The Kusile Youth Dance Theatre performance at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown was not just another day on the stage for teenagers from Mdantsane, one of South Africa's largest townships situated near East London. The teens and others from the Daily Bread Children's Home were performing in front of a national audience for the first time.

They had been trained by Mzimasi Dyonana and Phumlani Nyanga, both 27 years old and long time friends. Dyonana and Nyanga used dance as a way to tolerate difficult conditions in one of South Africa's largest ghettos.

The two have created a dance company to provide a similar opportunity for youth in Mdantsane to avoid drugs, gangs and crime through dance.