VIDEO: The best dance school in SA

In just eight months the Jozi Youth Dance Company (JYDC) in Northcliff has produced dancers worthy of the world championships nationally and internationally.

The school, founded by dancer and choreographer Jayd Swart, took part in the Dance World Cup South Africa 2015, where they competed with more than 20 schools countrywide to qualify for the world championships in Romania.

“Every single one of our dancers qualified, we had 17 girls and one boy competing. They will be part of the South African team going to Romania in June,” said Swart.

Swart said more than 500 dancers competed in Pretoria.

Two of the dancers, Daniel McLean and Somer February, were sponsored by the competition to compete in Romania and, to top it all off, JYDC were crowned the best dance school in South Africa.

Team SA already has a proven track record after winning the world championships last year, and Swart said she is more than excited to be part of the team representing the country.

The JYDC is made up of dancers from the Lesley Angove School of Dancing and currently has 34 dancers.

“We hold auditions before we accept students and they come from different parts of the province. Our aim is to try and get children dancing at a professional level. We have dancers from as young as six years old to 24 years old. The students dance every day for three hours,” said Swart.

Swart started choreographing at just 14 years old, and has been dancing since she was three years old.

“At the national championships there was tap dancing, hip-hop and other categories. Out of all those dancers and categories, we still won best schools even though we only took part in two disciplines (ballet and contemporary). That is amazing.”