Performing artists to showcase talents at inclusivity arts festival
Pinky, also known as 'First Lady', will do a duet performance with singer Luke Robertson, together with wheelchair-bound dancers, Kyle Bowles and Bheki Khotsolo, among other performances.
AS we commemorate National Disability Rights Awareness Month, various artists are getting to take stage and showcase their talent at the second annual Durban Inclusivity Arts Festival (DIAF).
The event, which is hosted by the Wentworth Arts and Culture Organisation (WACO), a pioneering NPO for the arts, is set to take place at the Transhaven Centre, situated at 51 Treasure Beach Road, on November 26, starting at 14:00.
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The festival, which is supported by the Amafa Institute and National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESE) for arts and culture, will showcase a variety of artistic talents in singing, dance, drama and poetry performances by people living with disabilities.
Jarryd Watson, an artistic director and founder of the Dance Movement project, which is administered under WACO, said their special-needs disabled training and development programme started in 2016.
He said the aim of the programme is to enable people living with disabilities to have access to dance and the arts, as well as skills development that can empower them to perform in mainstream performing arts and create employment for themselves.
“I always said that the arts are such a powerful tool, which can be used to make a difference in society. Furthermore, through our dance movement special-needs disability project, we have created so many opportunities in the arts space, working with the various disabilities, like the wheelchair-bound, the visually impaired, the deaf and people who have albinism.
“Over the past eight years, our artists with disabilities have travelled to Cape Town and Johannesburg to do projects with us, and we have given them platforms to start businesses, which have created jobs for themselves and others living with disabilities. I am so proud to be able to have the second instalment of the festival as it is an indication of our success and the growth of our disability project,” he said.
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Some of the featuring artists who will be adding to the vibrancy of the festival include singer and dancer, Pinky, also known as ‘First Lady’, who will do a duet performance with singer Luke Robertson, together with wheelchair-bound dancers, Kyle Bowles and Bheki Khotsolo. Bowles and Khotsolo will perform a dance piece entitled, Medicine.
Ticket prices are R50. For more information on ticket bookings or the festival, contact Watson on 082 683 9665. All proceeds to go towards the development of the project.
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