Stop team in Denmark

STOP Team in Denmark: 20^th August to 6^th September 2016

Denmark : The Happiest Country in the Word

For the entire team of STOP, it was a huge exposure and experience as none of them has travelled abroad till now. As a preparatory measure, the girls were specially groomed and trained for their upcoming tour in the Aashray Family Home by various people. STOP’s international volunteer and the honorary research Director Ms. Joana, the wife of former Austrian Ambassador, gave some orientations to the girls. Ms. Joana will host the team at Austria during this tour.

The adventurous flight ride:

The journey began on Saturday 19^th August 2017, and the girls were very excited, nervous and scared at the same time. As they boarded the Lufthansa aircraft after midnight, the excitement soon turned into fear for the girls especially when the plane took off. Everyone clenched to each other while the team leader Mallika had nail impressions of those sitting near her. Once everyone settled, they enjoyed watching movies and snacks on board. They had a few hours stop-over at Munich before boarding another flight to Hamburg. By then the girls became little brave and everyone enjoyed the scenic beauty outside from the windows of the flight.

The team’s 15 days experience and exposure in different parts of Denmark: The team reached Hamburg, the first destination, on August 20, 2017. STOP team was welcomed and received at the airport by Ms. Teressa and Mr. Torben. Mr.Torben and his wife Gitte hosted the team till the end of August. Mr. Torben who works at Sports Media along  with his wife Ms. Gitte, who looks after the Denmark’s tour under Global kids. They live in Kalundborg in a community called Tranehøej (www.tranehoej.dk). Kalundborg is a Danish city with a population of 16,343 and it is 110 kms west of Copenhagen.

About the Hosts at Kalundborg: Mr. Torben personally drove the STOP team members to his countryside house located in Kalundborg. The hosts Mr. Torben and Ms. Gitte live in a big and comfortable house along with their community (Tranehøej) members. It is a very self-sufficient community of 10 members living together. They have their own windmill which produces electricity for themselves as well as for their neighbours. They have big an orchard that has varieties trees like apples, plums, blackberries and guavas. They prepare apple juice for themselves from the apples that grow in their orchard. They also have their own organic kitchen garden where they grow variety of greens and other vegetables for self consumptions. They have a poultry farm where there are more than 50 chickens and about 20 sheep. They also have a couple of dogs and one cat.

Ms. Gitte, the host, made special efforts to prepare Indian food, the first meal, for the girls. Next morning after breakfast, the hosts gave a city tour to the STOP team members.  An Indian dinner was prepared by our girls and the hosts immensely appreciated the India delicacies.

 The first Performance at the Rungsted Gymnasium:

The team had their first performance at the Rungsted Gymnasium on 22^nd August 2017 at RungstedKyst, Denmark. Rungsted is an affluent suburban neighborhood in Hørsholm Municipality on the Øresund coast north of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The programme took place at a high school for the high school students who completed their last 3 years in school ready to move to universities for their graduation. The school also has exchange programs and hence had a lot of students who visited India in the month of March 2017 and the next group is scheduled to visit in December.

The performance at Rungsted started with a presentation about STOP. After the presentation, all the girls were introduced and welcomed on the stage and then they had their songs and dance performances. Everyone loved the performances, especially the dance numbers. After the performances the girls interacted with the students and teachers of the school, over the lunch. There were a lot of questions asked by the teachers and students to our girls about their lives in India, their ambition, their career goals and how different does Denmark feel to them.

After lunch, each girl had to interact with a class of 20 students for 20 minutes. Those session focused on an informal interaction between the girls and the students where they all discussed about how their lives, their experiences in India and vis-a-vis.

After the performance at the Rungsted School, the team went to the Roskilde Cathedral which is the biggest Cathedral in Denmark and Mr. Torben explained all about the history of Denmark. After the Cathedral, they went to VikingesKibenei Roskilde which has a lot of Viking Ships at display. Mr. Torben explained us about the Vikings in Denmark, the history and how did they travelled the world in their ships.

 Trip  to Copenhagen

The girls had a day off on 23^rd August 2017 and they had the opportunity to travel to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, for sightseeing.

