The Gabonese artist Peter Nkoghé was visiting France and we had the pleasure of having him visit our kindergarten too! He shared with us his passion for dance, how it helped him discover new worlds and enabled him to get his mother and family through a difficult situation.

He committed to dance at a young age and has since travelled to many countries and had the opportunity to perform with a number of international dance troupes. He has also started his own dance school and become a reputed choreographer.

Our school musical this year, “Billy,” speaks too of a boy who wanted to dance. At the beginning of the school year, this launched some of the children into a conversation on whether or not boys “have the right” to dance. This of course led into bigger discussions on what we have or not the “right” to do and the children were encouraged to follow their passions and avoid discrimination.

This long-term discussion has made it even more interesting for the children to meet a man who has made dance not only his passion but also his job. Incidentally, Peter Nkoghé’s wife and child tagged along and his son’s enthusiasm for dance was just as contagious as Peter’s.

After explaining his story to the children, he demonstrated how he uses dance to express some of these things.  Peter’s performance was a beautiful blend of traditional African dance along with contemporary dance.

After the show, we separated the children into groups and Peter led them in a choreographed dance and various activities exploring ways to express our feelings through movement.