Rubicon's involvement began in the summer of 1997 when we joined Wales Aid to Craiova (WAC), a charity providing aid through building and care projects, on their 17th visit. This was to be the beginning of a programme of dance development spanning five years - wonderful, devastating, upsetting, funny, and more and more in demand. It was rewarding for us too. Why is it that the 'payback' always seems greater than the effort involved? But could we make a difference? To justify going back we had to. Now, five years on there are teachers leading dance in the schools we have worked in and there are dance groups (one even has what they proudly call their dance studio - a small, stuffy, carpeted space) because they simply love to dance.
So how did we begin?
The schedule we established in our first week was repeated, developed and streamlined on subsequent visits.
Each day began at a small orphanage housing eleven children in cramped conditions. We found a tiny space between the bunks and managed to involve them in dance of sorts. But sometimes they simply lost concentration and automatically began the relentless rocking linked with trauma. As they learned to trust us they would leap into our arms when we arrived shouting 'musica, musica'.
We then moved on to a residential school for disabled children where we were given access to the gym (a small carpeted room) and led two sessions a day with different groups. The principal was a remarkable woman who had managed to convince the Ceaucescu government not to withdraw education for disabled children and to keep her school open. The afternoons and evenings were spent at a residential school for deaf children combining junior and secondary ages. In fact, it was two schools in one, catering additionally for children with learning difficulties who attended as day pupils. Every hour on the hour, groups of children were brought in to the gym to dance and they too loved it. The fact that they were free to move, to jump, turn, spin, laugh, and clap their hands in a lesson was an experience they had not encountered before.
In order to illustrate the notion of progression and to introduce the idea of integration our last session of the day comprised of a mixture of children from each of the schools. This was a first for both children and staff and raised tensions surrounding disability awareness. As a process, it took time and ingenuity for them to feel comfortable working together.
And as we crossed the school yard at the end of the day the children, still outside, were practising what we had done, teaching those who had not yet had a go or clamouring to show us something they had thought of. Even the WAC team joined us after a gruelling day's construction work, and became enthusiastic supporters of the dance programme.
Teachers and the principals were invited to join us at anytime. Their support was crucial if we were to develop dance. Throughout and ever since, all our Romanian contacts and interpreters could not have been more supportive. And as time has passed, they have become our friends. From the beginning they saw, understood and have now witnessed something of the potential dance has for being the vehicle of change in so many ways.
During that first week, we also worked on one occasion with children from a much larger orphanage. Members of the WAC team joined us in order that the session could be led on a one to one basis. Of all the children these were the most disabled by circumstance.
When we got back to Cardiff the temporary joy of hot water and the sheer quantities of food on display in the supermarkets, brought a realisation that we must do something of lasting value. Our commitment was made and back we went whenever we had raised enough money and time allowed.
So what worked and why?
During that first visit, there was an air of bleakness in the schools, shops and across the city. There was seldom laughter. As one teacher commented, there was not much to laugh at in their lives. So dance became a vehicle for fun and laughter. The education system is built around learning by rote with little variety and imagination in teaching methods. Stilted beliefs led some teachers to comment that disabled children have no imagination. And so in the sessions, we led and they followed -adoring it when we picked up on a child's unconscious action (such as flicking their hair) and the movement initiative went to them. Soon they were vying for our attention - desperate to lead with their own ideas. From these simple moments the opportunity for creative responses developed.
By our second and third visits, they had got to know us, were comfortable with our approach and were much more skilled. They wanted their dance making to reflect current music and dance trends. There was no dance product for them to see live other than ourselves, (and my attempts at street dance are somewhat limited!) They had access to television, their main influence. We sent videos of our youth dance groups and purchased a range of music.
By our fourth visit, they had formed their own dance groups. It was the perfect opportunity to create an exchange. So last autumn we took with us members of our flagship youth dance group, Nubrico. The experience was electric - the young people danced together, performed for one another and through the real dialogue and life stories that emanate from such exchange shared their culture. Deep relationships were forged and a few hearts lost.
From the outset of the project, many well-wishers gave us old clothes to take out. However, we found that children in the schools and orphanages were swamped with cast offs so we limited what we took to items of new dance clothing. Now, the situation is much improved and the children are far better dressed and look cleaner and healthier. The same sensitivity applied to money. Inflation continues to rise and our money bought more, as theirs bought less and less. On one visit the teachers had been warned that the government had insufficient money for their salaries. We were careful to cover costs incurred by any of our contacts and pay for the time they gave but any lavishness that could have been interpreted as patronising was avoided.
It is true with all our work and no less so in this case that the more one tries to address access, the more there is to address and by our third visit we were having to streamline the programme and focus more fully on less. It was a difficult decision: as naturally, we wanted to teach everyone and tackle everything that was on offer. In fact, the principal from one of the schools moved to another town and wanted us to start a similar programme there. Whilst we were able to visit, it was neither logistically nor financially feasible and so we were unable to commit to it.
Without doubt, the hardest decision we faced was to pull out of the orphanages. This was due to the continually shifting political priorities. The children in the smaller orphanage, Calamanest, were being integrated into special schools. But the fate of larger one, Productelor, was much more complex. The original group we worked with on our first visit were the only ones considered educatable and so were allowed to spend time each day in a room that had toys and equipment (mostly kept out of reach on shelves and with the soft toys [teddy bears] pinned to the walls safely out of reach). On the second visit we worked with them each morning, but though enjoyable we felt we were interrupting their education. (Funding had been raised by UK charities for part-time educators to prepare these youngsters to be reintegrated into the special schools, which proved to be an intricate process.) Our presence added to the complexity. Nevertheless, the mayor and even the local radio station came to watch. In later visits, it was easy to spot the integrated orphans in the schools mainly because they would sit in isolation and they were still rocking.
The rest of the children were kept upstairs where the situation was desperate. Desolate rooms with beds and children with nothing to do, with minders but with no care. They were given medication in the afternoons and at night to make them sleep. For them it was a vacant world. Harsh as it may sound, it was clear that here there was nothing we could contribute until a care programme was in place. We wondered which was better, to be one of the thousands of street children living rough in the sewers of Bucharest or to be trapped in one of these orphanages - Nevertheless, care and education for these young people is now happening but the damage already done is perhaps irreparable.
The overall budget has been modest, no more than £9,000 in total. Funding for each trip has been raised almost entirely by the groups we work with, in and around Cardiff. Schools have donated money from fundraising evenings, our elderly groups have pitched in with contributions or raffle prizes, we have held sponsored danceathons - individuals each raising remarkable amounts. So many people are committed to the venture and there has been real generosity from those who frankly have little to spare.
This year we brought a small dance group of eight deaf children to Rubicon for a week to work with our community and, of course, to see the sea. And that, we thought, would be the end of the project. Each day they worked with our young people before an afternoon of sightseeing. Lunches were provided by a different groups, from the over 50s to the boys dance group. At the end of the week we had a sharing performance. Each of the youth groups performing and every member of the audience had raised funds or donated money over the years. They were all stakeholders and this was the opportunity to celebrate our achievements together. It was an amazing experience for all involved.
And it isn't the end because the Romanian children and ours have become close friends. Our youngsters want to go there and so they will, probably in 2004.
Ruth Till, director, Rubicon Dance and Tracey Brown, leader, Dance Development Programme, the Community Dance Apprenticeship Scheme, and the Volunteer Programme. Contact +44 (0) 2920 491477.