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A life-long passion for dance
has allowed Craig Bullock and Nicki Wiggett to help youth across the country
shine and build their self-esteem.
The pair co-founded the Dance
School Sports League (DSSL) which recognises dance as a sporting discipline in
the South African school system – this in turn allows pupils to get involved in
dance as an extra mural activity.
DSSL is endorsed by the DanceSport SA, World Dance Sport
Federation and SASCOC to address the need for a formal, recognised
platform. Through the DSSL students have the opportunity to obtain school
colours, provincial colours and eventually be part of an official
“Protea” dance team who will be able to compete at the Olympics and other
international events.
Bullock, also the chairman of
the DSSL and owner of DanceWed Studios in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, is a dance
and music fanatic and five time Street Dance World champion choreographer and
coach.
“The youth of this country inspire me to be
the best at what I do. You will find me at DanceWeb everyday, teaching,
coaching, choreographing hip hop, new school and salsa. This DSSL is the next step in bringing dance
to the people and I am loving being instrumental in making this happen,”
said Bullock.
Nicki Wigget, also the
national secretary, has a history as a ballet dancer and performed at the
Artscape Theatre in various shows including the annual Nutcracker Suite.
“Together with Craig Bullock we established the
Dance Sport School League in 2015 to inspire the youth to put on their sneakers
and dance for their school, province and country. South Africa has a rich
history of dance culture. Dance has been and continues to be one of the
richest forms of self-expression and has taken on many forms. Bringing dance in
as a sport allows children of all sizes, shapes and ethnicities to participate
in a sport and eventually represent their country
16.0pt">,” said Wiggett.
She said dance
has the ability to be judged and regulated fully as would a sport such as
hockey or soccer making it fully viable.
16.0pt">
“It is a
sport that encourages character building and attitude while still providing the
physical activity and technical skill that is needed in a fully regulated sport, aside from bringing people of
different socio-economic background together, sports can assist in building a
national identity,” said
Wiggett.
She said with
South Africa’s long history of segregation and its huge economic gap between
rich and poor which has caused a great deal of unrest- the role of sport in the
country is crucial.
“Sport has been shown
to foster social integration as it builds relationships between groups of
people through sport's non- verbal means of communication, it is a means to
engage in a collective experience as well as establishing direct physical
contact which surpasses class divisions,” she said.
Currently the DSSL
is set up in 14 KwaZulu
Natal schools, 10 Gauteng schools
and five Western Cape schools with more than 1400 pupils competing.
There is also hope that various countries in Asia and
Europe will follow suite, someday making the DSSL an international competitive
sport.
“I
strongly believe that dance and more especially, street dance can unite kids no
matter what age, gender or size – building self-esteem and creating a healthier
society in more ways than one. Our
ultimate goal is to be in all provinces in S
16.0pt">outh Africa and
to be accessible to all schools
no matter their financial status. We
also want to spread to all countries and pupils around the world. Craig and I
are currently in negotiations
with UK, Netherlands and Beijing
to come on board for 2018,” said
Wiggett.
She explained that once a school signs up, workshops are
run and external or internal coaches and adjudicators are trained how to teach
dance and run fixtures through a curriculum.
Once this happens, fixtures are held at least once a
week.
“As other sports have a weekly game hosted by various
schools – so do we. The aim is to have three schools compete each week – hosted
by alternating schools. The fixture lasts about two hours and there are three
adjudicators who decide on placements of dancers through a process of rounds –
first, quarter, semi and final. Dancers also have their choreographed solos
which they dance against other dancers in their age group, which start from U9
to an open category,” said Wiggett.
She said next up is trials for the provincial teams for a
tournament that will take place in Durban on June 29 to July 2.
“We aim to ensure that our dancers are chosen to
represent their schools, their district, their province and their country –
based on talent only – it is immaterial to which school you attend or your
financial status. The best dancers will get through,” she said.
*For more details on how schools can join the DSSL, visit
www.dssl.co.za or contact Nicki Wiggett on
082 856 7666 or email [email protected]
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