Music
Indigenous Dance Academy are putting township youths on the right path by making them think with their feet.
For many kids living in South Africa, positive lifestyle options are thin on the ground.
In Tembisa, a large township in Gauteng, for example, kids have to contend with high unemployment, drugs and alcohol abuse, petty crime, teenage pregnancy and peer pressure... Making a wrong choice is all too easy for them.
In an attempt to stem the tide of anti-social behaviour, Jarrel Mathebula and his partner Neo Sebete founded the Indigenous Dance Academy in 2015.
Faced with a lack of art centres and after-school activities, IDA have started a movement that gives young people who are excluded from learning due to poverty, political unrest or discrimination, a creative outlet.
Since forming, the crew have won awards, built a rehearsal space and given hundreds of kids aged 4-21 a grounding in dance. Additionally, the core crew members all have their own social projects – for example, one mentors young people in maths, another runs photography workshops.
Indigenous Dance Academy have been working with Red Bull Amaphiko to spread the word of their great work. Discover more in the film above.
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