They went to the Queen’s castle and the saw their royal church from outside. From there they went to the Queen’s garden. We also took a ferry ride in the new harbor which was for about an hour where they showed us the queen’s ship, the last submarine of Denmark, the new water houses in the harbor made out of the shipping containers, the sea plane, stock exchange, national bank, parliament and many more. After taking the ferry ride, girls went to an art gallery which was made in a ship and later we went to see the Circus- Circus on the mind.

There is a college in Copenhagen where the students enroll themselves for one year and learn a lot of circus tricks. We were invited to be a part of their premiere alongside the friends and family of the students who were performing that day. It was a wonderful experience for all of us to witness something different then the classic circuses that we see in India. The theme of the performance was based on the present scenario where they showed us how in today’s  generation individual have forgotten to live in the moment while everyone is worried about the race, competition, jealousy, trust issues, betrayal and what not. Whereas the circus had a ring master who in the show was portrayed as the creator who was trying to keep everything in order and failing miserably, trying to use his power to set things back in order and failing again. It was a wonderful performance and we were glad to be one amongst the few who got a chance to witness their performance.

Performance at the Kalundborg Gymnasium

There was a performance at Kalundborg School which was scheduled for about 1.5 hours. The programme started with a presentation about STOP followed by the some dance numbers:

• Contemerory performance on the Malala Speech
• Taal se Taalmila
• Jai Ho
• Titli
• Jazz
• Vaande Mataram

After the performance, there was a session for Question-Answer. Following were the few questions that were asked by the audience:

• How will you describe the caste system in India?
• Describe Bollywood.
• What are the dishes that we should try when we travel to India in September?
• Any customs and practices that we should be aware of? Or any actions that we should avoid while in your Country?
• Would wearing short clothes be an issue in your India?
• Why do Indians wear a lot of bright colours ?
• What are the difference between Denmark and India?
• Why do we have caste systems in India?
• Which are the common crimes that women face in India ?
• What does STOP mean to the girls living there ?

After the Q&A session followed by lunch, there was a dance workshop for an hour. As a preparatory measure for the workshop the participants were asked to do  some basic warm up exercises. Our girls made them hear the selected song that they were going to dance on. The girls also asked the Danish students to teach any of their steps and the students taught a very common step to the girls. In between the girls also randomly danced on a Bollywood number as a break before they could move forward to the remaining choreography of the song. After  learning the dance, the students wanted to learn few taekwondo steps. The girls showed them a few moves for self defense when they are attacked in different scenarios. The girls winded-up the workshop with a dance performance where all the participants danced together. The girls were then divided in a group of 3 where    each group of girls from STOP were made to interact with 25 students from the Danish High School. The purpose of this was to just let the kids have an informal interaction with the students and get a chance to bond well. The entire event at the Kalunborg was covered by the local newspaper and has been published online.

 Trip to the City of Kalundborg

The Kalundborg city tour begun, after the performance and workshiop in the school, with the visit to the church. It is the only church in Denmark that had 5 castles attached to it. Later the girls went to the central library of the town. Some of the girls made castles out of the lego blocks placed in the corner, some of them were playing ludo, some were reading books while the others were drawing and colouring at the kids section.

Performance and Workshop at Farevejle Fri og Efterskole

Efterskole or After-School is a concept in Denmark where children go to these schools for about a year when in class 9th or 10th. The one year in after school requires then to live there. They learn all sorts of art, music and other subjects that they wish to. The after school focuses more on lessons that will help them to develop their life skills and be self-depended.

At the after-school our girls conducted workshops for both dance and taekwondo. Later the girls gave one hour dance performance for all the students. Everyone enjoyed the performances and loved the Malala dance. After lunch, our team leader Mallika gave a presentation on STOP. At the end of the presentation the session was open for Q/A.

 Following were some of the questions:

1.  How is it to be a woman in India ?
2.  What is the education system in India ?
3. What is your national food ?
4. What is the daily routine for the girls in the shelter home ?
5. Why did the girls choose to be in the shelter home ?
6. Difference between denmark and India ?
7.  What do we love about India the most?

