27 Feb 2024

Botswana DanceSport Association (BODANSA) will host Botswana International DanceSport Grand Prix Championship at the Game City Marque Area and University of Botswana Indoor Sports Arena on March 1-2.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, BODANSA marketing executive, Tiro Ntwayagae said countries that confirmed participation by registration were South Africa, eSwatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Amongst those countries, he said Botswana was currently ranked second after South Africa in DanceSport in Africa hence the association’s interest in taking part in this year’s World Championships in China.

Ntwayagae said the championships had also been sanctioned by the World DanceSport Federation as Paris 2024 Olympics qualifiers for Breakdance category.

He said they would also use the Grand Prix to select a national team to represent Botswana at the World Championships in Wuxi, China in July.

“We must also note that this championship will be a first of its kind as for the first time we will have competitors living with disabilities taking part in this championship under a special category called special section, hence we would like to appeal to parastatals and private sector to come on board and support this initiative, so that we motivate athletes living with disabilities to take part in Sports,” he said.

He said Turnstar Holdings Limited, as their golden sponsor for the Botswana International Dance Sport Grand Prix Championships, had pledged P45 000 towards the event.

He disclosed that the sponsorship would go towards hosting a cultural night at Game City Marquee area on March 1.

He said the venue would host the preliminaries of traditional dance groups Setapa, Sebirwa, Seperu, Hosana, Phathisi, Diware, Dikhwaere, Polka and Naamastaap, which would be competing under one category called the traditional dance groups category, with the winner pocketing P10 000.

Ntwayagae said during the cultural night there would be a competition of modern dance categories such as Hip Hop, Sbujwa, Amapiano, Salsa, Bachata, Contemporary, Kizomba, Line Dance, Belly Dance, and Ballet

He said the following day action would move to the University of Botswana Indoor Sports Arena where the main events will be taking place, and these would be Breakdance, Latin and Ballroom Dance.

Ntwayagae said the day’s programme would be divided into two sections, the morning session and the gala evening.

“In the gala evening, we will witness the finale of all traditional, modern and Latin and ballroom sections.

In other words, we will be witnessing the crème de la crème at the gala evening,” he said. ENDS