The project is being spearheaded by Valleys Kids, a charity based in the Rhondda Valleys in South Wales, and is forging links with inspirational arts groups in Cape Town: Zip Zap Circus, Dance For All, the Fezeka Choir and Amampondo.

Amampondo in many ways are the spring for this partnership when, through their links with Valleys Kids, they played at the inauguration of the Prince William Rugby Cup Match: Wales v South Africa in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff alongside 30 Welsh children for HRH Prince William before kick-off and on the pitch in front of 75,500 rugby fans. South Africa won but the day helped to seed a dream of making a lasting creative connection between young people in Cape Town & Wales through music and the arts.

This dream became the Mzansi Cymru project that will culminate in an epic piece of theatre, Torchbearers, involving over 200 hundred young performers from both countries in a production to be premiered at the prestigious Donald Gordon Theatre, (named after its South African benefactor) in the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff the week before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, and then at a venue in Cape Town in October 2012.

The story behind the drama is inspired by the film Zulu, which was made in KwaZulu-Natal in 1964, starring Michael Caine and Welsh film star and the film’s producer, Stanley Baker - at exactly the same moment in history that Nelson Mandela was sent to Robben Island. It imagines a young Zulu girl and a young Welshman meeting on the film set as extras, who fall in love but are torn apart by the apartheid system, their love held together by the thread of letters they write to each but never send. After over forty years, all of this changes when they are given the chance of reconciliation at the Olympic & Paralympic Games in London 2012.

As an introduction to this extravaganza, a creative team from Wales are in Cape Town from 3 to 18 September to workshop material from the piece with young people from Zip Zap, Dance for All and Fezeka Choir and to create a short showcase presentation at the Zip Zap Dome, that will give a taste of things to come next year. Writer and director, Larry Allan sees the project as “a unique opportunity for young people to be part of the Olympic experience on a cultural footing and at a grassroots level.” Perhaps more importantly and equally exciting, Project Co-ordinator, Denise Lord sees is “as a springboard for a lasting legacy of creative collaborations between the two countries, sharing and celebrating each other’s cultures and working together for mutual benefits.”

Artscape are playing a key role in facilitating the collaboration, recognising that the arts play a compelling role in effective positive change for young people and the potential benefits for participants to be part of an international exchange offering a life-changing opportunity.

Support for the development visit comes from Wales Arts International and a Welsh Government initiative: Wales for Africa, which is working towards United Nations Millennium Development Goals to make poverty history. www.ValleysKids.org