By Sabina Elago
WINDHOEK– “It is not going to be easy competing with seven different countries but we are going to do it because we believe in ourselves and we know we can make it.
Says Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO) Founder and Director, Philippe Talavera, about the ten OYO dancers who are going to represent Namibia at the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival in Glasgow in Scotland in the United Kingdom in July. According to him only eight countries out of the 54 which vied for selection have been selected to participate in this modern dance festival. “That shows that we can dance and our dancers are the best,” boasts Talavera adding that to qualify every country presented a presentation of what they can offer and a DVD of the dance they do.”It is a great honour for me to present my group and it will be an honour for the OYO dance troupe to represent Namibia at this important event,” he says.
Talavera says in preparation of this big event, OYO has been and will be organising evenings of dances. The recent one was at the Goethe Centre where, where he alongside OYO dancers, presented “erotica”, a dance dealing with the issue of sex and teenagers. A little outrageous in the beginning, with dancers stripping to their under wares, the piece suddenly became “grave and serious”. “It was a night of excitement where by Stefan Baier, a German dancer and choreographer with the OYO dancers, who also presented “you’ve changed”, brought life to the auditorium. He spent three weeks with the OYO dance troupe, practising this piece,” says Talavera.