Young dancers win family talent show |21 August 2004

Performing on a set designed by local artist and NCC board member Andrew Gee, the 15 different groups and special guest entertainers put on a lively show in front of the packed International Conference Centre (ICCS) auditorium.

Amongst the audience were Minister for Social Affairs and Employment Vincent Meriton and Minister for Education and Youth Danny Faure, both of whom were called upon to present prizes at the end of the two-hour show.

Dancing to two songs – one by the late Brenda Fassie and one from the Middle East –the Issis dancers collected the evening's star prize, a R1,500 cheque sponsored by Deepam Cinema, as well as claiming first in the group competition.

First spot in the family contest went to the singing "We are family" group, while the prize for most original act was picked up by chef Bristol, from Fairyland Hotel, and his son Gervais, for their garlic chopping exploits.

Opening the show NCC patron Geva René said that it was being run to, "encourage families to get together as a team, to work together and cooperate in putting on a performance."

Mrs René said that the show embodied a number of the "values" advocated by the NCC's "living values" campaign, such as peace, love, tolerance, humility and simplicity.

NCC public relations officer, Jean Claude Matombe, explained that, "normally families have lots of talents in management, leadership and so on and children learn a lot of skills from their families. We thought why not do something with that."

The talent show was originally planned to take place in June, but with a prior booking at the ICCS, was put back to August.

Asked if the competition would be repeated next year, Mr Matombe said that it is a decision for the NCC board to take but that he hoped it would be repeated as, "I think there is a lot of potential out there."