Two young local dancers representing the Eastern Cape, Oluhle c Shode and Othandwayo Mzamo took third place at the Arnold Classic Africa. which took place in Sandton last weekend.
Shode and Mzamo left Port Alfred last Wednesday, started off with rehearsals on Thursday and Friday, then danced in competitions on Saturday and Sunday.
The young couple, who are from BLD Dance Sports Club in Nemato, participated in two junior dance categories, representing the EP Dance Club. In the first completion, they came in third place doing ballroom and Latin dance and received bronze medals. Then they participated in a provincial team match and came second dancing the cha-cha.
Their coach Azisa Shode expressed his happiness and how proud he was of them the entire weekend, saying they showed enthusiasm throughout the completion.
“I must say it’s a huge achievement for people who had little time to practice because they only practice three days a week if they are available. They have been recently partnered but they work so well together. As their coach I must say they made us really proud, the competition was tough because they were competing with other juniors from other provinces as well,” Shode said.
“They were also very happy to be part of this competition and they are very happy with the outcomes as well. They were very happy to leave the competition with medals,” he said.
They soon will be participating in other competitions. On June 28-29 they will be in the World Trials in Cape Town, then on December 13-15, they will be competing in the South African Championships at the ICC in Durban.
“For the coming competitions, I guess we are going to practice much harder and invest a lot of our time in the dancing. We are already looking forward to the competitions, and as their coach I am happy for them because they get to learn and travel all over at such a young age,” Shode said.
