The
15th Cape Town Carnival, with the theme “WowZA,” will showcase a
fusion of Amapiano, contemporary, and cultural dance styles, celebrating the
vibrant blend of South African heritage, featuring over 1,500 performers in a
spectacular 1.2 km parade.
Combining Amapiano with contemporary dancing, while pairing Portuguese with Indian dancers, spectators can expect to see it all at the annual Cape Town Carnival parade on Saturday 15 March.
With the theme this year being WowZA, Tracey Carter, Cape Town Carnival performance director, says they are all set and ready to go to give spectators a unique flavour of Cape Town.
“We want to celebrate the different dance styles and bring the wow to that. What we have worked on achieving over the past few years is seeing a blend of styles. Dancers doing a bit of Amapiano, contemporary, and we have the Portuguese dancing with the Indian dancers.
This year marks the 15th edition of the parade and will see about 1 580 performers, excluding those partaking in the pre-parade.
When asked how to manage such a big team, Carter says she works with a performance facilitation team.
“We have 50 different community groups that form part of our various academies. We try and have workshops where we develop choreography together.”
With the event merely days away, Carter says they are working on a spectacular performance.
“We are busy fine-tuning choreography and getting our performers fit, because this is a different type of performance for some of them. Many of them perform only on a stage, now they will be doing a parade of 1,2km and performing non-stop for about an hour.
“We try to get them to develop that mindset and stamina to be able to sustain their performance for the duration of the parade,” explains Carter.
Carter says she feels privileged to be part of the carnival.
“It is a joy to be part of the carnival, working with young people and seeing the joy this brings them. For many of them this is the highlight of the year.
“We give a voice to creatives that must often do this in their spare time. It’s difficult in our country to pursue the arts as a career, but at least they have this moment where they can come and be fabulous,” she concludes.
