In just over a week, the Sandton Convention Centre, for the first time in Gauteng, will play host to Rumba in the Jungle, the biggest dance festival ever in Africa, which makes its debut at the centre from September 20 to 22.
“Rumba in the Jungle has been identified with a series of other brands to collaborate in the 50th anniversary celebration of Rumble in the Jungle (Congo), Fight for Peace. This collaboration clearly demonstrate that the event is destined to become Africa’s annual grand slam,” says the chairperson of TTT Foundation, which is the implementing agency of the Rumba in the Jungle International Dance Festival.
During its prime time of 1991 to 1999, dance was classified as the third most popular leisure and life style activity after soccer and rugby. At the same time, Gauteng was highly regarded as the preferred tourists’ destination in the country.
Coincidently, the provincial government’s tourism slogan ‘Explore #Gauteng’ calls all and sundry to visit this beautiful province of love and harmony.
Rumba in the Jungle incorporates the full spectrum of dance such as ballroom, Latin American and African traditional dances. The competition is open to all dancers from novice to professional level. It also encompasses all age groups from juvenile (under 6 years) up to senior level (over 34 years).
Notably, many of the invited adjudicators will remember the days when they too were still aspirant dance students competing for the World Dance Championships title as competitors in Rumba in the Jungle. They will be narrating their own stories, imparting their many years of dance sport experience to the new Rumba in the Jungle generation at this year’s championship.
The three-day thrill is expected to provide more than what one could ask for. With a programme laden with competition, craft and design market, fashion, tourism and development workshops and lectures by prominent names such as Neville Matjie, Tyrone Watkins, Salome Sechele, Tatiana Trilisky, Keabetswe Ramocha, Sammy Vianna, Lenore Goss-Matatjie, Nombulelo Nhlathi and Thapelo Ramathape, the Sandton Convention Centre will be ‘lit’.
Tickets are available from Computicket.
The Star