Jerusalema: From Austria to Zimbabwe is a loving look back at a viral phenomenon that burst out during the Covid pandemic: The Jerusalema Dance Challenge.
After Master KG–a South African musician and record producer–wrote a beat, and Nomcebo Zikode wrote the lyrics, and the Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba created a line dance (as seen above), people all over the world started posting videos of their group dancing. Hundreds of them. On airport runways, in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, at the beach, in churches and monasteries, on game reserves, in town squares, fire stations, police stations….anywhere and everywhere from Austria to Zimbabwe.
I was very moved when I discovered the videos during the pandemic, so I wanted to celebrate how so many people took up the challenge and danced with joy and hope.
If you want to learn the dance, the best tutorial I found is here, taught by Robert Kacso.
Jerusalema: From Austria to Zimbabwe (2024)
Directed, written, shot, edited and sound edited by Su Friedrich and many other people from all over the world
8 minutes, digital video, color
Top: Dancers in Manger Square, in collaboration with the Popular Arts Center, Bethlehem, Palestine
Middle: Worker at the Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary, South Africa
Bottom: During the Easter celebrations in 2021 in a church in Inzing, Austria
