Hungry to learn......ready to rest!

I was amazed to learn how some youngsters had made heroic efforts to be included in the project:

Marian, 13 years old, walked 30 kilometres with his mother to get here.
Gabi, 10 years old, alone, travelled for 4 hours by bus, leaving home at 5 am in order to meet the deadline of a 9.30 start.
Ana, 31, a "semi-resident" at House Sfintul Lazar, had in April expressed to Monique her wish of participating in the project.
Hearing that one of the conditions was to be a "permanent" resident at Concordia, she has remained off the street since then. She is now among the lucky ones and seems to be a different person altogether since the project started two weeks ago.

The value of punctuality appears another lesson learnt as no-one malingers after a break. Whereas at the beginning aches and pains were used to take time out, now there is only heart-rending disappointment if a genuine injury occurs. I am amazed how keen the very small children are, coping very well with the rigours of the 6 hour training and how much energy they have left at the end of the day!
well deserved rest for the prince

Let's not forget the heroic efforts behind the scenes. Monique , Alexandra and Ada are working tirelessly to organise that 114 children and youngsters are fed, watered, washed, transported, have clean clothes and so much more besides. The unbelievable amount of organisation means they -and many more around them, like Mircea, Virgil, Marian and our countless volunteers- work 24/7. Unbelievable.





Alexandra and Son Ltd





Viv

WAS geht...?!

Ihr wißt, welch bunt gemischten Haufen Jugendlicher wir hier haben. Josef weiß das ganz genau und sagt darum: "Konzentriert Euch auf das, was Euch verbindet, nicht auf das, was Euch unterscheidet!" Und unsere Jugendlichen sind wie alle Jugendlichen: Energisch, dynamisch, eitel, stolz, verletzlich - und unterschiedlich. Außerhalb des Trainings "quatschen" sie in Grüppchen, sie ziehen sich gegenseitig auf, sie machen Flick-Flack, spielen Basket- und Fußball, glotzen und hören auf die allgegenwärtigen Mobiltelefone.

Aus diesem Trubel holt Josef sie (trainigs-)täglich heraus: 10 -20 Minuten läßt er sie zur Ruhe kommen, indem er sie in die Stille einübt. Füße bar am Boden, stehen, atmen, schweigen. Sie sammeln sich auf ihr Inneres und ihren Körper; sie spüren, wie er sich mit ein oder zwei Füßen am Boden ausbalanciert. Völlige Stille!

Die gesammlte Energie lockert er dann mit tänzerisch-rhythmischer Dehnung, motorischer und muskulärer Stärkung. Über den Vormittag läßt er einfache und komplexere, immer rhythmische, motorische Übungen folgen, die in Richtung Choreographie deuten. Später folgen choreographische Elemente, die in der Gruppe oder mit Teilen erarbeitet werden. Am Ende steht das Ganze des Tages, als vorläufiges Resultat der Verbesserung der Individuen als Gruppe.

Dies alles dokumentiert Teddy mit seinem Team. Er hat die Individuen getroffen und begleitet nun, wie sie ihren Ort im Ganzen finden.


So wird das ganz und gar Erstaunliche (ich schrieb: wunderbar), das wir hier erleben dürfen, hoffentlich ein möglichst großes Publikum erreichen. Wir können für alle Bereiche viel von der Sammlung und Konzentration und dem, was sie ermöglichen lernen.
Es sieht gut aus! DAS geht!!! Klaus

Getting acquainted

A troupe is born

August 5th
One youngster, when asked how are you, replied „Good – no, not good great!“ Positive energy! Today the main roles are allocated, thrilling those chosen. Many criteria, other than aesthetic, enter into these artistic decisions, an unenviable task for Josef and Marta.

The lesson of self discipline is being assimilated. The value of silence, being able to choose whether you are silent or not - self containment and self control. The cast in the wings must remain engaged, watch and learn. Each must learn for himself, listen to the music, remember what he has been told and not wait to be told. To take responsibility for himself and for those those who find it more difficult. The baton of responsibility is passing from Josef to the youngsters. He directs. They must deliver. There is to be no compromise on inattention.

