“Hello, I'm Onkar, and I'm from India, Punjab. I'm going to talk about my experience in BOWING.”
“Olá, eu sou o Onkar e sou da Índia, do Punjab. Vou falar sobre a minha experiência no Bowing.”
Onkar participated in the project from its beginning, at Odemira school. He was an energetic and playful boy who was always chatting, with us or with his classmates! Once, during a session.
"The BOWING team used to come to our school every week and we did a lot of activities like drawing, dancing, and many others. In the end, they asked me to join the first performance."
During the performance creation process we picked up Onkar and other classmates every week from Almograve for rehearsals in São Teotónio. We came in the car singing and dancing, with Onkar being the most enthusiastic. He often sat in the back seat, with his mischievous look, peering through the rearview mirror.
"My experience was really good with them; they were very polite to everyone, and they are so kind. In the performance I taught Hindi to Portuguese people. It helped me a lot. Before joining BOWING I had stage fright, and after, I felt I could say whatever I wanted to."
Over these two years Onkar has grown a lot in every sense. In Summer BOWING of 2022, I remember the joy in his body as he jumped into the sea at Amália Beach, soaking up the sun and diving into the waves with his turban.
"I made so many friends there. I remember Summer Bowing: we did so many activities. That was the best part; I'm just waiting for Summer Bowing 2023."
Photography by: Pavel Tavares