WINDHOEK
Choir, drumming, percussion, theatre and dance with Waldorf School Windhoek learners and friends is one of this weekend’s highlights and major attractions in store for both the Capital’s residents and visitors alike with the performing arts production titled ““Hit the Beat – In Rhythm we meet” tonight and tomorrow night at the Warehouse Theatre.
Directed by Simone de Picciotto, the production is presented by 80 learners at the Waldorf School Windhoek, with musicians, artists andteachers from Germany and Namibia, incorporating dance, drums, choir, theatre, garbage music and film making. The development of the performance included three incredible weeks of choir rehearsals for high school learners from Grades 10 to 12, and an additional choice of three workshops for each learner: dance, drumming, solo singing, film making, visual arts or improvisational theatre with the highlights of the project being the two performances at the Warehouse Theatre.
The team behind the learners comprises Simone de Picciotto (project leader, choir project, drumming workshop and garbage music workshop), Carmen Nothando-Voigt (dance and choreography), Mia Rößler (theatre, poetry and improvisation), Tapuwanashe Munya (drumming), Felix Spitta (hip-hop and film-making), Markus Sprengler (band singer, vocal coaching and learners firm), Faizel Browne (dancing), Retha Landsberg (Mexican dance), Gerrit von Schouwenburg (Art) and Günther Geiger, Adam Brandon-Kirby, Conrad Hegarty (Band).
The Hit the Beat project began in 1998 – inspired by a studentʼs idea. Simone de Picciotto was then working at a Waldorf School for disadvantaged children in Baden- Wuerttemberg. One of her pupils, chose to do “Drumming” for his Class 12 Project. In the course of working on this with him, Simone began to attend drumming workshops.
Soon the first drums had been bought and the first drumming group founded. Since then Simone has been regularly drumming and singing in schools with children. Seven years later, Simone started teaching at the Waldorf School in Windhoek, Namibia – and the project came with her. Here she worked in the high school for a further eight years, teaching music and other subjects. In the of summer 2012, she returned to Germany where she has continued with Hit the Beat in the form of workshops at a number of schools, academies and free projects, working with adolescents from all backgrounds.
One of the main aims of Hit the Beat is to unite young people worldwide. In September 2016, a group of the Namibia Hit the Beat project will travel to Germany with Simone and perform together with German learners and refugees from a number of countries.
An advance ticket is N$ 60 and available at the school office at Waldorf School Windhoek or by dialing 081 122 80 71, or at the door for N$ 80. The performance starts at 19H00 on both nights.