 Some of the questions that we asked were:

1.  What is it about denmark that you like the most ?
2.  National animal, bird and food ?
3.  One thing that you would like to change in your country ?

The after-school had not only invited us to perform and carry out workshops but also to stay over for the night. At around 3:00 pm the girls went to the dinning area where all the students and teachers meet on Fridays for storytelling and singing. Though our girls could not understand the stories, they tried to sing along the Danish songs from the book and the English song that they sang at the end. Later on all the girls went to have a look at the rooms of the students and played games with them.

 

STOP Represented at the Copenhagen Cultural Festival

Every year Denmark organizes a Cultural Festival in Copenhagen where some organizations in Denmark participate. Every organization gets a slot of 15-20 minutes where they perform and showcase their dances to the public. STOP was added at the last minute with another organization by the name “Global Kidz”. It has the same name as the organization that Ms. Gitte works for but they are completely different and work for different cause. The festival was organized at a beautiful location along the harbour of Copenhagen. The first performance that STOP had was at near the Opera. The second performance was at the harbour near the city centre. The girls performed Bihu dance, Odissi dance and a South Indian dance.

The audience loved the performances. The girls were appreciated for their dance, their expression and their costumes. In between the performances, the girls learnt other dance forms in the workshops that were organized, such as- Salsa, Belly dancing, African dance form.

The participation in the prestigious Copenhagen cultural festival was a huge honour for STOP. Girls were lucky to have such wonderful hosts (Ms. Gitte and Mr. Torben), who had good contacts and could help in getting 2 slots in two wonderful locations. Our girls also got an opportunity to witness a lot of other performers who run their academy in Denmark but are from different parts of the world.

Images from our workshops were printed in the Kalundborg news paper. There was an article and a picture of girls dancing with the kids in the high school on the first page whereas the entire page 6 in the newspaper had pictures of the girls with an article on the same.

 

Performance at Højbo Friskole

On August 28, 2017,  the girls  were invited at Højbo Friskole to be a part of their morning session. The school has been governing for 40 years now. In the morning, all the students and their parents sit together in the prayer room and sing songs. The school is for students from class 1 to class 9. After the morning  prayer, they requested STOP team to sing a song and the girls sang “hum honge kamiyaab”. Afterwards they sang the English version ” we shall overcome” while their headmaster translated and explained the kids what the song was about.

After the morning prayers, our girls participated in the music class. For warm-up the music teacher made all the girls to play with the hoopla ring. Next they played another game where each of STOP girls was paired with a Danish student. They had to enact some day-to-day issues and the other person had to copy the same. The purpose was to exchange with each other the ordeal of the day. Later the dance teacher taught our girls a Danish folk dance. They made pairs with the Danish students and learnt the dance form. Our girls also learnt a Danish song and composed some music with the help of sounds such as- clapping, snapping of fingers etc. After the two hour music class, all of them went to the playground and started playing different games with the kids.

Later on the STOP girls talked about India and showed them the map of India and located the places where the girls belonged to. They also explained about the states of India , how many states we have, that fact that India does not have any king or queen unlike Denmark, the national animal and national bird of India. Later the school served us tea and cake and also gifted us different things starting from t-shirts to pen, mugs etc.

Workshop at the Tømmerup Efterskole

The workshop at the Tømmerup Efterskole was organized for 9 students from the international school. They were divided into 3 groups where learnt heena, dance and taekwando. The students found the dance a bit difficult, so everyone chose to attend the henna and taekwondo workshops. The henna workshop had boys too who participated and also learnt the art and made henna on their own hands.

Performance at the City Centre, Tranehøej

Since it was the last day at Tranehøej, the girls had a performance in the evening at the city centre. There were students from the Jyderup folk  High school, other friends and family who visited to watch our girls’ dance performance. The STOP team had also put up a stall at the city centre where people purchased some products of Thousand Dreams that our girls had carried with them.

