19 July, 2018 - 08:07
Over the past decade, Dancesport has become a popular form of entertainment internationally. With the rising popularity of television dance shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars, dance appeals to audiences across all ages and cultural divides.
The viewers of these shows get to witness the glitz, glamour and athleticism of bodies in motion, but what does it take to be a champion? What happens behind the scenes? How does Dancesport affect the lives of those who live, breath and bleed for it everyday? Rumba in the Jungle, The Return is a glimpse into this world. The documentary follows two legendary South African Champions who have gone to compete internationally and won world titles in the late 1990s.
In 1996 DanceSport was rated the third most popular leisure activity in South Africa next to soccer and rugby. Rumba in the Jungle was the premiere international dance event bringing dance couples from around the world to Sun City to compete for the prestigious title. Over the past two decades Tebogo Kgobokoe and Michael Wentink have both become dance celebrities in South Africa and abroad. However during this time the legendary competition that helped them reach fame has ceased to exist do to a lack of funding support and the division of factions. Today, Rumba in the Jungle is back and promises to be better than before as it brings different forms of dance styles under one roof. We get to know Michael and taboo as they groom a new generation of dancers to take the floor. The competition also features international dance celebrities and champions, Victor Fung and Anastasia Muravyeva as well as Slavic Krykylvyy and Karina Smirnoff who were once South African Michael Wentink's big rivals. They are reunited in Sun City, South Africa and go down memory lane as they are reminded of their professional rivalry.
Directed by Yolanda Mogatusi and produced by Dominique Jossie, this documentary has become a sort of unexpected passion project. As female filmmakers, we have a deep love of storytelling and have professional dance training. This film presented an opportunity to merge the two loves. We remember watching this prestigious dance competition, Rumba in the Jungle, on national television many years ago and recall the sudden void when it was no more. says director Yolanda Mogatusi.
TravelStart Flight and Hotel Bookings
TravelStart Bookings for the Film Industry
Get More Film Business South Africa
Select your Membership
With the support of the South African Dance Foundation, the female Filmmakers were given the opportunity to film the event and decided to pitch a documentary concept. We feel that this is an important story to share and a beautiful art form to capture on film. Not only is the subject matter entertaining to watch but it is also focuses on a national sport that unites Africans from different backgrounds explains producer Dominique Jossie.
Yolanda and Dominique met at the Durban Talent Campus in 2012 and promised that they will return with a project some day. Six years later, this documentary was born. The film is Mogatusi's first documentary film, with her recent film being a short film called, Hair That Moves. She is also working on her first animation film, which is still in its development phase. I think there is something in this film about national pride and African excellence not only in the international competition and how it ran then and how it will run now, but there is an excellence in our lead champion dancers, Tebogo Kgobokoe and Michael Wentink. They are both world-renowned, champion dancers and only a small community of people might be aware of this. We would love for all of SA or at least every South African who watches this film to be aware of this. They and many others are the Wayde Van Niekerk's and Chad Le Clos' of the DanceSport world, and they have competed and succeeded at a very high level. They were also South African heroes at a time when South Africa and even more South Africans of colour were not celebrated much, concludes Mogatusi.
The Dance Documentary Rumba in the Jungle, the Return is set to premiere at the Durban International Film Festival on the 22nd of July 2018 at Suncoast Casino @8pm.
Additional screenings: 24 July, MUSGRAVE Ster Kinekor 3 @6pm
28 JULY, MUSGRAVE Ster Kinekor @12pm
For more information about future screenings follow our page https://www.facebook.com/Rumbainthejunglethereturn/
Embedded video for DIFF Premiere of Dance Documentary Rumba in the Jungle, The Return
Documentaries
Africa South Africa
Dominique Jossie jossiedominique@gmail.com
Most recent headlines
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19 July, 2018 - 08:07 
