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Dancing for the Children By Mandy Kent |
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“Africa is somewhere I always dreamed about when I was a child… I used to say to my mother that one day I will become a nurse and go to help the African children.” Mara Galeazzi has never forgotten those earliest plans and whilst ballet rather than nursing has been her chosen career she is now using her talents and her status as a Principal at the Royal Ballet to benefit disadvantaged children. Two years ago Mara’s first charity gala, in her home town of Brescia, Northern Italy, successfully raised funds for children with leukaemia. Inspired by her success in Brescia she set about contacting ballet companies in South Africa and Kenya to find out how to realise her dream of helping children in Africa. Her aims were to raise awareness and funds for children affected by HIV by producing six charity Gala performances and arranging dance workshops for local children, supporting local dance schools and going to visit orphanages and children’s centres. This is the story of how it all came together…
Now arranging just one performance in your own home town is difficult enough but setting up a project of this size was daunting, especially since Mara had no contacts in Africa and had to start from scratch. Her first call was to Dirk Badenhorst, who at that time was the director of South African Ballet Theatre, based in Johannesburg. Her request for help in setting up a gala was favourably received, and the new director, Ms Karen Beukes, maintained that support. She also found that Harold King (well known to UK ballet lovers as the Director of the old London City Ballet), then Director at Cape Town City Ballet, was happy to assist too. Her contacts in Kenya came through an introduction from Jeannetta Lawrence, Royal Ballet Assistant Director, who knew a lady interested in arranging performances in Nairobi and Mombasa. Mara then found her ‘right-hand’ man in David Nevill, a friend of Leslie Collier. He took over the organisation of the project, managing the travel plans, hotel and theatre bookings and the itinery. Monica Mason and other staff at the ROH also helped her to organise the programme and readily supported her efforts. In addition Mara had to set up a charitable foundation, named ‘Dancing for the Children’ based in London, so that funds were managed correctly and sponsorship could be raised. This involved finding an accountant, a lawyer and secretary who have all donated their time and energies for free. But best of all perhaps is that Mara was delighted to find many sponsors to back her project and make children’s lives better in Africa,
 Royal Ballet dancers and guests in Johannesburg studios © Sussane Bjerg
On July 18th 2007, Mara plus her team of enthusiastic young dancers and technical staff set off to tour Africa for two very hectic weeks. The dancers were Mara, Caroline Duprot, Zachary Faruque, Paul Kay, Laura McCulloch, Vito Mazzeo (now with La Scala), Ernst Meisner, Gemma Bond, Leanne Cope, Romany Padjak and James Wilkie. There was a four-man stage crew: Jurgen Volckaerts, Gary Croft, Peter Mous and Gerald Kelly plus two wardrobe staff, Lorna Robinson and Paul Neesham. Dance teacher Anya Evans also accompanied them and she taught class both for the RB dancers and for children in Cape Town and in Kenya. To say Mara was pleased is an understatement: ‘They were all amazing, and we also had guest dancers from South African Ballet Theatre, Cape Town City Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. Everyone was really excited, we’d just had a Royal Ballet tour and the dancers worked so hard rehearsing during their free time.’ Of course all concerned willingly and freely donated their time and expertise. First stop was Pretoria for two shows, a matinee and an evening performance, held on Saturday 21st July at the State Theatre. The booking at the theatre was donated by South Africa Ballet Theatre (SABT). More from Mara: “The ballet company were meant to be performing there that week themselves and they kindly gave us the two shows that they were supposed to do. And there was lots of drama; my costume for Juliet went missing so SABT loaned a costume which I had to adapt, so I was a bit stressed! But the shows were really successful and we had a lovely reception afterwards.”
The Gala at Pretoria included the following items: First half:
 Laura McCulloch and James Wilkie in rehearsal for Elite Syncopations © Sussane Bjerg
A visit to Soweto On Monday 23rd, after the excitement of the Gala, the group went to Soweto to visit children at the Aleskan Kopano Community Centre and run a workshop with some of them. “When we arrived, there were many children waiting for us. They were all orphans, some with HIV, some healthy, from very young ones up to about fourteen years old. I don’t think they knew what to expect, but they joined in enthusiastically with moving and stretching. There was one special little girl, there’s a photo of me holding her, she was adorable - she was the youngest. We put everyone in a circle with the dancers sitting on the floor and I went round to some kids who didn’t want to join in with us, perhaps they were afraid, I don’t know. But I’ll never forget, I went up to a girl who looked so down, so upset, and I looked at her and said ‘come on, come and sit with us’, and her best friend next to her said ‘She’s very sick’. And I said ‘That’s OK, she can do it’. So then she felt wanted and she sat in the circle and started smiling and joining in, it was quite amazing. Then we went to a room where the organiser showed us a wall full of ‘wishes’, pictures which the children had drawn when they were asked ‘what is your wish to have for Christmas ?’ and they all drew a mother and father. I could see all the dancers and crew around me were crying. I think that was the most touching day that we had. I didn’t want to leave.”
