KaziKidz teaching in the Purzelbaum workshop 2024 at the DSBG
The participants, active primary school teachers, at the Purzelbaum workshop 2024 in the KaziKidz class from Chantal Brügger (photo: University of Basel).
Through active play, romping around and exploring their environment, children express themselves and interact intensively with each other.
This year's Purzelbaum Conference 2024 was organized and held by Purzelbaum Switzerland in collaboration with the cantons and the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health (DSBG) at the University of Basel.
Have you noticed that most children like to move spontaneously when music is playing? This is just as true for girls as it is for boys. That is why, as part of a multi-year research project in South Africa, Tanzania and the Ivory Coast, we have developed a “Moving to Music” program (“KaziKidz - Moving-to-Music”: Simple dance and movement forms) that is suitable for use in kindergarten and elementary school ( https://www.kazibantu.org/kazikidz/). The music for KaziKidz was produced in an age-appropriate way by the famous Nelson Mandela Choir, an acclaimed South African choir, internationally recognised for its multi-cultural membership and diverse repertoire.
Our experience shows that the program is well received by teachers and children and is a lot of fun. In this workshop, the primary school teachers and pre-school teachers immersed themselves in the enchanting African dance culture and found out whether “Moving-to-Music” is also suitable for their lessons here at their schools in Switzerland (in terms of dissemination). The workshop was led by Chantal Brügger, dance lecturer and KaziKidz co-developer at the DSBG, University of Basel.