Outdoor dance magic
MORE than 100 dancers from the Indoni Dance Academy and Jazzart Dance Theatre outreach programmes brought the Green Point Park to life with theatrical magic as they entertained crowds with their contemporary African dance performance called The Journey at the weekend.
Mbovu Malinga, the coordinator from Indoni Dance Academy, said: “The performance went well. The park was packed to capacity and the reaction from people who were there showed it was a great success.”
He said many visitors were not aware of the show, but as they saw them rehearsing, they decided to stay and gradually the crowds grew.
Among those who attended were Mayor Patricia de Lille who took to social media, saying: “The Indoni dancers were electric. Wonderful way to end the weekend at the Green Point Urban Park, seeing families from across Cape Town enjoying the day.”
Malinga said they had approached the City with the concept to see if it could work in that space.
“They gave us an opportunity to pilot the initiative, with a small budget. So we are hoping they will invest more in it so that it can become an annual thing. The performance was focused on our outreach programme, where we teach kids between the ages of seven and 18 in Khayelitsha and Nyanga. We also had older dancers from our training programme.”
Malinga said for many of the children, it was the first time they had been there.
“The kids usually don’t come to Green Point Park because of the distance – so besides coming in for the performance, they were excited to be at the park. It has all facilities and is well maintained. Our location parks in the township are not as well resourced.”
Paula Kelly, a spokesperson for Indoni Dance Academy, said: “It was magical, the whole park was alive with tons of people… They went from one area to the next in this fabulous setting.”
Kelly said the concept behind The Journey was about going around the park from place to place.
It was also about the journey of the Indoni graduates in their third and fourth year with the dance company paying back to their community.
Their dancers from the outreach programme also performed in public for the first time. The initiative was funded by the City to bring art at to urban spaces.
The group have also been invited to the Grahamstown festival, where they will be performing a piece called .