Gugu Sibiya

Gugu Sibiya

The sixth annual National Eisteddfod Academy Awards will unleash 26 dynamic young performers in music, dance and drama.

Raring to showcase their talent, the performers will be featured at the UJ Arts Centre Theatre on May 16 at 7pm.

Up for grabs for the young artists, will be the NEA Awards in the categories Best Junior and Senior Performers. Prize money of R20000 is at stake. Bursaries to the value of R166000, sponsored by Academy College, will be awarded to top achievers in this year's awards.

Andile Ndlovu and Camille Bracher emerged as top achievers in the International Ballet Competition held in Cape Town last year. Ndlovu was also one of the finalists in danceDance-Danc4epresented by KykNet.

The junior top achiever in dance 2008, Rachel Beth Davidson, was recently accepted into the People to People Leadership Summit at Harvard University, Massachusetts.

Some of the other winners are at present furthering their studies at various universities.

NEA is a nonprofit arts organisation set up in 2004 to address the need for a prestigious platform on which the best young performers in music, dance and drama can compete and showcase their talents. Since 2006 top achievers in all existing eisteddfods and festivals have been permitted to enter the awards.

This final event was preceded by an elimination process that started last year with the annual NEA Eisteddfod. Top achievers in this eisteddfod involved more than 13800 entries from various provinces.