 

Performance at Testrup Folk High School

Testrup Højskole (or Testrup Folk High School) is a Danish Folk High School based on the philosophy of N. F. S. Grundtvig. It was founded in 1866 by theologist Jens Nørregård.^[1] The School is situated south of Aarhus in the small rural town of Testrup and offers five line subjects – music, drama, art, philosophy and creative writing. The headmaster since 1985 is Jørgen Carlsen

On 31^st August 2017, our girls had a performance for the students of Testrup Højskole  ( or Testrup Folk High School). Testrup Højskole  is a Danish Folk High School based on the philosophy of N. F. S. Grundtvig, a pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher , politician and one of the most influential people in Danish history. Founded in 1866 this school offers five line subjects – music, drama, art, philosophy and creative writing.

Since the age group of the students in this folk high school was more than the usual students, the STOP team decided to perform Indian dances and the theme for that day was everything about India. Students appreciated the efforts and the hard work put into the performances. They also liked the Indian costumes. After the performance the students approached our girls and requested them to teach some of the steps. During lunch time our girls had more informal interactions with the students and there were exchange of information/experiences. After lunch, the students of the folk school organized a workshop to teach modern dance to our girls which they enjoyed.

Performance and Workshop at Femmoller Efterskole

On 1^st September 2017, STOP girls were scheduled to perform in the Femmoller Efterskole. The girls danced and sang some songs after which the students of the school performed few songs for the STOP team. There were three different workshops that were scheduled after lunch. The 80 students in the school were divided in 3 groups for three different workshops. Dance, taekwondo and henna workshops were simultaneously conducted. After the workshops, many of the students wanted to get henna done on their hands. So our girls sat with them till the evening and put mehendi on their hands. At night after dinner, the girls played games with the students while some of them learnt how to play the piano and sang song with the students. The school made very good arrangements our girls to stay over the night in the school premise.

In the morning, after breakfast, our girls were taken out for a city tour. They went to the National Park in Femoller and later went on a tour around the main city area of Jylland.

In the evening STOP team prepared dinner for 50 students at the After School Kitchen .The dinner menu was:

• Assorted Pakoras– potato, onion and spinach
• Lentils ( daal)
• Chicken curry
• Aloo matar
• Saag ( greens)
• Rice
• Tomato chutney (dip)
• Coconut chutney (dip)

The team leader Mallika explained the students about the dishes that had been prepared and how to eat them. Everyone enjoyed the Indian food immensely. It was a wonderful experience for the girls to prepare food at such a huge quantity.

 A tour to Sonderberg for three performances

The STOP team left Femmoller in the afternoon and took a three hour drive to reach Sonderberg . Sonderberg  is a beautiful Danish town of Region of Southern Denmark. This was the last destination in Demark before they leave for Germany on 6^th September 2017. Mrs. Astrid, who is a childhood friend of Ms.Gitte, was the host in Sonderberg.

In Sonderborg the girls had their first workshop at idrætshøjskole Sønderborg. The workshops for 80 students were divided into 3 parts- Henna, Taekwondo and Dance. The students too in the folk high school were very good at dance and picked up the Indian dance very well. The students of the high school gathered at the prayer room for the presentation on STOP and they saw the video as well. After the presentation the girls were divided in groups of 3 and they were interacting with the Danish students on topics such as- STOP, women empowerment in India and the culture of India. After the group discussions they had lunch in the college and moved to the second assignment of the day, Workshop at-  Sonderborg School.

The workshop in the Sonderborg school too was divided into 3 parts- Henna, Taekwondo and dance. The Sonderborg school provides education to a lot of refugees from Syria and so there was a lot of Syrian students who were a part of the workshops. It was a wonderful experience for the girls to be there in the school and get a chance to meet the refugees and learn about their life and their struggle in the country.

At night there was a public performance at the Sonderberg Library which was open for the entire citizens of Sonderberg. This was the last performance in Denmark before they leave for Germany. Our girls did some wonderful performances of various Indian dance.It was an amazing experience for the girls to perform in front of such a enthusiastic crowd. There were many Indians in the crowd who came to visit girls after their performance.