the project itself. The major activity organized by Rasga Saia is the International Festival of Poetic Black Dance to take place in 2009. This project has been in the making for the past three years and aims to draw to Goiânia Black artists working in the area of contemporary dance. One session of each show will be open to our young apprentices only.
Other non finance needs
The major resource we need to sustain the project is our partnership with workshop instructors and the ability to extend our invitation to more artists and researchers from other parts of the country.
The project will grow in the number of youth that have been serviced and learned the skills they need to be mobilizers. With the support of local companies and of friends of the project, we will be able to continue performing our activities and offering our workshops.
The Story
Motivation
My dance background and knowledge about ethnic and racial issues originated in the public schools of Goiânia. It also comes from my involvement in socioeducational projects. Participating in one-time actions in Goiânia has taught me the importance of developing projects with continuity and consistency for members of the lower social classes, who have minimal access to cultural riches such as the theater and to information—always limited and fragile—about the cultural heritage of African Brazilians.
Awards
Fiz Mestrado em Dança na Universidade de Campinas com bolsa da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo. A pesquisa sugere percepções da diáspora africana na contemporaneidade da dança brasileir
Broader context
Conhecer sobre sua cultura e raízes ancestrais fortalece o espírito para a vida. A educação pelo corpo acessa conteúdos latentes e importantes para a formação do caráter, a diluição dos preconceitos e estereótipos e mobiliza a sociedade para uma cultura da tolerância, do respeito e da paz.
Ongoing
A partir do projeto “CORPO APRENDiZ – Paixão pelo Movimento” esperamos quem sabe num futuro não muito distante conseguir que aja um Programa de Educação em Dança em todas as escolas públicas do município de Goiânia. Nossa mobilização pretende fomentar a elaboração de políticas públicas para os jovens majoritariamente negros das classes D e E de Goiânia e o debate para uma Agenda da Dança em Goiânia.
What is your age?
24
How did you hear about this competition?
This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
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