Thurs 6th
Incredible magical transformation. The professional troupe is born. Each giving individually of his best, silent when waiting, extended when dancing. Everyone feels the buzz. Viv

Wunder... gibt es immer wieder! by volunteer Klaus Gruber

Nun sind wir schon ein paar Tage in Bukarest - und erleben unsere blauen Wunder... Was Monique und "IF Magic" hier auf die Beine stellen und bereits gestellt haben, grenzt an ein Wunder. Die vielen (ehrenamtlichen) Helfer, hauptsächlich Rumänen, die unermüdlich logistische Meisterleistungen vollbringen, sind - wunder-bar; und das sind auch die Kinder und Jugendlichen!
Da arbeiten ungefähr 100 Kinder und Jugendliche zwischen 8 (der jüngste hatte gestern Geburtsatg und wurde entsprechend gefeiert) und 31Jahren zusammen. Einige aus Deutschland, einige aus Sibiu, einige aus Brasov, der Rest aus Bukarest; einige mit Down-Syndrom, einige taubstumm, einige anders behindert, der Rest gesund; ein paar von Gymnasien, ein paar von anderen Schulen, der Rest aus Heimen oder ähnlichen Einrichtungen. Eine sehr heterogene Gruppe, aus der heraus mir so gut wie nur positiv entgegengetreten wird - wunder-bar!

Die Choreographen, die diese Gruppe führen: Josef, mit (auch) bayerischem Charme, Geduld und Leidenschaft choreographiert; Martha, die mit ihren anmutig sprechenden Händen dirigiert, Irina, die unermüdlich verbessert und korrigiert; Oana, Prinzessin der Herzen, die die jungen Menschen wundersam wohlwollend unterstützt und dabei das Englische ins Rumänische parliert; das ist ein wunder-bares Team!

Und heute: Nachdem es an den letzten beiden Tagen immer auch mal ordentlich geholpert hatte, nach einigen deutlichen Worten auch, war die Gruppe heute gigantisch:
Extrem konzentriert, aufmerksam und voller gesammelter Energie praktizierten sie das Aufwärmen und die choreografischen Elemente. Sie sind unglaublich voran gekommen. Das war großartig.


Das eigentliche Wunder in meinen Augen war jedoch eine Stille.
Josef bat die Gruppe, jeder möge sich klarmachen ob er wirklich mitziehen wolle. Er tat das nach drei Stunden sehr anstrengendem und vor allem hochkonzentrierten und -diszipliniertem Training. Dann verließ er die Halle und meinte, sie sollen darüber ein paar Minuten mit geschlossenen Augen meditieren. Und da standen sie dann: 100 Jugendliche und Kinder (zum Großteil wohl "schwierig") standen nach diesem Morgen (es war inzwischen 14.00 Uhr) dort völlig gesammelt und still - wohl drei Minuten, in denen man eine Stecknadel hätte fallen hören.

Wer's nicht gesehen hat, wird es kaum glauben; wer's aber gesehen hat, der kann es als wunder-sam empfinden.
Wieviel Choreografie sie dann noch erarbeitet haben, schien bei aller Begeisterung beinahe folgerichtig zu sein.
Wie gesagt - es ist wunderbar!

Wer kann, sollte sich davon überzeugen, oder - auch gut - uns unterstützen. und helfen, die Budgetlücke zu schliessen. Vielleicht geschehen ja auch da noch Wunder?

Heroic efforts

Today the scale of the challenge becomes truly apparent. Some 120 bodies to train – small children and young adults; experienced dancers and the rhythmically challenged; many lithe bodies with natural grace and others having it all to learn and others again with physical difficulties to overcome. Some being deaf working through the medium of sign language. Each indistinguishable from the other in performance at the end of the day. The primordial lesson, as important as any dance movement, is hammered home-respect for others and for yourself. A requirement to concentrate fully in order to experience the joy of achieving your best. For this motley group to perform as one troupe, the prerequisite is a quasi professional commitment and dedication, which Josef and his team uncompromisingly demand and start to achieve. Viv

First impressions of Bucharest by volunteer Viv Trinder

The fast and furious pace of the traffic belting along the dual carriageway into the centre. There the surprisingly green avenues, the stray dogs, oblivious to the danger, venturing on to the streets. The beautiful grandeur of some of the old houses, quite reminiscent of Paris – as, too, the central avenues and the Arc de Triumf. The Soviet style Ceaucescu built Palace of Parliament. A tourist’s impressions. But I will have the privilege of not being a tourist, of glimpsing the real Romania, as a volunteer in this exciting project.

In Centrul Neghinita, a boarding school where the youngsters from Sibiu and the German party are staying, the friendliness and excitement, positive energy and lack of cynicism are to be wondered at after 6 hours of the first day’s rehearsal. The enthusiasm with which they told me about the first day in almost accentless English. A spontaneous display of break dance shows their limitless energy. Will they ever want to go to bed?

First rehearsal day successfully completed!

The last few days were loaded with unexpected and enormous obstacles, which one can hardly imagine and enough already to write a novel, but thanks to the extreme engagement of our team, we are overcoming most of them.

