BUILDING COMMUNITIES THROUGH THE ARTS
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
The Dreamers Initiative (often refered to as the Dreamers Programme) is the inaugural and longest running programme of the LWDTD Foundation. Launched in the South African township of Hammanskraal in 2011 as an arts education programme founded with the objective of making arts education accessible to young people within the community.
Through providing programmes that promotes arts education and access as well as mentorship for the youth, the foundation has provided that platform for youth in Hammanskraal township where the programme is based. Hammanskraal is a largely low-income community which The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality has identified as having a higher unemployment rate (33%) than the national rate (29%) and the youth as vulnerable group that required programmes focusing on substance abuse and crime prevention, life skills and skills development.
We passionately believe that when young people have opportunities to participate in exceptional training in the arts, they are becoming not only the next generation of artists and arts appreciators, but the next generation of engaged citizens: empowered to pay attention, communicate, and energetically participate in a collaborative process.
OUR PROGRAMMES
The Focus of Our Efforts
SATURDAY DREAMERS CLASSES
This platform offers various art engagement opportunities that would not be readily available in the townships and give township-based youth exposure to the arts. Through this programme the foundation endeavour to fill the gap of the shortage in arts and crafts based extra-curricular programs within township schools, by making such activities as dance, drama, music, theatre, performance and leadership classes accessible to the youth, within their communities. The beneficiaries are also mentored by the programme’s facilitators. Our classes are every Saturday from 08h00-14h00. Beneficiaries of this programme have gone on to win international recognition for different platforms, have been awarded scholarships to study respective art disciplines and forged careers for themselves within the arts and entertainment industry.
DARE TO DREAM ART WORKSHOPS
The master workshops were launched in 2011 and enlist the support of South Africa’s top performers and entertainers to offer intense workshops and masterclasses on creative industry-related subjects. The multi-discipline workshops offer the youth insights into the world of the arts. The aim of the workshop is to introduce young people to the world of Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts, Film and Television. The workshops are also aimed at encouraging young people who are artistically gifted to pursue their artistic passion into a source of income and/ or career, as each of the art disciplines is facilitated by qualified art practitioners. The Workshops take place annually during the school holidays. Workshop faciliatators have included: The Joburg Ballet’s Keke Chele; television and radio broadcasters: Flo Letoaba, Bohlokwa Mathosa and Thabiso Makhubela; Playwright and poet Napo Masheane, Poet and Actress Bohlale Boikhanyo, celebrated dancers Sello Modiga and Bontle Modiselle as well as Ayumi Akazawa and Arisa Saitou from Japan and Johanna Frojd and Fanni Ijas from Sweden to name a few.
Dare to Read
The Dare To Read Programme is aimed at fostering the culture of reading amongst the youth. This program also offers the youth Literacy program opportunities whereby the foundation runs a book drive during the BDBA Youth Summit which is attend by delegates from across the African continent. Delegates and speakers are each invited to donate a book written by an author from their respective countries. Books from previous summits have been donated to PJ Simelane High School in Soweto and the Temba Community Library in Hammanskraal. Additionally, through this programme the foundation invites authors and publishers host writing workshops with our beneficiaries.
DARE TO DREAM MUSICAL THEATRE PROGRAMME
The Musical Programme trains our beneficiaries in all aspects of musical theatre. This programme runs concurrently with the Dreamers Classes on a weekly bases. In our classes we are constantly working towards the next performance in which we aim to produce a Broadway scale musical. Every student is given the chance to take part in fully staged musicals, providing exceptional training to young theatre artists through the production of exceptional musical theatre. We create theatre that takes on challenging and sophisticated musical and societal themes, such as classism, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, peer-pressure and xenophobia. In 2014, the foundation staged a Broadway scale musical in the community of Hammanskraal, adapting Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet into a stage production, initiated in support of literature and the arts. The beneficiaries are currently working on a new production titled “Noxe – the musical” to address the scourge of drugs and contribute to nation building through raising awareness against Xenophobia.
DARE TO DREAM CHILDREN'S BALLET PROGRAMME
The Children’s Ballet Programme is the first of its kind in Hammanskraal. The classes were introduced with the objective of teaching the foundation of classical dance in order to prepare talent for a successful career in the arts, particularly in ballet. The programme currently has 23 students from the age of 7 – 12.
