SA ballerina brings craft to the slums

JOHANNESBURG – Ballerina Penelope Thloloe, who “survived” being the first black student at South Africa’s national arts school, now devotes her energy passing on her skills to African slum children.

Thloloe is a study in concentration as she trains students in Alexandra, a sprawling black township abutting Johannesburg’s chic Sandton quarter, where she still lives despite coming way up in life. “One, two, three, plie.Hold in your tummy.Arms, arms!” she barked, traversing the room on her toes and then placing a plastic basin, between the arms of an aspiring dancer to get just the right posture.Life for the pathbreaking 26-year-old has not been easy.In 1995, a little less than a year after the demise of apartheid, she made waves by becoming the first black student to be enrolled at South Africa’s National School of Arts.”I was a little black girl in a white class.It was hard time.But I survived,” she recounted.Thloloe, who now has her own dance company, discovered the world of ballet in school.Unlike her peers in grotty and tough Alexandra, she was not turned on by martial arts.So, at the age of a little more than 10, she began learning ballet from a white teacher who gave lessons at her school.”I was very old for a ballerina.I had to work three times harder, just to get the look, to change my body.””It’s a matter of body …a black body needs to be manipulated a little longer,” she said.Thloloe, the daughter of schoolteachers, gives free lessons at a municipal hall in Alexandra to some 90 students – whenever it is available.Eleven-year-old Dulce, one of Thloloe’s charges, is already sure of her metier.”I want to be a professional dancer.I want to perform in front of millions of people.I want the world to know me.”Thloloe, who set up her dance company Kasi, or home in township lingo, was a dancer at the Ballet Theater Afrikan, a much-acclaimed company and training academy based in Johannesburg.She also trained in London and was due to go to the United States when the unforeseen happened.”I was supposed to fly to New York.I had an audition booked but then the 11th of September happened – the twin towers attack – and I decided to come back.”She said her repertoire clearly shows up “where we come from”.Nampa-AFP”One, two, three, plie.Hold in your tummy.Arms, arms!” she barked, traversing the room on her toes and then placing a plastic basin, between the arms of an aspiring dancer to get just the right posture.Life for the pathbreaking 26-year-old has not been easy.In 1995, a little less than a year after the demise of apartheid, she made waves by becoming the first black student to be enrolled at South Africa’s National School of Arts.”I was a little black girl in a white class.It was hard time.But I survived,” she recounted.Thloloe, who now has her own dance company, discovered the world of ballet in school.Unlike her peers in grotty and tough Alexandra, she was not turned on by martial arts.So, at the age of a little more than 10, she began learning ballet from a white teacher who gave lessons at her school.”I was very old for a ballerina.I had to work three times harder, just to get the look, to change my body.””It’s a matter of body …a black body needs to be manipulated a little longer,” she said.Thloloe, the daughter of schoolteachers, gives free lessons at a municipal hall in Alexandra to some 90 students – whenever it is available.Eleven-year-old Dulce, one of Thloloe’s charges, is already sure of her metier.”I want to be a professional dancer.I want to perform in front of millions of people.I want the world to know me.”Thloloe, who set up her dance company Kasi, or home in township lingo, was a dancer at the Ballet Theater Afrikan, a much-acclaimed company and training academy based in Johannesburg.She also trained in London and was due to go to the United States when the unforeseen happened.”I was supposed to fly to New York.I had an audition booked but then the 11th of September happened – the twin towers attack – and I decided to come back.”She said her repertoire clearly shows up “where we come from”.Nampa-AFP