Uudis

Youth in Action programme: ”Possibilities in AbunDANCE”

This summer in addition to all of the other activities JJ-Street also conducted an international project called “Possibilities in AbunDANCE”, which was a Youth Exchange on intercultural dialogue through the mean of dance. Through this dialogue we aimed to enhance the young dancers’ abilities and knowledge on taking initiative, coming out with creative ideas and putting their ideas into action. Staying together for 6 days in Käsmu, in a resort village situated in the rural area around 80 km from Tallinn in North Estonia, the 33 participants coming from Estonia, Germany, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and UK discovered their differences and points in common and learned to develop their skills and build new international friendships. Dance, street dance in particular, was the mean to show the youngsters how they could cooperate and work together for a greater cause even with people whose personal, cultural and social backgrounds differ from their own, how they could be the ones to take initiative and start something new in their communities. To reach these goals, they discussed together thanks to non-formal education, with English as common working language, using tools such as ice-breakers, different activities, group discussions and round tables, simulations, workshops on dance and learning by doing. All of this was achieved with the help of the European Union Youth in Action Programme that provided the project with a grant. Overall we find that the project was very successful and want to thank everybody who invested their time and energy in this exchange.