Joka dances way to champs
Wowing judges with three solo routines, dancer Nicole Joka has tapped, sashayed and leapt her way into the Eastern Cape dance team at the South African Championships Of Performing Arts (Sacopa) auditions.
Joka, 20, auditioned on February 2 in Port Elizabeth. She won the semifinal rounds in the senior category and now will compete in the final championships in March.
“I feel so honoured. I feel as though 15 years of training is finally paying off and I’m receiving the recognition that I've worked so hard to achieve,” Joka said.
“Dance is my biggest passion. I dream of receiving recognition on a national level.”
Sacopa is the only official national competition for novice and experienced performers.
It recognises all genres of the performing arts, including dance, acting, music and modelling and aims to give young talent opportunities within the industry.
Joka has lived in East London since 2005, where she has trained with teachers Linda Mills, Wendy Foster, Carmen Davidson and Mandy van der Walt, but her love of dance started when she was five years old at the Melanie Huggins School of Ballet in Cape Town.
Joka, now in her third year of a bachelor of social science degree at Rhodes University, is trained in tap, modern, hiphop, Spanish, Afro-fusion and contemporary dance styles and has also completed her tap and hip-hop associate teacher's qualification with The South African Body of Dance.
As if triple majoring in psychology, sociology and Afrikaans en Neerlandistiek was not enough of a challenge, in 2018 Joka opened her own dance studio in Makhanda, The Prestige School of Dance.
“I always wanted to be a dance teacher after studying, but I decided to challenge myself by doing my studies and teaching simultaneously.”
15 years of training is finally paying off