Dancing to the beat of our own drum

Nandee Kananguizi
Hit the beat’ is a Waldorf School Windhoek project that’s constructed of following elements: music (rapping, solo’s and duet’s), dancing (African dance, hip hop), garbage music (improvisation) and drumming( house drumming, African dance drumming).
The history of ‘Hit the beat’ is not really clear because in 2012 a group of kids went to Germany and they performed all these items while there but the project was not named ‘Hit the beat’ yet.
‘Hit the beat’ is done by grade 10, 11 and 12 learners, this period we don’t have on normal school days.
‘Hit the beat’ is not just a project to raise money but this project also helps a lot of kids in extraordinary ways.
It basically helps the kids to gain more self-confidence and helps them to mingle more and it also gives us a chance to get to know the kids that we never talked to.
‘Hit the beat’ always has a theme, for example; last year was about cultural diversity and our slots were based on that.
This year it’s about unity and freedom. So this year they are actually giving us the opportunity for us to come up with our own things in the slots that we choose.
We technically get to choose three slots but we are only choosing two this year.
We already started with ‘Hit the beat’ practices and we are going to perform on the 8th September at the Waldorf School Windhoek.
So you all can start making your way to Waldorf School Windhoek in September.
I interviewed three people just to give a little more information about ‘Hit the beat’.

Henrietha Doeses: grade 12
Henrietha says ‘Hit the beat’ is not the same this year because they didn’t get enough slots but she says she also likes the choir and drumming a lot. She only chose drumming this year because she doesn’t feel comfortable in some of the other slots.

John Shiwolo: grade 10
This is John’s first year in ‘Hit the beat’ and he says he actually likes it a lot because he likes the fact that they don’t go to school for the three weeks that they are busy with the project and have the chance to meet new people. He doesn’t like the choir much but still loves the experience.
He chose music and he is rapping now. He feels really nervous on stage and he gets shy on stage sometimes.

Mathilde Claus: grade 11
This is Mathilde’s first year in the ‘Hit the beat’ and she feels like everyone is very excited and she enjoys it so much. She chose dancing and garbage music. She chose African dancing as she has never done it before so it’s really hard for her to fit in and do all the moves correctly. But she loves the challenge.