Faces of Ferentari

I had no idea what to expect when Alex and Raluca took me to Ferentari. It’s supposedly one of the roughest places in Eastern Europe, the infamous base of drug dealers, prostitution and mob operations in Bucharest. More than 80% of its inhabitants illegally tap into the city’s electric/water/gas grid. When quizzed about the imaginary scenario where the police could start severing the illegal connections to the grid, the local residents said that violence would be their main weapon.

Despite all of that I went to Ferentari to see a children’s dance group on a rainy weekend. They all gathered in a place called the alternative education club, founded by Valeriu Nicolae, and ran by a network of extremely poorly paid but brilliant staff and volunteers. The children were phenomenal, they managed to stand on their heads, spin at furious speeds, freeze in mid air, and they did a variety of other unbelievable things with their tiny bodies. I was mesmerised. The kids were taught and choreographed by two professional dance instructors Laur and Andrei who had been volunteering at the club for years, spending countless hours helping their little prodigies perfect every routine.

I took pictures of everyone, zooming in on all the little faces that lit up when they performed. I doubt that I’d ever pressed the shutter in such rapid succession before. It was so heart warming and heart breaking at the same time, for I knew that behind all the bright smiles stood broken families, drug addicted parents, siblings locked up behind bars as well as the drudgery and hopelessness of living life in a ghetto.