Transforming society through hip hop

After offering several free dance workshops and tutorials to the youth in Kigali where he is based, Afro-Hip hop dancer Chris Hirwa is on a mission to spread the idea to the whole country. Hirwa’s first stop out of Kigali was Gisenyi, in the Western Province, where together with his crew, the dancer staged a week-long free dance workshop from June 6-10 at the Cultural Center. “After realising that we do dance and teach dance all over the city, we had a second thought of making a small trip of five days to Gisenyi as the second city which has many talented dancers but who need some people to open their heart and to show them the real benefit of living their dream of dancing, “explained Hirwa, who is the founder of Krest crew, a Kigali-based Hip-hop dance outfit. “This project is based on the theme of: ‘Each one teach one’ and we started it as young team of dancers under the- Abatanguha crew, which is based at the Kimisagara Youth Center in Kigali,” he added. The Abatanguha crew is a dance brotherhood that brings together three Kigali-based dance companies –the Krest crew, Afro-Kasa, and the Kigali B-Boys dance crews. Armani Kiwembe (C) leads one of the dance sessions. (Moses Opobo) In Gisenyi, Hirwa was joined by Poppin Lebron and Armani Kiwembe from the Kigali B-Boys and Afro-Kasa dance crews respectively. “The idea is to spread out the knowledge we took or we learnt from one another, to increase the number of dancers in the country which is big but not professional yet,” Hirwa further explained. The five-day workshop was facilitated by the German Cultural Center, Goethe Institut. “We started in the capital which is Kigali where we teach the youth from the street who live in Abadacogora of Sainte Famille every Tuesdays and Fridays, and our mission is to let everyone feel free, enjoy and gain in what they do,” said Hirwa, before adding: “How we do this is that we teach kids the foundation, the importance and the vision (here am talking about spreading a good message through dancing).” editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Transforming society through hip hop