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Rehab KZN Women's Arts Festival Celebration
Rehab KZN Women's Arts Festival Celebration
Date: 2026-08-28
KZN Dance Festival for Women - this year called Rehab KZN - tells poignant stories of profound human emotion and experiences told through dance in a carefully curated FREE afternoon dance festival featuring collaborative work of five KZN dance groups, which comes to the Playhouse Loft Theatre on Sunday 30 August at 3pm.
The combined narrative from each piece jointly looks at the complexity and challenges of creating an authentic identity. Finding hope and sisterhood in tales of GBV, human trafficking and abuse. The overall message is upbeat, thoughtful and life affirming.
The dancers are loosely interrogating the theme of "Rehab" - the action or process of rehabilitating to help a to lead a normal life again in a person's recovery - especially in the context of women's stories.
This project has been put together by Mandisa Ndlovu and her Dance Academy supported by Lucky Cele in partnership with Ulozolo Youth Organisation. Through her strides and selfless contribution to dance and life experiences, Mandisa has built a career through dance and invests her energies into helping other women to use their voice through dance to tell their stories.
The soloists and dance groups, all of whom were selected during an open audition, come from communities throughout KZN. In total, five groups were selected. Sixty plus performers in total will appear in the programme. Ndlovu and Cele are currently travelling to each group separately to spend time working with them and rehearsing them in their own community spaces.
"There is so much talent throughout KZN, but it seldom comes together for the different groups to work with, and appreciate, fellow dancers from other regions. We were surprised that the standard of dancing was so high, and the routines are already so polished," said Mandisa Ndlovu. "The first time we hosted a similar festival, we were astonished how evolved, professional, polished and mature the pieces were," she said.
"We were excited too to learn of the different stories being told through dance - many difficult subjects are being looked at," she said.
The project is supported by the National Arts Council (NAC), entry is FREE and all dance lovers are welcome. For more info: 067 942 8310 / mandisandlovu1989@gmail.com