Corroboration Gumboot Dance Company

The Corroboration Gumboot Dance Company is a rubber boot dance ensemble from Ratanda , one of the townships of Heidelberg in South Africa . The group of township youths aged between ten and 20 developed out of a youth group. Their music combines stylistic elements of traditional dances with hip-hop .

The ensemble has been under the direction of the young choreographer Mandoza Radebe (born January 24, 1984), who is attending the final year of a technical college in 2006 , since 1999 . The aim of the group is not only the joy of dancing and the desire for cultural expression, but also a socio-political commitment to get the children off the streets where drugs and crime would be their fate. The attempt is made to give them education and thereby open up a longer-term perspective.

The group rehearses five times a week - about two hours a day - in the open air in front of the Ratandas citizens' office. Radebe and his dancers have produced 13 shows so far and have won many local and regional awards.

Corroboration Dance came to Germany in autumn 2006 with their program "Shosholoza" on their first European tour. They performed in Münster , in the Theaterhaus Stuttgart , in the South African embassy in Berlin and also in their twin town Heidelberg am Neckar . They also held numerous workshops in schools.