January 2023 Trip to South Africa

By Kristine Elliott

In January 2023, I traveled to South Africa for four weeks for Gugulethu Ballet Project’s annual teaching trip. This trip is an opportunity to connect with the schools and dancers we support, to discover new ways we can help and nurture talent, to identify promising dancers, to collaborate and create across the different communities we work in, and to expose dancers to different ways of dancing and learning. I was joined on this trip by Nathan Bartman and Ciara Baldwin, two extremely talented dancers and choreographers who have been former recipients of Gugulethu Ballet Project’s support in South Africa and are our long-time colleagues based in London.

We spent the first week teaching at the MN Foundation in Ugie, Eastern Cape. Mbulelu Ndabeni is the director and founder of the MN Foundation, which he balances with a full time job in England directing Phoenix Dance Theatre. His objective is to split his time between England and Ugie and use part of the money he is earning with Phoenix Dance Theatre to support the Foundation.

Ugie continues to be a very challenging place. It is very rural, traditional, and remote. The people have limited exposure to different cultures or ways of life. The kids were eager, talented, and bright; always ready to learn and to be helpful. It is worthy of our support as a new school. 

The second week, we taught at Dancescape in Zolani township in the Western Cape and at First Step Ballet in MacGregor. Nathan and Ciara choreographed a piece for the two schools to perform together, along with composing the music–a choral song performed live by the Zolani Youth Choir. This was an amazing collaboration and cultural exchange. The First Step Ballet students in MacGregor are a mostly colored community. The Dancescape school in Zolani is a Black community. They haven’t overlapped or had any reason to dance together. It is always unusual to put these still quite segregated groups together, and it was a joy to see the young dancers making friendships and being curious. There was no tension between the groups, and it was a very sweet and very wonderful collaboration. 

A dancer at First Step in MacGregor.

The dancers did two performances, one in Zolani and one in MacGregor, to different results. In Zolani, the crowd was thin, composed of some parents and a few friends, but most of the parents had to work. In MacGregor, the performance sold out 125 seats to mostly white people who were interested in their community dancing. View videos from the performance below:

At the end, we had a pizza party for the children. We’d promised each child they would get their own 10-inch personal pizza, and the pizza shop could only handle 40 pizzas at a time, so the pizzas came in waves. The children waited patiently for their individual pizzas rather than share with each other to eat sooner–so that they could bring their individual pizzas home to share with their family. It was a mixture of heartbreaking and heartwarming to see these kids who were really hungry wanting to save their pizza to share with their family. 

The third and fourth week we spent in Cape Town, working with the Jazzart Dance Theatre trainees and company. Jazzart recently hired eighteen trainees to their three-year training programme, four of whom we support: Chuma Mathiso, Milisa Mathiso, Phelo Ngxukuma, and Thimna Ndwe. Jazzart is the premier contemporary dance company in Cape Town. The four trainees we support trained at our partner school Dancescape in Zolani, and three have been past recipients of Gugulethu Ballet Project’s support to study at Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s summer intensive in San Francisco. We’re proud to facilitate their transition from students to pre-professional dancers. Our support helps with their housing, groceries, transportation, and dance supplies. 

Chuma Mathiso, Kristine Elliott,  Milisa Mathiso, Phelo Ngxukuma, and Thimna Ndwe at Jazzart.

At each school, I taught ballet repertoire choreographed by Harriet Clark of the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. 

I also identified the need of one little boy, Endinako Dyan, for medical attention to address his crossed eyes. On May 18th, Endinako Dyan’s eye surgery took place to correct his strabismus (crossed eyes). It was a same day surgery, and the doctor was very pleased with the outcome. This success was a huge team effort to find a doctor in Cape Town and make the necessary appointments and arrangements, a testament to the strength of the dance community in South Africa.  

Endinako before and after his eye surgery.

Thank you to all of Gugulethu Ballet Project’s supporters, who make our work possible. Together we have helped to build a community where children can grow up safely, travel far pursuing their dreams, and return to South Africa to inspire the next generation of young dancers. 

Sincerely,

Kristine Elliott

Director, Gugulethu Ballet Project

Building Pride through Dance