Local dancers to represent South Africa on the international stage - IOL

Reddam House Bedfordview dancers celebrate after earning South African team colours. The 23 dancers will compete in international dance championships in Slovenia and Poland later this year.

Twenty-three Reddam House Bedfordview dancers will take their talents onto the international stage later this year after earning national team colours at the 2026 SABOD South African Nationals.

The dancers will compete at the International Dance Organization (IDO) championships in Slovenia and Poland from November 21 to December 9, with the programme covering Modern and Contemporary, Jazz, Ballet, Acrobatic, Show Dance, and Performing Arts Improvisation.

Their selection follows a strong showing at the Nationals, where they competed under the Lucia Cunningham Dance Academy and reached the podium across ballet, jazz, modern, showdance, acrodance, and street dance show.

Among the standout results were first-place finishes in ballet, jazz, modern and showdance, while the Rise Again modern formation and Screaming Whispers modern small group also won their respective categories. The dancers also secured places in the South African Acrodance team, with further podium finishes in street dance show and jazz.

The achievement will see the dancers capped in Protea colours on October 11 before they travel to Europe for the championships.

Lucia Cunningham, head of dance at Reddam House Bedfordview and founder of the academy under which the dancers competed, said the selection had significance beyond the results achieved at the Nationals.

“This achievement really means that these kids will be capped with the Protea colors on the 11th of October,” Cunningham said.

The selection also gives South African dance a place on an international stage, with Cunningham seeing the opportunity as bigger than the individual achievement of the 23 dancers. Their participation puts South African dancers into a global competition and, she believes, can help raise the standing of dance in the country.

“It is significant because it does put us out as a South African team and in terms of just, I suppose, bettering dance in South Africa and creating a status for dance here in South Africa,” she said.

Cunningham also shared what has gone into getting the dancers to this point. The selection is the result of a sustained commitment that began long before they secured their national colours, with preparation for international competition becoming a significant part of the young performers’ routine.

“This has been an 18-month preparation. We train between 10 and 20 hours a week for this,” she said.

The dancers will now enter an international competition spanning multiple disciplines and countries, with the 2026 International Dance Organization championships bringing competitors together in Slovenia and Poland.

Modern and Contemporary, Jazz and Ballet will be staged in Podčetrtek, Slovenia, before the programme moves to Mikołajki, Poland, for Acrobatic, Show Dance, and Performing Arts Improvisation.

The IDO, which has more than 90 member and contact nations, has already listed South African competitors across several of these categories.

That international programme mirrors the range of disciplines in which the Bedfordview dancers have already competed, taking the skills they have developed through national competition into a field that brings together dancers from around the world.

Reddam House Bedfordview executive head Stephen Hazley said the results were a reflection of the discipline and commitment that went into each performance, rather than talent alone.

“These results reflect not only the talent of our dancers, but also the discipline, resilience and commitment behind every performance,” Hazley said.

He said the school was proud of the 23 dancers who had earned the opportunity to represent South Africa, whether their qualification came through a solo, duet or group performance.

With their national colours secured and months of preparation behind them, the dancers will now turn their attention to the championships in Slovenia and Poland, where they will compete in the disciplines that took them from the South African Nationals to the national team.