Dance studio presents Arabian Nights with Aladdin and Friends

MBOMBELA - A successful and powerful dance production, Arabian Nights with Aladdin and Friends, with amateur and professional dancers, blew the audiences away at the Mbombela Civic Theatre on November 2 and 3.

A hundred dancers aged four to 29 took to the stage in the Rhythm Image Dance Studio’s rendition of the famous Aladdin animation and the more recent live action movie starring Will Smith.

The production had a great mix of songs from the movie and animation, and some popular music hits kept the audience entertained. The two-hour production was lively and humorous.

The main characters were professional dancers, homegrown Rhythm Image students turned professional dancers.

The professional lead roles were played by Micaela Mansfield (Aladdin), Katherine Slingerland (Jasmine), Maryssa Erasmus (Genie) and Mari-Shaan Gerber (Jafar).

Amateur dancers and International Solo DanceSport South African and Mpumalanga champions in the lead roles were Febe Gartner (head maiden), Khutso Sekgobela (The Sultan), Tenei Stander (Iago), Xandely Steyn (Abu), Phebe Tyson (Rajah) and Jayden Joubert (Carpet).

“The work and passion behind the scenes were enormous and definitely oozed the love of dance,” said the studio principal, Tanya Edwards-Smith.

She thanked all those who supported the production and said she could not wait for the next big studio production to get into action for 2024.