The new Friendly City Dance Festival takes to the PE Opera House stage from Monday August 20 to Saturday August 25 with more than 650 dancers in more than 1,000 dance items.
The festival aims to showcase all genres and foster a love of dance for performers and audiences. It also gives students the opportunity to perform and compete on stage in a friendly competition and have their dance ability adjudicated in a constructive manner by professionals in the dance field.
Genres featured in the festival include national dance, ballet, contemporary, modern, hip-hop and tap, as well as two new festival categories: rhythmic dance and show-dance.
Studios taking part
Dance studios from Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Despatch, Kirkwood, Jeffrey’s Bay and as far afield as Knysna have entered the first FCDF. These include:

Kareen’s School of Dance, Walmer School of Dance, Susan Zerbst School of Ballet, Debbie Ralph Ballet School, Dance Dynamics, The Ballet Conservatory, The Ballet Studio (Uitenhage), Portia Appolis Dance School, Totally Tap & Modern Dance Studio, Hosking Academy of Dance (Kirkwood), Sidwell Roman’s Ballet School (Knysna); Elvinia’s School of Dance (Knysna), La Vo Dance Company, Natasha Tait Dance School, Ibhayi Rhythmic Gymnastics, Allstarz Dance Academy; and Robyn D’Arcy School of Dance (Jeffrey’s Bay)...