I have always thought that ADAPTABILITY and FLEXIBILITY are the two main qualities parents should provide with:well, I am happy to say that this has just proved to be true. Each and every member of the Firebird organizing team has undoubtedly received these precious qualities from home!

But the members of our team were lucky enough to have parents behind them and caring for them, although even so, it is not given to everybody to have these qualities; but what is much more astonishing and made us most happy on this first day was the adaptability of all our young artists, who for the most part have not had this chance in the first and most important part of their young life:

Imagine over a hundred youngsters between 8 and 31 from all different backgrounds, used to being overflown with music and noise but certainly not to remaining concentrated for more than a few minutes, suddenly being able to "focus" for more than 4 hours in a row with just half an hour of break. This is how it was on this first day thanks to the excellent start given by Josef with the magnificent support of Martha Hincapié, Irina Roncea and Oana Rotariu.


What a pleasure to witness the change on these kids´faces within a few hours. They arrived doubtful and sceptical at 9.30 and left happy and relaxed at 16.30. And that this change after just one single day of rehearsals was not just an impression proved itself after dinner. Suddenly the youngsters from Sibiu and Brasov living in the Neghinita Children´s centre hosting them were ONE single group: the atmosphere became much more relaxed, they did not stick to their friends any more, expressed their impressions at our evening gathering, joked, laughed and......guess what: dancing break!

A day like this is enough to make you feel that two years of work and preparations were worth it; and if you add to it that in the last three days we have been able to trace 5 of my "initial protégés" in the various children´s homes of Bucharest to give them the chance to join the "Firebird", to spend six weeks together with their former "brothers and sisters" and above all their "mother" Mihaela, who volunteered to run the actual home where we are staying thus renouncing to her only month of holiday,
then, what else do you want to be happy?

Monique

Getting acquainted with other Firebird artists

D-DAY!

Our "Firebird Artists" from Sibiu and Brasov heading for Bucharest!

Team is growing daily...

When I started the project 18 months ago, I was naive enough to think I could organize it by myself, without a coordinator!
Last August, Alexandra joined me to coordinate it in Bucharest. In the meantime we have entered the implementing phase of the firebird project and there are some twenty of us, part time or working round the clock, volunteers for the most part, involved in the organization.

Irina Roncea, Romanian choreographer and assistant to Josef for this project with our girls

I have to add that each day preceding the first rehearsal day brought its load of catastrophies, enough to make you despair to a point where you could only laugh. It started on Wednesday with the company supposed to deliver the food to our centre twice a day: they suddenly could not provide us with a car anymore. The food being prepared twenty kms away from Bucharest, it meant finding an immediate alternative.

On Thursday Alexandra had the brilliant idea (or was it a premonition?) of inquiring about the date of delivery of the water supposed to be supplied by another sponsoring company: the lady in charge had simply gone on holiday forgetting to leave instructions to anyone and to this day nobody seems to have been able to do anything about it. As a result, we are still waiting and had to buy "some": considering that Bucharest is an inferno at the moment and that 120 sweating kids are drinking some 4 liters of water a day, you can measure the dimension of our disarray.
But they have now promised to deliver it tomorrow.

On Friday it went on with the parket of the gym. Having a closer look at it we discovered that it had been fixed with some thousands of nails popping their heads out of it and promising us a lot of fun bandaging bleeding feet (rehearsals being bare foot). Dancing carpets for the entire gym -for some thousands of euros- would soon have been pierced through anyway; so, there was just one solution left: get all the rusted nails out and replace them ......with as many new screws. Two carpenters did a wonderful job in a 48 hours marathon. So we thought! But Josef did not quite share our opinion when entering the gym on Monday morning. So, off he went hammering and taping the floor until he had gotten rid of his anger and considered that he could start with the first rehearsal.

I sometimes wonder where Alexandra gets all her connections, volunteers and helpers from. No wonder she called her company "If Magic"!

After all this, how could we have been surprised when on Saturday we were told that BMW, our generous transportation sponsor had a technical problem with one of the busses supposed to fetch the kids from Sibiu and Brasov. But BMW is BMW and the busses started as scheduled!

"Mais à part ca - as the french song has it- tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise...tout va très bien, tout va très bien".......and anyway, we are now immune and happy to see the kids happy!

one by one, our volunteers and assistants are arriving in Bucharest

D-DAY minus 1 !

Photo Bettina Stoess

Just one more day and the Firebird project starts! Tomorrow Ada will travel to Sibiu and Brasov with Tedy and his team to fetch our young participants and bring them to Bucharest.

