Dance festival to shake up Durban

AWARD-winning choreographer, Jarryd Watson, will be hosting the first annual Durban Dance Movement Festival (DDMF) from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 December at the Catalina Theatre on Wilson’s Wharf.

Set against the backdrop of Durban Harbour, Dance Movement creates a platform for a City dance festival which will be vibrant with showcases from professional dancers, studios, community groups, street groups and youth groups and community performances from dance styles ranging in hip hop, contemporary, street and break dancing. This festival will make Wilson’s Wharf Catalina Theatre the hot place to be this summer.

The dance movement team recently attended the Broadway dance centre (BDC) in New York for intense professional training and performance development workshops with international choreographers best known for their work on the US So You Think You Can Dance series and block buster films Step Up.

During the course of the festival there will be a dance workshop open to dancers to learn new styles like street jazz (hip hop) and contemporary jazz (modern) which are the popular dance styles overseas and are taking the industry by storm.

Jarryd Watson, director of dance movement said, “When I returned to South Africa I felt the importance of sharing my knowledge and skill that I developed at BDC with the dancers of KZN and that’s when the idea of conceptualising the DDMF came to life.

“I felt this would be the best way to showcase what was developed in New York and give the opportunity to fellow dancers to gain that international technique and experience,” Watson.

Over the three-day festival there will be four showcases on Friday 6 December at 7pm, Saturday 7 December 2.30pm, Sunday 8 December 2.30pm and the professionals performances on 7 December at 7pm. The Broadway dance workshop will be on Sunday 8 December 9am to12.30pm at a cost of R50.

Tickets for the festival can be purchased at Computicket for R100. Contact Watson on 082 683 9665.