The Limits Beyond

“The Limits Beyond” is a multimedia dance piece about street children.
The term street child has become a universal term for a wide variety of phenomena in developed and developing countries, homeless and working children. Unicef ​​makes a distinction between children on the street, those who work and hang out there, and children from the street, those who actually live on the street, whose center of life, their living and sleeping place ist the street.

Street children are part of the Bengali society. But what do people know about them? Street children live in precarious conditions. The road leads to child labor, crime and prostitution. Drug abuse is a common way to distract oneself from lack of love, hunger and pain.
At times, these children and adolescents are victims of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation. Due to a lack of education and training, these children are often unable to learn a profession and change the opportunities for themselves and their children in the future.

What do children from the street wish? What are their dreams, what are they thinking about?

In cooperation with Shishu Neer, a school for underpriviledged children in Dhaka/ Bangladesh, Anika Bendel documented in a playful and trusting atmosphere the stories of the children, the ways and difficulties of their lives, their dreams and hopes as well as their perspectives. She integrated these recordings in a public performance with dancers from Shadhona Cultural Circle – A Center for Advancement of South Asian Culture, founded by dancer, choreographer and cultural activist Lubna Marium.

“The Limits Beyond” was premiered on 23 April 2013 at the Goethe-Institut in Bangladesh and broadcast by the Bengali television station Desh TV.