CAPRICCIO! ARTS POWERED PRE-SCHOOL IN MILNERTON
Preschool in Cape Town

Elbe van der Walt-Webber and Thornley Webber were involved in performing arts youth development projects across South Africa for more than 15 years. As a result of their long-standing relationship with the legendary name in musical instruments, many of their initiatives, aimed at the development of young talent in South Africa, were sponsored by Yamaha. Having practically seen the enormous benefits of exposure to the arts in action for so many years, they longed for their sons to experience this educational advantage on an everyday basis. Sparked by an interest in Montessori education and the wealth of emerging modern-day creative development programmes for pre-school children, Elbe’s psychology background and specific interest in child psychology led her to doing extensive research in this regard. A new vision was born: To establish an educational concept where young people can benefit from arts-driven learning, a unique style of pre-school education that encompasses all aspects of child development. degree (cum laude), majoring in Psychology and Law, and an Honours degree in Psychology (US). During her student years, she was a member of the acclaimed Alabama revue group and taught ballet to pre-school children. During her first appointment as marketing manager, she enjoyed the privilege of being selected as a national finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant, which afforded her the opportunity to complete relevant courses in public speaking, drama and television presenting, while being introduced at a professional level to the world of showbiz and television. She worked as a professional fashion and commercial model on a number of modelling and acting assignments and handled the creative planning, make-up, styling and art direction of various photographic and television shoots. Elbe co-founded Options Innovation in 1995, then one of the pioneering businesses in the South African event production industry, producing more than 250 events across South Africa over 15 years, including talent shows, fashion shows, music concerts, promotional events and the like, with most of the events being part of broader national performing arts youth development initiatives. Her affinity for all things creative found expression in skills such as project conceptualization, event planning and management, creative project marketing, public relations, copy-writing, creative design and choreography, whilst her inherent ability to teach and direct started to surface again by means of artistic direction. Some of the highlights of Elbe’s career of 17 years as a youth development specialist include the conceptualization, planning, marketing and management of the Annique Missy Junior R.S.A, Yamaha Young Talent, SA Model and Yamaha Key Performers of Note campaigns. She also headed the adjudicator panels of the Yamaha Young Talent and Yamaha Key Performers of Note projects. The last six years added to her repertoire a Certificate for completion of a NIA (Neuromuscular Integrative Action) White Belt Intensive, completion of the Theophostic course in pastoral counselling, the attendance of current specialist workshops on creative movement and music for young children, as well as the title of loving mother of two beautiful sons. Driven by her educational vision for her own children and her long-time interest in Child Psychology, supported by extensive research and her intuitive passion for creative early childhood education, Elbe developed the Capriccio! No stranger to the world of childhood education, Thornley is a Third Dan karate instructor who participated in various championships on provincial, national and international level, with more than 6 years’ experience in the instruction of young children in karate and extensive all-round sport background. He owned a children’s model agency, trained many young ramp, photographic and commercial models over a period of 10 years via workshops hosted at model studios across the country, inspired numerous aspiring young talent performers and choreographed a vast number of talent and fashion shows involving young children over a period of 15 years, sponsored by well-known fashion houses and brands such as Keedo, Naartjie, Yamaha, Jet, Ackermans and Edgars. Accounts, Thornley worked as an accountant before being beckoned from the world of numbers to the industry of figures. The experience of being selected as a finalist in the Mr. South Africa competition led to him being offered the opportunity to work locally and internationally as a professional model, but his natural ability to analyse, organize and manage eventually called him back to the business world, where he was involved in the restaurant business for many years. Having worked extensively on youth development projects across the country, he possesses impeccable organizational skills and has extensive experience in project planning, strategic marketing, project management, event coordination and technical production elements such