the minaret

“Bouncing cats, baboons and cats.”
When the children of Breakdance Project Uganda don’t have any music to dance to, they make their own.

A young Ugandan man by the name of Abraham “Abramz” Tekya taught the children in his program to chant variations of the above phrase because it has a good beat, and because they frequently have no music to dance to.
Bouncing Cats, is an eye-opening documentary, directed by Nabil Elderkin, that was screened free of charge in Fletcher Lounge on Monday night, followed by a Q&A with hip-hop dancer Mouse, who has appeared on America’s Best Dance Crew.

The film follows Abramz’s inspiring story, as he attempts to help create a bright spot in the lives of the Ugandan children through hip hop and breakdance.
The film was narrated by hip-hop artist Common and featured interviews with Will.I.Am and K’Naan.

Legendary B-boy Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew traveled from the U.S. to take the journey around Uganda with Abramz, BPU’s director and founder. The goal was to “unify, empower and inspire youth in the war-torn region that has been called one of the worst places on earth to be a child,” according to the film.

“You see all these people struggling, hustling.… I couldn’t believe how bad things were for them,” said Crazy Legs. “With hip hop, at least something is going on outside of the struggle.”
The documentary is not so much about dance, as it is about showing what the power of dance can do for children born into a war-torn, poverty stricken country. BPU offers dance classes free of charge and the turnouts are often so large that countless children are sent away due to a lack of space to dance.

After the screening, Mouse reiterated something that Crazy Legs mentioned in the film: b-boy culture began because dance was the only free thing they could do growing up; every other sport or activity cost money that they did not have.
“The film was a beautiful example of how we can give back to our world while applying what we love,” said Colleen Itani, President of UT STAND. STAND partnered with Red Bull to sponsor this unique event. Free Red Bull was available to all who watched the film.

“We strived to unite various students on campus,” Itani said, “and since the film had an unorthodox pairing of dance and humanitarianism, reaching out to different groups made sense.”

“I see little people [who] are going through what I was going through as a kid,” said Abramz. “Losing both my parents when I was about seven or eight years[-old], hip hop was all I had. That’s why I really want to share it.

In the documentary, one could see the immense joy that learning dance gave the children. The sense of belonging to a group was important for them as well. Throughout the film, many of the interviewed children beamed as they proudly announced, “I am a b-boy” or “I am a b-girl.”

The UT community was privileged to have the chance to watch this award-winning film.

“Bouncing Cats” has been the recipient of numerous recent awards, including “Best Documentary Feature Film” at the Urbanworld Film Festival in New York and “Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking” at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California.

To spread his message of peace and unity throughout North and South Uganda, Abramz uses nothing besides the universal language of dance.

“I’m not a politician, so I’m not gonna use politics,” Abramz said. “I’m not a soldier, so I’m not gonna hold a gun. I’m a B-boy.”

Sophie Erber can be reached at serber@spartans.ut.edu.