MINI-BASHAVEL of Romany children from Jarovnice

(Saturday, 16 October, Jarovnice – performances of children from the project Wild Poppies – The Chance for Romany Talents from Entire Slovakia)

Entire families came. With concentrated and serious faces at first, they are gradually starting to smile. Roman and Rasťo start by explaining what the project is about. “Even your children may study in secondary schools. And it is not impossible to imagine someone from Jarovnice to make it all the way through college."

"The stage will first belong to the singers,” started Laco Bubnár and then counted down in English: “One, two, three, four…”. Right then the singers got the whole room moving to the rhythm of songs.

The theater crew created a “breathing blanket”. When children start to crawl from underneath it, everybody starts to laugh. The feeding of hungry mouths in the morning, a wake-up call, time for some education. An image of what happens on benches in the park, what kind of relationships arise between boys and girls. Ferko Balog and the children prepared skits with stories of Jarovnice.

Even the chief dance instructor Lacko Cmorej took pride in dancers, although he was unable to be there in person. But the show was not just some dancercise. The children managed to perform by themselves and they were just great! When the project started they only knew a couple of dance steps, repeated them over and over and learned from one another. Now they know there are many more steps, and they are insatiable when learning from professional dancers.

In the afternoon some athletes and visual talents joined the performance of dancers, the theatre crew or musicians. Mirka Tomašiaková – Kavuličová with the children decorated the room with paintings. The works of art showed the world as seen by the children of Jarovnice. Compared to their initial work they learned some new techniques over time.

The event climaxed with the Divé maky music band. Are we seeing some fresh young stars on the horizon? The time will tell. What is important is that the Romany children have to persevere and believe that even they can achieve success in their lives.