In 2011 Esther Mkhwanazi’s granddaughter Busisiwe Mkhwanazi came home from school and announced that she wanted to start dancing. Initially Esther was hesitant but soon realised there were a number of children who wanted to dance but couldn’t afford the fees. She paid the instructor to come to her house every week and teach 4 children to dance.
When Ester realised that dancing kept the children off the streets and instilled a positive attitude in them, she persuaded the instructor to teach at Boitelo School, where she taught, until she retired in 2017.
Maluti Arts Theatre
Qwa-Qwa is surrounded by the beautiful Maluti mountain range. This range was the inspiration for the name of the Maluti Arts Theatre, a non-profit organisation, registered in April 2015.
In May 2015 Esther, Ntheba & Majarwa did a road trip to Durban KwaZulu Natal, with the children, to observe the South African Masters Competition. This competition motivated them enormously. In November 2015 the children entered their 1st competition in Ladybrand, Free State.
By January their coach had moved to another province. Nadia & Zoë Coen drove through to Qwa Qwa for the 1st time. They scheduled monthly visits, with the children practicing on their own in between.
Nicola Lafferty of World Dance Masters, started collecting “no-longer-used” dance costumes and dance shoes all over UK, USA and Europe.
The generosity of the dancers over the years has been overwhelming and seeing all the development dancers benefit from these donations has been fantastic.
Who doesn’t want to feel special and wear “fancy” dance outfits when they compete? Some of these costumes are on their 5th rotation and are carefully looked after by various custodians around South Africa.
New Dance Workshop September 2018
Zoë asked Noel Roos (Licentiate Instructor & Adjudicator) to assist her with the 1st workshop given in QwaQwa. It was open to anyone wanting to attend and was held at the Charles Mopeli Stadium. Over 130 children from various schools attended. Suddenly the group of 12 grew exponentially.
Zoë continues to visit Qwa Qwa monthly. The dancers have also had workshops with World Dance Masters International Instructors & Adjudicators, Jessica Devlin & Shane McKeever
LDSA Mountain Challenge
In June 2019 the first LDSA competition was held in QwaQwa. Together with dancers from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal & Free State, students from 4 QwaQwa schools participated. It was a great success and will become an annual event.
Young people from all provinces of South Africa are encouraged to dance and compete!
