Joburg dance finals held

Groups that made it through the first stages of the Gauteng Motjeko Dance Festival will compete in the finals for a place at the National Arts Festival.
YOUTH dance groups that made it through the first stages of the Gauteng Motjeko Dance Festival are invited to participate in the competition finals, to be held at the Diepsloot Community Hall on 17 March, from 2pm.

Auditions have been held around Gauteng Auditions have been held around Gauteng The competition has been doing the rounds across the province, with auditions in Johannesburg having taken place in 2011. By now, the dancers are expected to have fine-tuned their choreography.

At stake is a chance to represent the province on the national stage at the annual National Arts Festival to be held in June in Grahamstown. A total of 41 groups are participating in the competition, chosen from 21 auditions.

The competition is an initiative of the Gauteng department of sports, arts, culture and recreation in partnership with Gauteng Dance Manyano.

It is geared at developing and nurturing talented dancers. It also provides a wider platform for dance practitioners and trainers to explore other forms of dance, including indigenous and contemporary dance, explains Nomazwe Ntlokwana, a department spokesperson.

Apart from its central mandate of development and empowerment, the competition is a platform for performers to network, and exchange ideas and skills.

Ntlokwana says another element is to affirm the previously marginalised, reclaiming humanity and reconstructing a multi-cultural society on the grounds of unity in diversity.

There have been auditions on the West Rand, in Garankuwa and Sedibeng.

For more information, contact Nomazwe Ntlokwana on 011 355 2578 or send an email to nomazwe.ntlokwana@gauteng.gov.za.