We Jive Like This - ACE268.2

Roofs, walls, barbed wire. Hand juggling with empty bottle. Man’s VO reciting poem. VO continues over street scenes. Man dancing and spinning the bottle. Children dancing in the road. Mechanical toy drummer. Exercise class. Band carrying their instruments. People dancing. Voice over points out that there is no theatre available to any of the eight million people who live in the South African townships, and that art is not taught in black schools. Hundreds of cultural clubs have sprung up since the children’s uprising of 1976. Sophie Mgcina, singer, teacher. Says violence splits people and children lose respect for adults. The cultural clubs, set up in any available vacant space, are very important in giving children something more than their otherwise impoverished existence. Dance and mime performances in a back yard. Mgcina’s VO continues, describing these dances as having narrative and representing day-to-day events. Carly Dibokoane, choreographer. Performance continues. Siphiwe Ka Ngwenya reciting from To Celebrate is a Must. Dancer. Dancers in theatre hall, chanting while they perform .