Secunda dance instructor wants Mpumalanga to honour their promise to this sport

Christiaan Els, dance instructor and CAT and arts and culture teacher at Highveld Park High School, is trying to get more recognition for dancing as a sport.

Els has been giving professional dancing lessons in several different styles for 19 years and he is the vice president of DanceSports Mpumalanga.

He serves on the council of the Mpumalanga Sports Confederation as the acting vice president of administration and he is the chairman of Solo Dance SchoolSports (SDS).

SDS promotes dance as a sport at grassroots level in schools.

Els fell in love with dancing when he went for dancing lessons in his matric year so that he would at least be able to dance at his matric farewell.

After he went for his first few dancing lessons in Potchefstroom, he decided to do his instructor’s course and he began giving dancing lessons part-time when he was 18.

He grew up in Secunda and worked at Sasol as a maintenance operator after he matriculated, but he quickly realised this job was not for him and resigned after six months.

He still gave dancing lessons in the evenings.

Els then studied Business Management and Computing Skills at Damelin College for a year before working at a retail shop that sells matrasses for six months.

“I then decided to become a dance instructor full time,” said Els.

His studio grew from having only one student when he first began to give dance lessons full time and now he has about 60 students.

He had more students at one stage when he travelled to eMalahleni (Witbank), Leandra, Kriel and Bethal, but nowadays, since he began working at the school, he only teaches at three studios.

Secunda is the main studio and Els travels to Standerton and Ermelo weekly to give dancing lessons.

Dancing was introduced into schools as a subject in 2018 and Els helped to organise four national tournaments in four years where dancers were able to get provincial colours in dancing as a sport.

“Most people see dancing as culture, but it is a sport,” said Els.

“I think if you watch a concert, it is culture, but if dancers compete in a competition and it is not a concert that you showcase, then it becomes a sport.”

Els needs to serve on all these organisations because he wants to help to ensure that learners get recognition in schools for their dancing achievements.

His dance groups won numerous prizes at competitions and specifically the Afrikaans television channel, KykNet’s competition, ‘Dans in Jou Taal’.

Els hung up his dancing shoes a long time ago and said he leaves the performances to his students now.

With the Mpumalanga Sports Confederation, Els is battling with the Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation to get money to invest in dancing as a sport in Mpumalanga.

“The sports facilities in Mpumalanga is not up to standard and we are fighting for that.

“Look at the stadium, the grass never gets cut and it is not maintained well.

“The department can spend R86,9 million on a high-performance sports stadium in Belfast, but they cannot give us the R1 million they promised us.”

The Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation, signed a contract with the Mpumalanga Sports Confederation in July 2021 to give them R1 million, but the confederation has not yet received the money.

“We also did not get any money from the Covid relief funds that the government was supposed to give to sports during the lockdown.

“Many people do not realise that sportsmen make their money by doing sports and when the pandemic hit and everything closed down, all sportsmen could not earn salaries,” said Els.

In the meantime, the Mpumalanga Sports Confederation will continue pressing the government to invest more into dancing as a sport.