The Gilded Serpent presents...
Annette
of South Africa
It was a bright blue winter’s day in 1973, the kind of winter’s day that you only find in Johannesburg in August, that I got my first glimpse of the world outside my mom’s womb. And what a wonderful world it is. I spent all my happy childhood years in smallish town just outside Johannesburg, Boksburg. Ever since I can remember, I had two major passions: dancing and writing. So when it came to choosing a career, the decision was easy: pick the one that people believe you can actually do. So I became a writer. Okay, so I’m selling my skills to the Dirty Sexy Money world of advertising, but hey, I’ll call it art if you don’t mind. But before that, I dabbled a bit in Psychology. (I even have a Master’s Degree to prove it.). It sounded like a “real” job, because South African writers don’t (or rather, can’t afford to) write for the money. Or so I thought. It was only when I was counseling a student to help him decide on how to spend the rest of his life that I stumbled across copywriting. I love my job. And I love Mondays. And after working at major international advertising agencies (including Ogilvy and BBDO), I started my own agency. That was four years ago. I’ve since partnered up with another fellow writer, and our company is called Baie-Lingual Blink Stefanus. So if you want to see what I write when I don’t write about belly dancing, go check out our site.
Web site:www.baielingualblinkstefanus.com -update 2011-site not functional
Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Annette
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2-5-09
Fire
in your Belly: My Dance Story
I’ve always wanted to be a dancer. I vividly remember when I was four years old and had just started ballet, the driveway became my stage and the African sun my spotlight as I did plies, twirled, and pitter-pattered on tiptoe to a growing audience of passers-by. I remember curtsying to a young schoolboy who stopped to stare. Today, I realise it wasn’t my extraordinary dancing that stopped them in their tracks.