Dance – movement of the body in a rhythmic way. Dancing is a form of art, usually to music, within a given space for the purpose of expressing an idea or an emotion, also as we like to call it a magical word that connects us all together in a safe, fun environment.
“Dancing youth” was a youth exchange that was held in Braga, Portugal from 7th of October till 15th of October, and was funded by the European union through the Erasmus+ program. 42 amazing participants from 6 countries: Portugal, North Macedonia, Greece, Poland, Italy and Bulgaria arrived in the sunny city of Braga on 7th of October.
The goal of this project was to bring all of us together from different cultural backgrounds in order to promote mutual understandings, problem solving abilities also to discover new traditions, wide cultures and creative activities through DANCE!
From the start we had really engaging activities that included ice breakers which helped us meet each other better, learn and remember our names. Aside from activities that helped us get to know each other, we had an activity with many challenges that helped us explore and get to know the most beautiful monuments and sights of Braga, as well as the people that live there.
Next on the agenda we had brainstorming, an activity that was dedicated to better understanding the structure of the team, and also how to become and work better as a team. Something that all of the participants enjoyed doing were the many, many energizers that included dance and fun tasks which kept us fresh and ready for all of the other interesting discussions and activities that we had planned.
We, the Macedonian team, had a chance to promote our culture through our traditional songs and dances, for example: “Pajdusko oro”, “Pravoto” and a short part of a folk performance, for which we demonstrated how to properly do the steps, and in a short amount of time everybody was able to do our beautiful traditional dances.
For every activity we had to work in groups, so from the very first day we formed strong bonds with other participants and also got the sense of belonging and acceptance.
Two of the nights we had the traditional intercultural evenings, on which the participants got to further represent their culture and we got to taste the amazing national foods and drinks, which allowed us to mentally travel to each one of the countries. On the Macedonian intercultural night, we served a variety of traditional foods and drinks like: ajvar, rakija, national sweets, white and yellow cheese, candies and salty snacks.
Additionally, we had the opportunity to learn dancing traditions from the other countries and cultures, that allowed us to get to know them better. We loved every part of it! During this youth exchange besides the traditional dances, we also learnt how to do simple ballet and zumba.
We are 7 lucky Macedonians that were selected and got to participate in this amazing Erasmus + youth exchange, “Dancing Youth”. A big thank you to CET Platform that enabled us to have this wonderful experience and take home a lot of friendships and heart-warming memories, as well as knowledge and understanding about the other cultures!
– Summary written by Mihaela Rzhanikoska and Angela Nikolova
