H U M > N: Students Imelda shine on KVS podium

On Friday evening, September 24, the students of the Imelda Institute from Molenbeek-Saint-Jean gave their best in a dance performance in the Royal Flemish Theater (KVS) in Brussels. This performance is part of the HUMAN project, which invites young people to stand up for a humane and tolerant society through music, dance and theater.

The initiator is the German composer Helge Burggrabe. His visit to the Imelda Institute, a dynamic and innovative school, gave the impulse to the question: ‘How can different cultures still live together peacefully across all boundaries of tradition, lifestyle and world view?’

He sought and found an answer in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which contains the basic values ​​that can connect people of all generations, cultures, backgrounds and world views.

The piece of music he then wrote for orchestra and percussion rolls on like the circle of life. The composition consists of musical passages in which basic human values ​​such as freedom, equality, brotherhood, love, home, protection, but also the right to work, rest or creativity are reflected.

The choreography was created by Wilfried Van Poppel, Amaya Lubeigt, Nanni Kloke, Susan Barnett and Jordi Puigdefabregas and performed by students and teachers from the Imelda Institute and Go4City, the two schools that are located together in the Sint-Michiels site in Molenbeek. It was a blistering spectacle lasting about an hour that was received by a full-up KVS with a standing ovation that lasted for minutes.

The project’s patron is Sammy Mahdi, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration. He beautifully expressed what the students should remember from this experience: “Never in your life let yourself be told that you can’t do it or that you won’t get there. Our Brussels youth is bursting with talent. What we saw tonight is proof of that. And yet we have only a fraction of what you have seen in your march and this is only a fraction of what you can achieve in life. Know that there will always be people who do believe in you and who will give you opportunities – regardless of prejudices about nationality, skin color or faith.”

A proud school director Kurt De Prins gladly agreed with these words: ‘there is nothing Imelda’s students cannot do! Every time I am amazed by them.’ A special word of thanks went to Sister Greta Coninckx, who inspired the project and brought the various project partners together.