Street Beat Dance Festival held in Fleurhof
UTM Dance Production won as the best Mapiano group and Gomora Future Stars won as the best Mapantsula group.
After the call was made for Amapantsula, Hip-Hop and Amapiano dance groups from all Gauteng regions to do battle at the 2022 Street Beat Dance Festival, organisers Matthews Manamela and Shantel Selepe prepared the perfect platform for local talent to shine.
In association with the National Arts Council (NAC), Saturday, November 26 saw the much-anticipated dance festival get underway at the Fleurhof Recreation Centre.
The programme was launched in 2015 in partnership with Dance Umbrella Festival at Wits Theatre.
According to Manamela who is the Project Manager, the aim was to create a platform to uplift street dance and allow it to compete with the mainstream dance platform.
“It was a great success and definitely had to host this project again, thanks to the NAC for funding this project,” said Manamela.
An online audition was held where groups sent their 30 minutes videos, and then adjudicators selected 31 groups to partake in the main festival, the groups competed for a prize of R5000 per genre.
UTM Dance Production won as the best Mapiano group and Gomora Future Stars won as the best Mapantsula group.
Manamela said that the festival was successful due to the fact that it was happening for the first time in Fleurhof as there are very few cultural activities particularly for young people.
“We had a great audience from the surrounding and also Police Crime Prevention Units represented by the Station Commander from Florida police station. Also, we had groups coming from different areas around Gauteng as well as a group from Rustenburg. We are hoping to host it as an annual festival for two days so that we give our participants enough opportunity to showcase their talent. For the festival to happen as an annual event we need funding and support from various stakeholders even businesses around Fleurhof,” said Manamela.
