Durban’s most popular dance showcase, Shall We Dance, is currently celebrating its 26th season this year at the Durban Playhouse Opera Theatre.
And if you haven’t already seen it - you still have a few more days, so hurry up.
The show runs until September 16 and showcases a host of dance styles and at the end, will have you on your feet learning a few moves from world-class dancers.
Infused in the show this year are dance forms like ballroom, hip hop, belly dancing, Bollywood, salsa, line-dance, ballet and even rock n rock.
And you’ll get to see a bunch of new talent enter the stage for their first production.
Mark Wilson, a dancer and choreographer who participated in the very first Shall We Dance stage production says the dancers who partake in Shall We Dance do so purely for the love of dance.
“In the beginning, I was a competitor and did Latin demonstrations with my partner. I also did a bit of comedy in my routines where I ripped of a few celebrities. It’s now grown to be a celebration of different dance cultures infused into one show for audience. I and many other dancers return each year purely because we love it,” said Wilson.
This year, Wilson, who runs his own dance schools in Kloof and Hillcrest, choreographed the opening number of the show and his eight dancers, which includes his 15-year-old daughter, danced the cha cha, salsa, the Lindy hop swing dance and pasodoble.
He said he started planning for the production about five months ago.
“I started planning and visualising the choreography about five months ago. I thought about lifts and drops and how the songs are going to marry up to the dance moved. It’s something that I love doing. Then about four months ago I chose my team and started to rehearse,” said Wilson.
He said the best part about being in the production was watching it grow from strength to strength each year.
“At the beginning, all we had was two palm trees on stage and the cast did their own dances. Now we have set designs, costumes and lighting which is out of this world. Before it was one night, one show - now we have 10 days, which just shows you how many people are interested in watching the show,” he said.
This year's featured couples includes Danish, Nikolaj Lund and Polish, Marta Kocik performing ballroom and Latin, they have dance titles from Denmark, through Europe to Japan and made their first-ever appearance at Shall We Dance.
Local lads Siphosethu Ngcobo from uMlazi and Sibusiso Ndlovu from Ladysmith also made their first appearance.
The young talents will both perform with dancer Madison Bromfield. Ngcobo and Bromfield take to the floor for the Ballroom sequence, while Ndlovu and Bromfield perform the Latin American.
Shall We Dance is truly a spectacular feast of dance. If you haven’t gone yet, you need too!
* Shall We Dance runs until September 16. Tickets for the show are available from Computicket. Show times vary.