Around the World with Dance Primary Class Clips

I'm Antarra Singh. I'm a Kathak dancer.

Kathak is a really traditional, north Indian, classical dance.

We depict all kind of stories. Kathak basically means storytelling.

We just speak it with our expressions, with our hand gestures.

The most important part in Kathak dance is ghunghru.

A ghunghru means ankle belt, at least 100 ghunghru should be used,

so that a good sound should be produced while you are dancing.

OK, I'll make the sound of how this ghunghru sounds.

RATTLES

RATTLES

Today, I'm here in Jaipur, the Pink City.

Everything here is very pink.

The stones and the monuments are basically of pink in colour.

Today, I'm going to perform a very traditional classical song.

Radha and Krishna are the Indian gods.

Radha is the beloved of Krishna.

I'm going to show you all how they play with each other.

It's a holy festival, so everybody in a playful mood.

Radha just came and she takes water and pull it down to the bucket.

Fill the bucket with water, then she take out the packet of colour paint,

open it and drop colour into the bucket.

She mix the colour and the water properly,

then she just bend and take the water like this.

And then, she's in search for her Krishna.

"Where is he? Where is he?

"Oh, I find him. Now I'll joke a little."

She just then throws water on him.

And now he takes the colour and throw onto Radha!

When I was a child, I used to play a lot with colour paints.

I used to play with water and throw it to my friends.

Today, I will use flowers instead of colour paint

because I will be in a mess today if I play with colours.

When I dance in the city palace, I feel so great.

It's really wonderful to see that still the Indians

have a rich tradition and rich culture.

I'm very proud to be Indian.

My name is Rebecca. I'm a teacher.

I'm teaching at Tegbi primary school.

In Ghana, dancing is very important.

We do a lot of dancing, when we're happy,

for birthday parties,

for weddings, for engagements.

"He lives in the forest, in the western region of Ghana.

"He has lived there since he was born.

"He loves the forest."

When she is not teaching, Rebecca likes to dance

and she is part of a local dance troupe.

I like all the dances,

but what I like most is Misago.

The Misago is a dance that tells a story.

In the olden days, our forefathers lived here and something happened

and they had to escape from the wicked chief,

so they packed their items, their belongings, everything,

and left the town.

The women carried most of their loots.

They carried it on their head.

Whilst going, they don't want the chief to know they're escaping,

so they decided to walk backwards,

so whilst going backwards, their footprints look

as if they're going inside - they are going into the town.

That is why whilst dancing, we go backwards.

We hold our ears, showing we don't want to disturb anybody,

we don't want anybody to know that they are moving, they are escaping.

OK, so they've decided to hold their ear,

when they call you, they just hold their ear,

"Please, let's go. It's time, let's go."

After escaping,

they were happy,

so they decided to play drums to display their happiness.

So that is why we twist our body

in this direction.

This is our history

and it helps our younger ones to know where their forefathers

came from and what's happened during those days.

Let's find white clay, boys and girls, for dancing ceremony.

'My name is Junbia, my English name is Arnold.'

I'm from here.

I grow up here,

this land.

Tonight, big ceremony, they're going to show you how to dance

and sing.

Arnold is taking the kids who are going to be in the ceremony

to find white clay which they will paint on themselves later on.

Arnold knows exactly where to find it.

After this, when we're digging the white clay, then put water

to make mix, mix it up, and painting yourself,

then you're dancing, acting like your uncle

and grandpa and granny.

The people from the village are heading to a sacred spot

to perform their ceremony, which they call a bunghul.

Hands up, eh?

Who's going to sing today?

SPEAKS ABORIGINAL LANGUAGE

The bunghul is a ceremony

and music and dance.

They love dance,

all the community from here.

I like dance

because I see my uncles dancing

and I copied them dancing.

When I'm dancing, I feel good.

THEY CHANT AND SING

These dances tell stories of the land.

This one's about a white cockatoo searching for food.

My name is Renata.

I live here in Rio.

And I teach Capoeira too.

Capoeira, it's a group activity.

You have people playing berimbeu, the people singing

and also, the songs.

HE SINGS

You have two people playing Capoeira.

And then when he ends, another two people come inside the circle.

When the slaves arrived in Brazil,

they create Capoeira here.

They are just playing Capoeira, like a dance,

because they are not able to do a fight,

to train a fight, to train anything.

So Capoeira became along the years like a dance,

but inside this dance, you have the fight.

They have to show a dance, but practise a fight.

Capoeira, you can be as you are.

Black people, white people, it doesn't matter.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd