Diski is South African slang for soccer and The Diski Dance is a dance is made up of a series of rhythmic choreographed soccer moves. The Diski Dance was created to generate excitement for the 2010 FIFA World Cup games and for the South African Consulate's related events here in Chicago. Four students from the Joffrey Ballet actually travelled to South Africa to perform the dance there. Having the Joffrey Ballet dancers perform the Diski Dance coincides with the intentions of the Consulate to bring the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup to Chicago and to generate enthusiasm for the games. To learn the Diski Dance, visit southafrica.info/video/diski-dance2.htm
The Academy of Dance (Official School of the Joffrey Ballet) originally chose a group of teens to perform at the Chicago Fire halftime show in Toyota Park. This was a part of a partnership between the Joffrey Ballet, joffrey.org, and South African Tourism, southafrica.info, to promote the World Cup tournament in Chicago. They performed the Diski Dance at half time. South African Tourism decided they wanted to bring some of the teens from the Joffrey's community outreach program to South Africa as a way to show their appreciation to the Joffrey.
Four Joffrey students were chosen for the trip in March, and you can read about some of their activities on j-Pointe, the Joffrey's blog, here: jpointe.blgospot.com.
According to Pierre Lockett, the Joffrey's director of Community and Student Affairs: "The students were selected based on of participation of various activities associated with the group. Some of the activities were: attendance for rehearsals, performances and classes. They were also give points for seniority. The students with the highest scores were selected to go on the trip. So, in essence, there was a bit of a competition but, merit really played the highest factor. The students did not know about the trip until I made the announcement with the tally."