On Monday, August 3rd, the first day of rehearsals, at 9 AM, we will all be gathered at Caragiale High-School: over 100 young artists among which three Germans, Monique Gruber, president of JRC, Josef Eder, artistic director of the project, Romanian choreographer Irina Roncea and Columbian choreographer Martha Hincapié, Romanian assistant Oana Rotariu, film maker Tedy Necula and his team in charge of the documentary dedicated to the project, German and Romanian volunteers, and last not least, Alexandra Arnautu, Ada Lungu and Mircea Tache from If Magic, coordinators of the project, who have been working day and night with Monique in the last few days to ensure logistics and organisation.

Volunteers and participants from Sibiu and Brasov will be accomodated at "Neghinita” Care and Hosting Centre, a tidy and centrally located home kindly offered by the City Hall of Sector 2. For 4 weeks, the gymnasium generously put at our disposition by the National College I.L.Caragiale will be the birth place of a new Firebird, the place where creative energies will be unchained. There will be dancing, hopping, sweating and laughing….

Just as thrilled as a team competing in the world domino championship right before the first domino falls, praying that it will trigger the hoped for chain reaction, we are engaging in the community dance adventure. Our first destinations will be the stages of the National Theatre in Bucharest and Sala Transilvania in Sibiu, but the journey will hopefully take us much further in the next few years.

If it is true that the Firebird is everything but a competition between the youngsters, it is a competition of each participant with himself, against the boundaries of his mind, against his own doubts reflected in his peers´eyes.


Photo Bettina Stoess

Community Dance is a competition with neither winners nor loosers. Everybody wins: Only five weeks from now, 100 new born artists will stand on the National Theatre stage and dance on Stravinski’s music. They will have traded a holiday of fun and leisure for a month of hard work, an unexpected choice for their age to say the least, but each and everyone of them will be awarded the most precious prize of all: the belief that he can fulfill his dreams, against all odds and no matter how wild they are, but that it is up to him to fulfill them.

The website www.pasareadefoc.ro will witness the evolution of these one hundred yougsters and monitor every step of theirs on this arduous trail. In time, the site will turn into a virtual home for all community dance fans willing to indulge themselves and join others in this enriching experience.
A popular French saying has it that “It is only the first step that matters.”

So, let´s step up and start dancing our way through this fabulous journey along with the Firebird.

D-Day minus 2

Alexandra and I were in Sibiu and Brasov for the last two days to meet Mr Johannis -the Saxon Mayor of Sibiu- Mr Bottesch, the Saxon President of the regional council, and other personalities involved in the realization of the project. We also met the participating children and their parents and checked all details concerning transportation, lodging and the performance place, a very nice gym with 1000 seats whose director, Mr Victor Cornea gives us all possible help to meet the demands of our 120-man-performance.
The Authorities are extremely helpful and put a nice countryside summer camp at our disposition for our three night stay in Sibiu
near a natural salt lake where the kids will be able to refresh themselves between the rehearsals.

Questions we have been asked lately

Question Nr 1: What is "Community Dance"?

This would actually be a question for Royston and Josef to answer, but until we get them to give their own definition on this blog in a free minute (?!) during the project, here is an attempt to define it on the basis of some Maldoom projects and a workshop I attended in the last few months.

As its name indicates it, Community Dance targets not just part of a community, but all its members, regardless of gender or age, of ehtnic origin or social class, of physical condition or mental health.

Its magic lies in group dynamics and their positive effects on the participants: rousing unsuspected potentials, creativity and endurance.

In Community Dance projects, it is not so much the result that counts as the process itself. It is all about challenge, about experiencing discipline -and making it to self-discipline-, acceptance of "otherness" -tolerance-, about discovering one´s own skills and surpassing one´s limits, witnessing the gradual increase of confidence in others and oneself; and last not least, sharing with the group the laurels of hard rehearsal weeks.

By the way, I just tipped "Community dance" on google to check whether there is a definition of it and guess whose definition I fell upon? Royston´s (in German though).

incet dar sigur....slowly but surely!

Just 15 % more and we all set!

In the meantime, I´ve got a small mathematical exercise for you to solve:

120 kids are participating in the Firebird project.
The project will last 41 days.
Up to now, we have managed to get sponsoring for 30 Kg of chicken from a poultry farmer (whose name has not been revealed to me yet).
One chicken weighs about one kilo.
Considering that you have to deduct the bones of each chicken - that is, say 180 gr.
How much meat will each kid get during the entire project if we do not find some more generous sponsors or meat producers?

Send us the solution without delay, or better still, a pork, an ox or a turkey......
By the way, the first one who solves the problem both ways gets a prize!

firebird website online from today!

