Magystics dance group was founded in May 2004 by Shawn, Rudy Saunders who serves as the founder, executive director as well as the head choreographer. This was as a direct result of a lack of recreational facilities, gangsterism and increasing drug and alcohol abuse in the impoverished community of Tafelsig in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, South Africa. It all started in May 2004 when he organized a “Mother’s day” annual event where he used kids to do acts, dancing, beauty pageants etc. where the majority of the kids were interested in the dance part. As a result of this he then opened a dance group which started off with approximately 60 dancers.
As a professional dancer himself, growing up in this community and in pursuing his dancing career he realized that the discipline needed to focus on his dreams taught him to refrain from being caught in the patterns of crime. He then decided that the same principles that kept him crime and drug free could be used to encouraged the youth to follow their dreams. Magystics aspiring dancers all come from broken homes where alcohol and drug abuse is at the order of the day. These dancers were sorted in divisions such as: beginner, bronze and gold sections determined by their experience in dancing.
VISION & MISSION
• To teach the young dancers discipline
• To provide them with career guidance
• To prepare them with the skills needed to become professional dancers
• To encourage them to pursue their academic careers to its fullest
• To enhance the skills of each dancer
• To develop each dancer to their full potential
• To keep the dancer’s drug- free by being vigilant in any changes in their behavior patterns
• To instill discipline in each dancer
• To make use of the life-skills provided to them to improve their lives.
• To teach them not to discriminate against different genders, sexual preference, race, creed or religion.
• To build an environment where our youth can be free and parents can be assured their kids are kept away from gangsterism and harmful illegal substances.
• To provide community service to all the communities regarding STD’s, HIV and AIDS and other related diseases and their conditions.
The Group’s secondary objectives are.
To work in collaboration with other organisation’s that mainly deal with health transformation and
Education.
POLICIES AND CONCERNS
We regularly take the dancers for random “drug tests” to ensure a drug free dance group and a non profitable organisation which enhance family life. As founder and director Shawn had been the sole dance choreographer for the past seven years which is a daunting task as dancers come with no dancing skills but only the dream to become professional dancers. As a choreographer it takes him on average 3 – 6 months to prepare dancers for public performances. For the past 7 years we’ve seen a pattern develop where once we’ve prepared dancers to be stage ready, other harmful illegal substances lure them away with peer pressure! Time after time we’ve seen these dancers becoming drug addicts after leaving our registered organisation. This has indeed become a serious problem as we are working mostly with the school going youth, girls and boys who are prone to easily be pulled into the nets of drug and alcohol addiction. We have tried everything in our power to assist our dancers not to fall victim like so many others but it is becoming more and more difficult because the youth are so influenced by peer pressure and drug merchants in the community.
We have therefore put measures in place to deal with this situation such as:
• Contract agreements between dancers and the Magystics dance group
• Parents/ guardians involvement
• Non smoking and drinking (under aged) policies
• Participating in alcohol and drug awareness programs
• And expulsion of drug and alcohol positively tested dancers.
OUR SUCESSES SO FAR
• Managed to keep 20 dancers in school and dedicated to finish their school career.
• Managed to assist our female dancers to abstain from unwanted teenage pregnancies through our life skills programs.
• Raised awareness in dancers in regards to the incidence of HIV and AIDS through attending regular HIV and AIDS awareness programs.
COMPETITIONS WON
• Over the past 7 years we have entered countless dance competitions where we achieved numerous trophies, medals, prizes and awards based on our professional dance performances throughout the years.
• We also entered freestyle and hip hop competitions and accumulated over 50 state of the art trophies.
