Dancers to represent Mzansi at Edinburgh Festival

• Published date: 25 November 2021
• Author: Tamlynne Thompson tamlynne.thompson@inl.co.za
• Publication title: Vukani

Four dancers from Scotland will visit South Africa at the same time, and will form part of a programme put together by the Artscape.

Recently, Edinburgh Festival Carnival manager, Giles Agis, visited from Scotland to meet and engage with the dancers, Mthetheleli Dlakavu from Khayelitsha, and Siphosetu Gojo from Nyanga, who will be flying to Scotland in May next year.

The relationship between the Artscape and Mr Agis goes back 20

years when he met Artscape chief executive officer, Marlene le Roux, over coffee, and discussed the idea of having an artist exchange programme, to broaden the experience of artists from other countries, and have them perform on an international stage.

At the time, Mr Agis was the CEO of Brouhaha International, which, in partnership with Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, has been sending youth to Liverpool, Scotland, Netherlands and Zambia as part of the Brouhaha partnership where funding has been secured by Mr Agis to cover 70% to 100% of all costs.

Art forms considered by the programme include dance, music, puppetry, poetry, circus arts, costume-making, videography, photography and art project co-ordinators and managers.

Mr Agis was appointed as the Edinburgh Festival Carnival manager in 2019 as part of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues festival in Scotland, and the programme was continued until the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

This year, the programme was resumed and in 2022, Ms Gojo and Mr Dlakavu will attend workshops, have exposure to behind-the-scenes work at the carnival, engage in community arts, and perform at the carnival’s street parade.

The residencies are funded through the European Commission’s capacity building in the field of youth programmes and the UK government’s global programme to study and work abroad, called the Turing Scheme.

Mr Agis said South Africa was the first stop of the project, which includes another eight countries: Zambia, Ghana, Cuba, America, India, Brazil, Trinidad and Costa Rica.

He said the programme allowed for 28 spaces to be filled over the nine countries, across art forms, and an open call went out to cultural and community organisations.

“Our focus is on marginalised artists who haven't had the opportunity to have tertiary education, communities of colour and disabled artists – so people who are under-represented in the UK as part of addressing the inequalities in the arts industry.”

Artscape project manager, Toberin Meyer, said the Artscape also put out a call for artists after receiving...