Sencity South Africa: The dance

Hi everyone,

Here is review of the event: After lots of media attention, radio interviews, spreading fliers and inviting looooots of people, the 19th Sencity event takes place!

The day is 40 degrees Celsius with no wind, but our crew keeps working to have everything set up. After liters of water, sun block and many many jokes being told, we open only 5 minutes after the scheduled time, 8 pm, which is a world record for us!

Immediately the crowd comes in—900 people will show up. Half are deaf, half hearing; half white, half black; half rich, half township (I am not calling them poor).

A nice mixture of artists entertains the audience. There’s a movie/chill zone, some street artists walking around and writing on the walls and two stages: one with an underground drum n bass DJ and the other, a main stage where South African bands are being followed by Dutch DJs.

The girlfriend of one of the DJs is a model and invited her friends; a group of 20 models walks around. It's very interesting to see a seemingly bored girl transform into a warm-hearted human being when two boys put some money together to offer her a drink—in sign language.

Best moment: Yolanda, the front lady of the funky South African band CODA was supposed to share about being HIV positive in order to inspire the audience to check themselves out. But when she arrives, she says immediately she is not going to do that because of a tough week.

When they get on stage for their show, I see her face shifting. She gets present with the deaf audience. When the first song is over, it remains silent while the deaf react enthusiastically by waving their hands. When they begin with their third song, she stops the band and says:

"I wasn’t planning on sharing this, but I can’t sing anymore if I am gonna keep this for myself. My week was tough, but I don’t want your life to be tough. So if this might make a difference, if it saves one life, it is worth sharing..."

She tells about how her life got turned upside down AND how she found much more richness since she started to live a conscious life and started to sing and make people happy. You can literally see eyes opening in the audience. When she finishes with “Life is worth celebrating so get present with your body—go have a check and live a life being conscious of it.” Again the audience starts waving with their hands with lots of appreciation.

The rest of the evening is an ongoing chain of touching moments, meeting inspiring people, seeing amazed faces and receiving and giving acknowledgment for the team effort that has been made. For sure, this project has made a difference in the lives of people. I have no idea what kind of difference, but—as Yolanda said—if it only saves one life, it was all worth it. This all inspires us to go on with our work and to keep on creating miracles.

The show must go on!