Namba shows he has all the right moves and talent

Mqanduli-born dancer wows judges on TV show

SUPPORT garnered on YouTube gave an 18-year-old Mqanduli-born dancer the confidence to enter this year’s South Africa’s Got Talent season.

Appearing on the show this past week, Luzuko Namba wowed the nation with his spectacular moves.

Namba started doing basic dance moves when he was five years old and has since graduated to pantsula, krumping, popping and locking.

Namba said his favourite genre was dubstepping, a type of electronic dance music that originated in South London, England.

It emerged in the late 1990s as a development within a lineage of related styles such as 2-step garage, broken beat, drum and bass, jungle, dub and reggae.

For the past two years Namba has been sharing his videos on YouTube for people to see. “Viewers have been liking and commenting on my videos and then this year I decided to enter SA’s Got Talent,” he said.

On Thursday night Namba blew the judges away with his second performance. Shado Twala said she could watch him dance the whole day while Ian von Memerty said Namba was fantastic. Hard-to-impress veteran muso Kabelo “Bouga Luv” Mabalane said: “You knew you had us in the palm of your hand.”

Mabalane encouraged Namba to put more work into his ending next time.

“Hearing the judges say that made me feel good about myself and my dancing,” Namba told the Saturday Dispatch yesterday from Johannesburg. “I will take what Kabelo said very seriously because he was right, towards the end I was tired.”

A Grade 11 pupil at a Port Shepstone school, Namba said people in Mqanduli had been supportive.

“My parents have been calling me constantly, asking what I need and telling me they saw me on TV. Friends have also been supportive.”

Namba aims to be a professional dancer and travel the world.

“I want to study art and be a performer. I love dancing.”

After Thursday night’s show Facebook was full of comments about the new dance sensation.

Namba and contestant Cindy Ann Abrahams were voted as favourites on SA’s Got Talent Facebook page.

The finale is scheduled for October 17 – and Namba hopes to be there. — poliswap@dispatch.co.za