Contents page by Marilyn Jenkins S outh Africa is a country dancing into its future as a new democracy.
Dance is part of the national character.
South Africans dance to express happiness, anger, frustration and longing. It is this art form more than any other which is pioneering integration. People of every race, creed and culture have come together to explore an impulse which bridges the gulfs of ignorance and intolerance, without being judgmental. Side by side on stage, they bring out different dynamics in the same basic movements. Imagine a township jive which is uniquely South African, drawn far more from its own environment than the America of Elvis Presley, and rocking to the penny-whistle magic of kwela music.