ABOUT FLATFOOT TRAINING COMPANY
Flatfoot Training Company is an auditioned platform open to young adult dance practitioners who wish to train in a professional environment. Successful auditionees attend weekly training classes free of charge. We audition every year and take 30 new trainees. Our success in this training programme has been measured by many of the young trainees either taking up positions in our main company or going on to find employment in the dance arena (performance and administration) in both South Africa and abroad. The trainee programme for FLATFOOT is not full-time training as many of the participants are studying or have part-time jobs. The training takes the form of four sessions per week and is offered free of charge to all who are selected. Lliane Loots acts as the core facilitator and teacher for this programme with the company members coming in to choreograph and make performance work for the dancers.
GIRLS TO WOMEN DANCE PROGRAMME
In 2017, FLATFOOT began our pilot run-on project called “GIRLS TO WOMEN DANCE PROGRAMME” where we identified 12 young female dancers (aged 9 – 15yrs) from KwaMashu and Umlazi. This programme aims to promote the development of the township girl-child towards sustainable arts/dance career pathing. We have noticed that many of the girls drop out of the training around the ages of 12 and 13 and so wanted to offer an incentive to keep these young girls in the dance programme. We see this as also addressing an identified gender gap in our dance and arts industries. The pilot has led to a full-time programme with an annual intake of 10 – 12 girls each year (funding dependent).
