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JIKELEZA: a chance to dance

Location Hout Bay, Cape Town
Field Social upliftment through creative dance and music
Director Edmund Thwaites and Atholl Hay
Website www.jikeleza.co.za

The Jikeleza (Xhosa: “turn around” or “pirouette”) Dance Project, established in April 2002, currently teaches dance (African, contemporary, Spanish and classical ballet) and music (marimbas and drumming) to children and young people from the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu and the Hangberg Harbour community in Hout Bay, in Nyanga township and at the Learn-to-Live Program for street children in Green Point.

In addition to providing high quality, dedicated dance and music training, offering its young beneficiaries creative, fulfilling and developmentally based recreational opportunities and exposure to or participation in professional performances, the project has a number of value adding components.

  • The transfer of performing arts skills for greater employability (the development and preparation of young dancers and musicians for employment in professional companies or as educators);
  • Its reintegration initiative with homeless children from the streets as well as the monitoring and support of rehabilitated street children; and
  • Educational and awareness raising initiatives around community issues such as HIV/Aids, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and abuse, and environmental concerns, among others.

The organisation, which has experienced rapid growth and considerable success since its inception, currently teaches over 200 children and youth at three venues and provides employment for over 16 people, including four trainee teachers appointed from within the communities it serves.

Project Aims and Objectives
The overriding aim of the Jikeleza Dance Project is to add value to and improve the quality of life of children and youth from the impoverished target communities through creative dance and music interventions, which are simultaneously aimed at uplifting and empowering its young beneficiaries.

The specific objectives of the dynamic, developmentally based Jikeleza Dance Project are to: 

  • Identify, nurture and develop talent, and to create opportunities to pursue a career either in the performing arts arena itself or as educators;
  • Provide a safe, healthy and creative environment for extramural activities, which assists children and young people to achieve a sense of purpose, discourages anti-social behaviour and helps to keep them off the streets;
  • Teach essential life skills (a strong, healthy sense of self, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-discipline and cooperation) through dance and music which are acknowledged art forms that promote healing and encourage self-expression, the experience of which invariably results in a very real sense of personal achievement and triumph;
  • Create positive role models;
  • Provide performance opportunities for young dancers and musicians;
  • Set artistic standards to aspire towards;
  • Provide teaching opportunities for trainee teachers from target communities;Encourage and nurture an appreciation and understanding of the performing arts and South Africa’s rich cultural heritage;
  • Provide the impetus for children and young people to rise above disheartening circumstances and to redirect their energy towards positive life goals;
  • Utilise dance and music to integrate historically divided communities; and
  • Utilise dance and music to raise awareness of the burning issues of the day. Performance pieces to date have dealt with HIV/Aids, woman and child abuse, substance abuse and crime.

Foster-care program
During 2003 a group of boys from the Learn-to-Live Program for street youth in Green Point showed considerable talent and dedication and began attending more regular, intensive training at the studio in Hout Bay, where they became integrated with the children from the Hout Bay communities. Jikeleza subsequently placed four boys in foster care, enrolled them at schools in Hout Bay and secured foster-care grants for them.

Staging of performances
Regular income-producing performances have enabled the project to achieve a high level of self-sustainability in a relatively short time. The project has raised a considerable percentage of its own funding through performances.

These performances provide quality entertainment and a sense of immense pride for the beneficiary communities, exhibit the wide range of styles and high standards of tuition enjoyed by the young beneficiaries, showcase the work of emerging young choreographers and provide the young participants with an immense sense of pride and accomplishment.

Youth development
To ensure the long-term sustainability of the program, Jikeleza has appointed trainee teachers from within the beneficiary communities. To date Jikeleza trainees have been placed with the University of Cape Town School of Dance, La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre and Jazzart Contemporary Dance Theatre.

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Whatever affect one directly, affects all indirectly, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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