24 Jun 2015

With traditional dance dominating the dance categories in Botswana, there is clearly need to explore and create awareness on other existing types of dance.

Recently, dance has been accorded recognition as a sporting code in Botswana. Botswana Dance Sport Association (BODANSA) has affiliated with the Botswana National Sport Council (BNSC) in order to nurture dancers to explore their talent and develop the right attitude required for a prosperous society.

Quite often, dance activities are concentrated in Gaborone and there is a need to establish clubs in other areas around Botswana, especially, Francistown which seems to be lagging behind in terms of talent explorations, hence the establishment of the Unified Dance Academy.

Speaking in an interview recently, the Director of the Unified Dance Academy, Tebogo Gaseitsiwe explained that the idea behind the formation of the academy lies not only in exploiting other leisure activities but also to stimulate the Francistown Community to embrace dance as a sport.

She said dancing has always been her passion since high school and ever since then she searched for ways to immerse herself in the dance industry that is so versatile.

During her stay in Francistown, she said, she looked for a club to join and continue dancing, unfortunately there was no dance club.

Faced with such circumstances, she came up with an idea to open a club which started operations in February 2015.

Not only did she decide to launch the club because she longed to dance, but also because she is concerned about the rate at which children are attacked by chronic illnesses that include diabetes as  a result of lack of physical exercise which dance sport provides.

Also, she highlighted that seeing young people loitering with no purpose in life challenged her to do something that can benefit them.

Although she had a challenge finding a place to operate, she eventually managed to overcome this hurdle and now operates an academy which proudly has 38 children, four adults and 10 youth as registered members.

She said the reason why there is a large number of children than any other group is because children are her target age group.

“I believe talent should be nurtured at a tender age and children have the capacity and the potential to have a lifetime commitment unlike adults who often become held up and fail to commit to dance,” she explained

She noted that the services offered by the academy are Latin which has a lot of rhythm and movement and ballroom.

This, she said, offers the community of Francistown to also enjoy diverse subcategories of dance which include Cha-cha, Waltz, Jive, Rumba, Samba, Paso Doble, Waltz, Quickstep, Tango Viennese Waltz and Fox trot.Lessons for these classes, she asserted, are offered by two qualified Batswana coaches.

Gaseitsiwe highlighted that children’s sessions are held five days a week at P250 while for adults come for three days per week at a cost of P295. Also, she mentioned that lessons are held in the mornings and the afternoons for three hours per session.

She also mentioned that like any other club, she encounters challenges every day. The problem, she explained, is that attire for dance is quite costly and is not readily available anywhere nearby.

She explained that the attire is ordered from as far as China and noted that this is financially straining. On other issues, she said people are quick and excited to join but along the way their commitment and excitement wanes.

The fact that females dominate the list of registered members also causes a concern, she added. In an attempt to resolve such challenges, she has partnered with Twinsy who designs patterns requested and hires the attires at a relatively affordable price.

Gaseitsiwe also noted that whenever females register, she encourages them to bring along their partners and experience dance first hand.

Moreover, she explained, the Unified Dance Academy not only visits other dance clubs to interact, learn and strengthen the spirit of dance, they also make their sessions interesting and fun-filled.

With Satellite Primary School being the only school that has dance in Francistown, she felt that little has been done to encourage awareness, therefore, in an attempt to raise awareness about dance in the city, the Unified Dance Academy will host a launching show this Saturday.

She said that the line-up includes the award winning ballroom dancer, Ngwao Lenkwetse who has promised the audience a dazzling performance.

Also invited to witness the memorable event are representatives from National Development Bank (NDB), BOCCIM and Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL) to mention a few.
Tati River Lodge (TRL) she noted will host this show which will start at 7pm and tickets for the event go for P200 per person and are already available at TRL, Francistown Club, Khumon Center and Clifton school.

So far, she noted that already 200 tickets have been sold, Ms Tebogo expects the event to not only be a success, but to be the entertainment highlight of the year.

She urges Francistowners to attend the elegant event and witness a dazzling performance that they have never seen before. Ends