Romane

“My name is Romane. I am a professional ballet dancer at Bordeaux Opera and I have just lived  the most wonderful experience of my life. I discovered Atlas Kinder just a few days before my rather hasty departure. I left in total confidence, trusting only my instinct, and I do not regret anything.

For six  days, we taught introductory beginners dance classes to orphans aged from 4 to 8 living in the village Dar Bouidar, near Marrakech. They were divided into three classes: early, middle and elder sections. With the help of Lucie, Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, we combined interactions and culture between two different worlds to create a universal language: dance.

We structured  our class by starting warming up in a circle in order to create one single group. These warmups began with getting aware of all our body parts, from head to toe: ‘rub your thighs, stroke your arms, pat your back…’

We continued with listening and talking times and ended with massages in order to connect with each other.

After warming up , we moved on to dance to set this creative energy in motion.

We taught: balances in arabesque and retiré; the five ballet positions. We worked on the port de bras, in fifth and first positions, and then in movement. How to make a movement smooth, light and beautiful!

I devoted all my energy to the kids to the point of forgetting myself to bring out unsuspected qualities within them.

I told them crazy stories to tease their imagination and achieve spectacular dance moves: ‘it is the story of an adventurer in search of a treasure who has to cross a river filled with…crocodiles!’

The more I recounted, the more they played along.

We had shy laughs and infectious ones, discreet kids and leaders! Many different personalities. All of them were curious, attentive, creative and happy.

Every day brought its share of surprises with the unveiling of new personalities. We succeeded in creating the attachment of a single group, based on trust and listening.

Above all, this adventure proved to me that it is possible to create bonds as soon as you take the time to develop interest in others. Travelling is the best way to make incredibly rewarding encounters and open up to different cultures. I gave as much of myself as I was able to: love, tenderness, joy and dance. Connecting with these children has been a very intense experience, both emotionally and intellectually. What better way to create a new, richer and more critical vision of the world today.

Having brain triggers in life is rare. For me, it happened on Tahannout.”