Multicultural association of Helsinki KERI

Language: Suomi + English

KERI + Health for Guineans + Computer courses + Sembe Conakry + Co-operation

Sembe Conakry dancing theatre

The group was formed in 1999 by the boys and girls of Conakry, all living in the same district and inspired by the dance troupe Les Ballets Africains. They heard the wide range of rhythms made audible by the drums and saw the potential in ballet. Guinea is one of the original sources of African ballet. The group was named Sembe Conakry, sembe meaning 'force' in fulani language, as they believed in success through their own hard work.
Eventually the Keri association met the members of Sembe Conakry and seeing their show agreed to help. Keri was particularly interested about the groups links with the African peoples and their cultural heritages.

Doundoumba is traditionally a 14th century Mandingo dance for the strong youth and it shows the exploding energy needed for African ballet. Both men and women take part in it and it is backed by balaphones, rattles, djembe- and doundoun-drums. Originally used for communication and healing, the instruments are backing the wild African dance. These people well understand the traditional dance, music and storytelling, capturing the audiences attention along.

The rhythms of Sembe Conakry were created in the capital Conakry, but the group has performed in cities and villages around Guinea as well as in five other West African countries. Today they are well known in Guinea. In Finland their show was experienced in the festival 'Maailma Kylässä' and the schools of the capital Helsinki.

Sembe in Finland

Originally the dancing group Sembe was meant to perform and organize workshops for dancing and music in many Finnish towns. Their visit was cut shorter by official difficulties. In the end the group only performed and organized their workshops in Helsinki.

The feedback from students, teachers and other people who saw the performance was throroughly positive. Sembe Conakry visited six schools, as other interested venues were left out because of the tightened schedule.

Dancing performances at 'Maailma Kylässä' festival and Caisa cultural centre pulled in large crowds and were noted by the television channel MTV3 and the Metro newspaper.

Amour Commercial

The miniballet Amour Commercial is a story about the effects aids had on the African life and love. The people with aids are shunned and kept over a distance altough the illness only spreads by sexual intercourse. Sembe Conakry wants to educate their countrymen and women how to avoid the disease and how there is no reason for shunning the ill. The discrimination of women only makes the situation, which originally is caused by their abject poverty, worse. Children are educated about avoiding the hiv infection to hopefully slow down its progress in the future.