ZAMA DANCE SCHOOL

Westergaard has put heart and soul into living her dream since 1984 when she left the jazz dance centre she ran in Cape Town to work with African children. A dancer from the age of three, Arlene says she had always wanted to work with underprivileged children and began by asking the Department of Race Relations to find her some students. She was given six children, one of whom had a father who was a minister in a nearby township, Gugulethu. He became interested in what they were doing and, surprised to learn that township children were keen on classical dance, offered them the use of the church. Once the pews were pushed back, it made space for once-a-week classes for 56 students from Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Langa and Gugulethu ranging in age from five to 19. Within a year, classes were  

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held five days a week and Westergaard was teaching full-time. To support herself, she sold her house, invested the money and lived off the interest until 1990 when she persuaded Dr Dulcie Howes and Raymond Ackerman to be the school's patrons and Pick n Pay to become its major benefactor. In May 1999, Zama Dance School's new school premises were opened in Gugulethu, custom-made with the help of Pick n Pay. "I expect Zama to continue to grow... to continue with its excellent standards of dance and hopefully to produce many more students following in the footsteps of star pupils like Andile and Mamela, " says Ackerman. The current student complement is about 80. Zama continues to grow and produce exceptionally talented dancers like Patrick Mngeni, Mantu Jakavula and Songezo Mchilizeli, who are making waves in the field of the arts.