Parkhill Gardens teen Aimee Botes (13) recently returned home from a successful trip to the USA.
The Germiston City News told her and her siblings, Tammi and Kyle’s, story last year (GCN, November 21, 2014).
Tammi and Kyle had been raising money to attend the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi, Japan, and Aimee funds to attend the ARTS (Applause Rising Talent Showcase) in Orlando, Florida.
After successfully raising sufficient funds through the generosity of the public, as well as personal funding, Aimee was one of 78 South Africans who participated at the 16th annual ARTS.
“It was a phenomenal experience filled with seminars, competitions in dancing, singing, modelling and acting, as well as personal critiques from agents and information about the industry,” explained Aimee’s mother Vanessa.
Aimee carefully chose seven, out of the 11 categories available to participate in, which included singing, dancing, acting and modelling.
She was elated to discover that she had received three call backs from Hiromo Tashiro from World Top Model Tokyo, Roger Del Pozo from New York Film Academy and Michael Wallach from Michael Wallach Management.
“It is a lovely variety of agencies that she received call backs from, all of which went exceptionally well,” Vanessa said.
“Aimee also attended the interview session where she had the pleasure of meeting James Pentaudi of Albany Talent, who mentioned he would be keen to see her in his play when he brings it to South Africa.
“She also received feedback from Click Models, Frontier Booking, FunnyFace Today, Lily’s Talent, Gar Lester Agencies, Premier Artists and Atlantic Records, who asked her to send in a raw video.”
Aimee is currently working on the video with her singing coach, Nico Goosen of Anua Performing Arts School in Benoni.
Since returning to South Africa, Aimee has an even deeper passion and drive to pursue her career within the entertainment industry.
Aimee plans to continue building her brand locally through dance shows, plays, and TV/film work, all while enjoying her studies at the National School of the Arts, where she is a Grade Eight student.
She hopes to take up the New York Film Academy’s offer to study there when she is a bit older.
“The ARTS convention has been a life changing event, and the artists that went across with her are now part of her extended family.
“She has made friends with artists from around the world.
“This experience will stay with her for the rest of her life and has helped chart her course,” Vanessa said with pride.
Aimee thanked everyone who helped her on this journey including Elsubie and Jeff Verlinden, Elouise Janse van Rensburg, Nico Goosen, Paul Kershaw, Kim and Rick Myers, the crew and staff involved in the ARTS convention, as well as all the thousands of people who donated and cheered her on in this experience, and who continue to help her to pursue her dreams.
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