Dancing Dreamer: Lesole's South Africa

When I traveled through South Africa last winter, I found music and dance everywhere I went. Being a local Washington, D.C. resident, I found Lesole Z. Maine, a South African immigrant who now lives in the D.C. area and had made his dream of starting his own dance company a reality. This was my local encounter. I was not only inspired by his brilliant modern and Afro-fusion dance and his amazing story, but also his involvement in primary school education through his Edu-dance program. He teaches students through dance in local D.C. area schools, nationally, and in his hometown of Sebokeng township, South Africa.

I graduated from university a month ago with a degree in journalism, and discovered my passion for documentary film my senior year. I plunged right in, asked professors’ permission, and took graduate documentary film courses my last semester with students who had much more experience than me, and I thrived. I fell in love with the process of shooting, editing, writing scripts/treatments, and directing. With a background also in anthropology, my dream is to make social documentaries that will give attention to the important issues largely ignored by the mainstream media. .