Founder and tutor of The Selvarani Dance Academy
The Selvarani Dance Academy was found in 1986 by our principal tutor Selvarani Naiker with 8 students. The Academy up to a few years ago operated only in the Merebank area and due to the high interest shown by the Montclair/ Yellowwood Park community, a second school was opened in March 2001 headed by Selvarani Naiker and under the tutorship of senior graduates of the Selvarani Dance Academy. Today the Academy has an enrolment of 30 students with ages varying from 5 to university and professional people. We also have graduates who are abroad and have opened schools in the UK and New Zealand.
The Selvarani Dance Academy has graduated 13 students to date and all have received excellent reviews by the local dance community. Our students have excelled in various regional and national eisteddfods.
In 1998, 4 students plus our principal tutor went abroad to Chennai for a 5-week dance session with the renowned husband and wife team, R Muralidaran and Chitra and this has since then become an annual event, where the tutor accompanies a few students for a two-week dance training programme with renowned dance tutors, the likes of the afore-mentioned, Krishnakumari Narandan, Sailasuda in India (Chennai). Our graduates have participated at the International Dance Conference held in Durban. We have also had 3 of our students travel to Poland upon invitation to perform in an 8-week dance programme. We are also engaged in tuition by India based dance gurus. Our students have participated at various cultural concerts organized by the Department of Cultural Services KZN and at the birthday celebration of ex-President Nelson Mandela.
Annually we present our Awards Presentation, which showcases the good work done by our Academy to the parents and general public.