The dancers then drove to Johannesburg and visited the Dance Factory, a dance school for young children where they held a class, and they also met dancers from the ‘Moving Into Dance’ company who performed for them. Then it was off to the studios of SABT to take class and rehearse some more. A rest day followed with everybody off to a Lion Park, some stroking of lion cubs and then seeing some Zulu dancers. Later it was time to fly over to Cape Town.
 Romany Padjak and Paul Kay rehearsing Two Pigeons © Sussane Bjerg
The next day was a day off at the coast where the dancers could relax. Mara went on her own to visit Desmond Tutu’s HIV clinic where children and adults alike receive treatment. Later the group went to visit the Jikeleza school, where students of all ages performed various types of western dance (Spanish, modern, classical etc) to entertain the Royal dancers in return. “It was incredible”, says Mara, “they were very talented children, so full of energy, and they danced for about two hours for us. The children don’t pay for the lessons there, they go three times a week and it’s paid by a charitable foundation. It was an extraordinary and unexpected experience for us.” The next day Mara visited an orphanage whilst the dancers had another well-earned day off. It was difficult sometimes for the dancers, tired after a Royal Ballet summer tour to the USA and Mexico, to keep going on such a tightly organised trip but they all ‘respected the schedule’ ( this phrase became an ‘in’ joke amongst the dancers!) and gave their all.  Mara in Soweto © Sussane Bjerg
As the dancers reached Kenya, where two performances were planned for Nairobi and Mombasa, tour members started to drop like flies. First Mara became ill and missed the show in Nairobi. “I had a 24-hour bug though I really wanted to perform so I went to the hospital to get a drip for two hours but I still couldn’t do the show. Everyone told me to go back to the hotel and rest and they would do the performance for me. The audience loved them and also because I was missing some of the people who went to Nairobi then came down to Mombasa to see me.” James Wilkie and Jurgen Volckaerts (stage manager and Mara’s boyfriend) were also sick and Paul Kay developed a dental abscess and had to find a dentist rapidly. Luckily Mara had invited guest artists from Stuttgart Ballet, Alexander Zaitsev and Katya Wunsche. Katya and Vito Mazzeo danced a pdd from Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky/Petipa) and Alexander Zaitsev danced ‘Les Bourgeois’ by Ben Van Cauwenberg. The pair from Stuttgart also danced ‘Kasimir’s Colours’ by Mauro Bigonzetti. Mara has nothing but admiration for her team. “It was quite an experience but I never heard anybody moan once about all the hard work; they all got on with it and had a good time too. They were just amazing - beautiful performances and no mistakes!” The show in Mombasa also proved eventful. The theatre was in the open air and, during the day, it was boiling hot while they were rehearsing. Then, just as the show started a huge black cloud came over and it poured with rain. “All the kids in the audience came up when it stopped raining and cleaned up the stage for us. When we started again it was so slippery because of the condensation, and then it rained again! We wiped it off again and carried on with the show. Some people came backstage afterwards and said how wonderful we were, and that we shouldn’t worry about what the audience thought of our dancing but that everyone was so pleased that we were there for them. Vito and some other dancers made a speech in front of the audience, I made a little speech and everyone was crying.” After all the emotion the team had time off and some of them went on to a typical Kenyan safari. They had a great time in the Masai Mara and the Masai people enjoyed meeting their namesake – Mara – too. And on a personal note, Mara’s boyfriend Jurgen proposed to her whilst on the safari and they are now engaged to be married.
 Mara Galeazzi in Don Quixote © Sussane Bjerg
Save the Children
Throughout the tour the dancers touched children’s lives and Mara has received many letters of appreciation from the adults and children they met. Back at home, and though very busy with her commitments to the Royal Ballet, Mara is planning a performance for the Dancing For The Children foundation at the Theatre Royal in Winchester on June 8th 2008. She also hopes to organise a fund raising Gala in London and wants to go back to Africa in 2009 to continue her and the other dancers efforts… “I told them I’m not just going to leave, I’m going to come back because I want to see you all again”. |
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