GIYANI LUSHA 2010

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stage

Our annual youth dance performance project involves as many of the young people in member groups as possible. This year we had around 120, and could have had 300 if money permitted. Each group wants to send upwards of 30 young people and we have to restrict them to 10, and in one case, even fewer. It always happens on the last Sunday of July, and for the last five years it has taken place at the Amphimarket on North Beach in eThekwini. We erect a stage in front of the sea and the audience sits picnic-style on the grass or on a few chairs.

The audience is made up of invited guests, people strolling along the beach who hear the music, people shopping at the Amphimarket, the market stall-holders, and anyone else who has responded to our publicity, flyers, posters, and media coverage.

We employed four choreographers for this task: Ntombi Gasa, Sifiso Khumalo, Vusi Makanya, and Pravika Nandkishore, who work with the children throughout the mid-year school holiday.

This year’s event happened on Sunday 25th July, a windy, but warm and sunny day. The Amphimarket was moved by the City Council away from its usual place, because of the World Cup, and was again moved last Sunday to a wind-swept wasteland with no electricity, further away from the sea. Pictures help give a sense of the occasion.

The event proved an uplifting and tremendous occasion: the choreography was excellent; the performers enthusiastic and professional, clearly loving what they did, the audience applauded, jumped up and danced, cheered and came up to pay compliments more than ever. Seasoned Giyani Lusha watchers thought it was even better than before, though they always say that. This year we were honoured to have Mr Themba Kunene, from the KZN Department of Arts and Culture, who kept saying, “This is marvelous. We should be funding this. This is so good for South Africa.”

We also had a group of British visitors who were diverted from their planned pilgrimage to the Moses Mabhida Stadium by the music and joyful dance that is Giyani Lusha. So entranced were they, that they stayed for the entire performance, deciding to visit the stadium on another day.

This event is a great source of pride to KZN DanceLink. The joy and the integration brought forth by our young people dancing at the market on the beach, without the excuse of football frenzy, is real and transformative and important. There has been ‘capacity change’ in terms of choreographic skills, dance technique, performance experience, and transformation of ordinary South Africans.