Although a site on the Firebird project was created a few weeks ago, it is only from today onwards that you can find detailed information on it. At first, in Romanian, but from tomorrow on there will be an English version as well. www.pasareadefoc.ro
Beside general information, you will find on this site all the press articles on the project from its beginning.

Throughout the project´s implementation, both our website and blog will keep you informed on the project´s sponsors and supporters; its progression will be documented with details and pictures of the rehearsals and some of our young "artists" will write about their impressions and their daily life on the campus.

So don´t forget to check both sites every now and then!

Update of sponsors and partners of the Firebird

Even if the project ´s budget is not 100% secured yet, we would like to recall and praise those companies, institutions and foundations that have joined the FIREBIRD project sofar, thereby proving their Corporate Social Responsibility beyond their economic concern.

OUR SPONSORS:

VODAFONE
E.ON GAZ ROMANIA
ABB
PETER GLÄSEL-STIFTUNG
PRIVILEG CATERING
BMW
PLUS TENGELMANN ROMANIA
DEUTSCHE BANK
SIEMENS
UNICEF
KAUFLAND
EVOBUS
CARPATCEMENT
HOTEL ATHÉNÉE PALACE HILTON
DOINA LEVINTZA
STALFORT RECHTSANWÄLTE
DEUTSCHER WIRTSCHAFTSKLUB SIEBENBÜRGEN

OUR PARTNERS:

Goethe Institut
Artexim "GEORGE ENESCU"
Fundatia Vodafone
Fundatia Principesa Margareta a Romaniei
Colegiul I.L.Caragiale Bucuresti
Fundatia Concordia
Scoala nr. 114 Principesa Margareta Bucuresti
Asociatia Ateliere Protejate Bucuresti
Scoala pentru deficienti de auz nr 2 Sfanta Maria Bucuresti
Centrul de plasament Guliver Sibiu

We are looking forward to complete this list until project begin on August 1st.

It is still time to join us....late comers most welcome!

Our deep thanks also to all individual supporters of the project, friends and relatives listed on the sidebar whose generous contributions have a very high value in our eyes as tokens of friendship and trust in our enterprise.

Ups and Downs make us frown.........

Promises of support by several companies in the past few months had made us hope that the fundraising part of the project would soon be completed, allowing us to concentrate on the practical organisation of the project:
Deutsche Bank, which had sponsorized the filming of Maldoom´s Sacre du Printemps "Rhythm is it!"in 2004, is stepping in again.
BMW has generously agreed to provide the transportation of the youngsters throughout the project to and from the rehearsal places, including for the trip in the province. Evobus also promised to provide two busses for the "Tournée"in Brasov and Sibiu.
Centrul Medical Unirea, in the person of its Director, Dr Wargha Enayati, will ensure the necessary medical support troughout the project.

Unfortunately, the Romanian media company which had promised to take care of the advertizing part let us down due to the economic situation and we have good reasons to fear that one or two other companies might withdraw their promises of support for the same reason.

But having gathered about 80 % of the minimum costs of the project up to this day, we do not despair and keep hoping that some miracle will happen. Indeed, the kids´list stands and they are already so excited about the idea that we cannot possibly let them down.

Together we are strong!

Klaus Gruber

Klaus Gruber and Mihaela Beresoaie will coordinate the team of educators and supervise the participants from Brasov, Sibiu and Saarbrücken (Germany) in the Youth hostel which the Mayor of Sector two is generously putting at our disposition for the whole duration of the project.

Here is a first greeting from Klaus to the young artists which you all are:
"Hey guys,
I am Klaus and I caught the Firebird virus from my aunt Monique. She asked me to come and stay with you at the centre hosting us during the project. I will be happy to give my support to everybody in everything and help wherever help is needed…

That’s exactly my daily bread-and-butter: having three children myself, I am used to assist young guys to focus on and achieve their personal goals.

As soccer coach of my youngest sons’ team, I try to do the same thing beyond the “family boundaries”…

With a team of parents we have been trying for a couple of years now to support the school teachers in matters of organization and education. May be the right training to be YOUR “supporter” this time?

I first learned teamwork playing basketball on a high level for years. During my studies in philosophy, political sciences and economics, I was then taught to do reasonable things in a reasonable way - and to ask for and expect reasonable things from others…

I am very curious to see how the entire Firebird-project will be! But even without knowing you, I have no doubt that it will be a success. A lot of work, for sure, but also a lot of fun for all of us.

So, off we go! I’m all set and ready for takeoff. From August 1st onwards, I will be in Bucharest for the entire project and support each and all of you as much as I possibly can. See you soon!"