New platform for young dancers
HAVING recently received three-year start-up company funding from the National Arts Council, the Wentworth Arts and Culture Organisation (Waco) has set out to establish a new platform for young dancers in Durban.
With a dedicated vision to support youth development in the arts, Jarryd Watson, who is at the helm of Waco, is offering the new Durban Dance Youth Awards.
To be honest, I am no fan of awards ceremonies and detest the wasteful funds spent on telling someone they are the “best”, especially in an environment of scarce resources, where we should be putting funds into helping all dancers to survive.
I loathe a situation where artists are forced to compete against one another for some ego-laden award that has little to do with celebrating diversity in the arts.
So I met with Watson to talk about this new venture with mixed feelings.
I am, however, a huge fan of the man and his ability to hold on – often by the fingernails – to his dance development work in South Durban; a fan of his being a caring teacher, and of his unfailing enthusiasm for his community.
As usual, I listened to him speak and in this process begin to feel a little differently about the awards.
For Watson, the Durban Dance Youth Awards aim to “give incentive and recognition to dance excellence showcased by youth dancers and emerging professionals”.
He went on to explain that this is not some kind of “ego-boost platform for dancers, but is a way for our dance community to continue to recognise and support the amazing amount of excellent youth dance happening in Durban”.
Watson is right, of course – Durban’s inimitable amount of youth dance work is unprecedented in South Africa.
So while we are losing our Durban professional dance companies due to national and local neglect, the youth dance work continues in abundance.
One does wonder, in the long run, where these young dancers will go once they are ready for a professional career if there are no companies left, but perhaps this is too far-sighted a question for political arts administrators at this time?
Waco’s awards evening will give recognition to nominees from junior and senior level to emerging professionals, selected from previous performances at youth dance festivals such as the National Creative Youth Arts Festival, the Durban Dance Movement Festival, the Jomba! Youth Fringe and Giyani Lusha.
The nominees will perform their work at the ceremony and receive trophies for their performances.
Watson is firm about these awards aiming to “celebrate the excellence and diversity of cultures” and also “to create an environment that will motivate our young dancers to reach goals that promote their on-going careers and help to access bursaries for education and their training in the arts”.
The event will be at Durban’s Jubilee Hall on the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, at 6pm on Sunday.
The awards ceremony will be hosted by Durban actor Rory Booth, star of Shrek The Musical and Puss In Boots, among other stage hits, and adjudicated by local author, actress and story-teller Gcina Mhlope.
Booking for the event is at Computicket outlets.