KZN DANCELINK

KZN dance organisation back on track!

After some heart-stopping months where its activities were on "pause", KZN DanceLink is back on track, thanks to funding from the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund and the KZN Arts and Culture Council.

“Thankfully this means our valuable youth dance programmes such as Giyani Lusha and Imbumba can continue this year,” said chairman Lynn Maree.

KZN DanceLink was launched in 1997 following the closure of the Playhouse Dance Department. Its former director Lynn Maree identified the need for a networking body that would raise the profile of dance in the province. "After meeting with dance teachers, choreographers, performers and supporters, we realised that we needed to find ways to work together as part of our new nationhood,” she said. “It was a case of bundles of sticks rather than single straws. It has sometimes been rocky in terms of funding delays, but most worthwhile and enriching for us all.”

After presenting its Durban Dance Awards in 2008, DanceLink had exhausted its three-year funding from the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund. "We were rescued by a grant from the National Arts Council in 2009, which enabled us to hold Giyani Lusha in July, make our KZN DanceLink Durban Dance Awards in October and keep the phone bill paid and the website alive."

The organisation has now secured three-year funding from the National Lotteries Board as well as a grant from KZN ACC for this year towards their weekly dance workshops in children's homes and their performance showcase Imbumba.

With one of its mandates being to nurture young talent and stimulate a love of dance, DanceLink has already begun running dance workshops at Durban Children's Home, God's Golden Acre and the Aryan Benevolent Home’s orphanage. Children from these workshops will join others from around 15 dance groups in KZN to perform in the annual Giyani Lusha production at the Durban beachfront on July 25. With choreographers still to be chosen, Giyani Lusha 2010 will show why this vibrant celebration of youth has become such an integral part of Durban's cultural calendar.

Having been put on hold last year, Imbumba is back in November. "This showcase of DanceLink members' work - both youth and professional - covers a vast range of dance, age groups, music and sophistication," says Maree. "This year it will be coupled with a professional production by acclaimed choreographer Lliane Loots featuring guest artists from KZN.”

Hoping to use this platform as part of the 1860 celebrations around the Indian arrival in South Africa and KZN, Loots is planning to create a work that she has long dreamed of finding a platform to create. Called bhakti, this dance work will feature the award-winning Flatfoot Dance Company alongside some of KZN's finest classically trained Indian dancers and musicians. In a devotional celebration, bhakti, will delight dance audiences with its seamless African contemporary fusions and storytelling.

KZN Dance Link is also helping to fund dance outreach programmes Cato Manor Vibe and the KwaMashu School of Dance. The annual Durban Dance Awards will also be presented later this year. The KZN DanceLink Board is Lynn Maree (chairman), Peter Taylor (treasurer), Ntombi Gasa, Suria Govender, Lliane Loots, Smeeta Maharaj, and Vasugi Singh.