SA dancers give Paris a taste of SA flavour

Less than two months ago, 26-year-old Lee-Shane Booysen was crowned the 2019 Red Bull Dance Your Style champion. The competition saw the best street dancers in the country go head to head at Newtown’s Music Factory for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent South Africa in Paris.

“The competition was an absolutely breathtaking experience for me. Being able to win the finals was a life-changing opportunity for me. It’s something that I’ve been working towards for almost my whole career,” Booysen said.

Booysen is set to represent the country on the world stage against top-tier street dancers from 30 other countries. With South Africa being known for a unique fusion of culture which has its expression in music and the arts, this year’s Red Bull Dance Your Style South African finals were no different, as each battle exchanged the diverse and different number of styles that exist in street dance.

Last year’s winner, Teboho ‘Tebza’ Diphehlo is set to take on Paris alongside Booysen. Winning the first-ever Red Bull Dance Your Style competition in 2018, Diphehlo won the crowd over with moves that went beyond his trademark pantsula style and saw him give Parisians and the globe a taste of kasi flavour. “It was a good experience. It was my first time performing on such a big platform and representing is’pantsula and the continent as a whole.
“This time around, there’s so much that I’m looking forward to. When I was there it was a different experience and not a competition now that it’s a competition it’s going to be challenging because there are people who I look up to.”

Diphehlo said the opportunity did not only open up doors for him but was a step in the right direction for pantsula dancers to put their foot in the global street dance scene – pushing the local and international audience and dancers to take the dance form more seriously.

“There a lot of people making a living through dance and I’m also making a living through is’pantsula. It might be short career but many people survive from it. The dance form becomes an option for people who don’t excel academically to make a living.”

Speaking on the state of South Africa’s dance scene, Booysen said the industry was headed towards a better place and wanted to be at the forefront of street dance’s evolution. “Dance is everything to me.”