Ballroom dancing giving new hope to Cape Flats' kids

While their drug-addict friends listen to the tik-tik tapping of methamphetamine being heated in a light bulb, children from Downville Primary School in gang-ravaged Manenberg are tapping their feet to the tango.

They are burning up the ballroom dancing scene and have, in just eight months, collected about 150 trophies.

"Some say this is a moffie thing, but I don't care. I am going to be a star," said Abdul Ismail, 15, who will start high school next year.

Teachers noticed an improvement in his marks when dance instructor Lily Ford, who is also deputy principal of the primary school, took him under her wing.

There are more than 40 children in the school team. They often risk being caught in the crossfire between rival gangs while walking to practice.

But Sharney Albertus, 10, said she was addicted only to dancing. So is 14-year-old Mansoor Ismail, Abdul's cousin.

Mansoor might come across as shy but he was flamboyant on the dance floor, said his grandmother Gadija Ismail.

"When his mother died, I took him in and his three siblings. Mansoor has been dancing for six months and won 17 trophies. He used to be very disobedient and naughty but he's a different child now," said Ismail.

Ford said that, at first, the children were not keen on classic ballroom and only wanted to do Latin dances such as the cha-cha.

It took some convincing, but now they are waltzing like professionals.

"At practice, when the shooting gets too much outside, they just turn up the music and continue dancing," Ford said.

Some of her pupils took part in a national dancing competition in Mitchells Plain this week that attracted dancers from around the country.

Mario Wanza, of the organisation Proudly Manenberg on the Cape Flats, said the children had the support of the whole community in creating lives beyond poverty and crime.

Earlier this year, gang warfare escalated dramatically in the area, forcing many children to stay at home because it was too dangerous to walk to school.

"It is remarkable what the dancers have managed to achieve despite all the odds. They represent the future of Manenberg," said Wanza.