Achievements
The Kim Field Dance Academy is one of the leading dance schools in South Africa. Of the many varied dance styles taught, the most popular and most successful style currently pursued is Hip Hop.
At the beginning of 2001, the school selected the first group of dancers who possessed above-average dance skills, from within the school and formed The Brat Pack. This team represented South Africa in 2001 when they went to Italy and competed in the Grand Prix Italia Festival against other dance groups from all over the world. Their performance outclassed the other competitors and The Brat Pack (South Africa) brought home gold medals in five categories.
In April 2004, a new team traveled to Barcelona, Spain and competed in the Barcelona Grand Prix Festival. Once again, they came home with gold medals.
After these successes, the school decided to take a much larger team to Prague to compete in the New Prague Dance Festival in July 2006. The team consisted of 56 Hip Hop dancers whose ages ranged from 7 to 19 years of which 11 children were from our outreach programme. There were 47 teams from around the world competing against each other in all forms of dance: ballet, modern, Spanish, tap, contemporary, Hip Hop etc. The Kim Field Dance Academy was the only school from South Africa to compete in this competition and the children were therefore, the representatives of their country. The team performed very well in Prague and were awarded first place in the Hip Hop category, second place overall for choreography, third place overall for costumes and the principal of the school came second overall for pedagogy. Two of the senior children received individual merit awards and the outreach group received the director’s award. We were all very proud of these achievements.
In March 2008, another new group of 30 talented dancers from the school including children from disadvantaged communities represented the South African team: The Brat Pack at the Montenegro Dance Festival competition in Kotor, Montenegro, competing against other groups from all over the world. The ages of these dancers ranged from 9 to 21 years. Yet again, the Kim Field Academy came out on top by winning the Grand Prix trophy as overall winners of the competition.
During the annual Prague Dance Festival held in the Czech Republic in the first week of July 2010 the South African team, The Brat Pack, once again participated against teams from across the globe. A stellar performance by our awesome young talent secured the first place trophy in the Jazz / Hip Hop category whilst our youngest dancer, Nthando George, aged only 7 at the time, received a special director’s award for the most promising young talent. This proved once again how much talent there is in South Africa and how hard work and dedication as well as a correct foundation under experienced instructors can help develop this talent to a world class level.
TV, Film and Ad Castings, Theatre and Radio
Pupils have appeared on television five times during the past year. They were invited by TV Teleschool to do dance demonstrations and teacher and pupils were also interviewed.
On Kideo Star program, the junior trio group was chosen out of all the Kideo programmes, to appear on Japanese Television.
Pupils have been in the press four times during the past year for outstanding achievements. They received 18 gold medals in the Festival Dance competition for 1995. They did stage performances at the Waterfront, Fourways Mall, Sandton Square and Southgate Mall. They were also the guest performers at the graduation ball for The Academy of Learning.
Stage Shows
- Invited to perform at “Dance Italia 2000″ in Italy
- SAFA Expo sponsored by Adidas
- “Urban Brew” Yo TV
- “Fiz Pop” dance advert
- KTV production for Devreaux, Harris and Associates
- “Lollipop Maniacs” for E-TV broadcasts every Saturday during 1999 for Red Pepper Productions
- “Wimpy” TV commercials currently running for Fresh Eye Productions
- Synchronised dance routines for TV commercial “Fruit d’O-Bubble” Picture Productions.
