GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Local dancers and singers recently impressed at a national level with brilliant performances at the 2022 South African Championship of Performing Arts (Sacopa), bringing home a vast number of medals.
Arancha Fortuin (26) from Sedgefield earned three bronze medals in the vocal section. Uné van Zyl (32), a dance teacher from Uné Dance Studio in Knysna, competed along with her dance learners Katelyn Hofmann (12), Izabella Belcher (12), Chantelle Krige (17), Lomso Xokozela (13), and Abby Erasmus (24) – all from Knysna.
Between these six dancers they raked in a brilliant total of 27 medals. Uné, Lomso, Chantelle, Katelyn and Izabella each received three silver and two bronze medals. Abby meanwhile received one silver and one bronze medal.
The Sacopa competition was held between 30 September and 8 October in Rustenburg, bringing together the country's best performing artists.
"Considering the fact that there were about 3 000 entries received for the competition, with about 17 000 stage items, this is an incredible haul for our district," said Annerie Snyman, one of Sacopa's district directors in the Garden Route.
The Knysna and Sedgefield stars are not the only ones from the Garden Route who attended Sacopa, and a total of 11 participants were chosen to take part in the world championships in Los Angeles, of which 10 require their own funding or a sponsorship.
Costs amount to roughly R120 000 per participant.
For more information you can contact Elmarie Grobler (district director) on 082 496 2842 or Karen Kretschmer (agent) on 073 056 0662.
Arancha Fortuin
Members of the Uné Dance Studio group. From left: Izabella Belcher, Chantelle Krige, Uné van Zyl (front), Katelyn Hofmann and Lomso Xokozela.
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