The Artscape Theatre will light up in a colourful array of love, life and the joy of dance as enthusiasts gather for Jazzart’s 50th anniversary.
Anyone looking for a moving experience that can suspend reality and transport them to a world of exceptional creativity transcending time and space, gather round for South Africa’s leading contemporary dance theatre company.
The “50 Years of Dance Celebratory Festival” is an exciting, stimulating and thoroughly celebratory programme, elevating and honouring the life-changing impact and longevity of contemporary dance in South Africa.
The festival featuring Jazzart’s young, energetic and ambitious students and professional company of dancers, will showcase an exciting host of national and international guest companies and artists along with specially invited guests from around the country.
Starting on October 5 and set to run until October 14, dance lovers will be spoilt for choice with the acts on the line-up.
In the first week, Jazzart’s celebrated alumni Sifiso Kweyama, Celeste Botha, Elvis Sibeko and Shaun Oelf will showcase works alongside multiple award-winning artists Vincent Mantsoe and Gregory Maqoma.
They will be joined by dance legend Sylvia Glasser and “Moving into Dance”, which shares a historic legacy with Jazzart, being one of South Africa’s longest standing contemporary dance companies.
The programme includes short works created by graduates of Jazzart and an exciting offering from the unique partnership between Jazzart and “Unmute Dance Theatre”, featuring a work by Andile Vellem and Yaseen Manuel.
Week 2 of the festival will feature an exciting new collaboration between Jazzart, Cape Town Opera, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and the Phoenix Dance Theatre, which will feature the new, critically acclaimed 5-star production of “Requiem: Journeys of the Soul”.
This production has been choreographed and directed by Jazzart’s artistic director, Dane Hurst, with music by Mozart and Neo Muyanga.
This new production premiered in June at the Leeds Grand Theatre in collaboration with Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre and was hailed as a 5-star “knock-out double bill”.
It promises to be a thought-provoking and poignant expression of remembrance and rebirth in a post-pandemic society.
The new works were commissioned by Opera North (UK).
Mozart’s iconic masterpiece “Requiem” is performed with the companion piece by Neo Muyanga’s new work, “After Tears”, which has been described as an “invocation of South African rituals of mourning and remembrance – ultimately celebrating the beauty of life – colourful, joyous, uplifting: food for the soul”.
This 50th Celebratory Festival of Dance will be a true celebration of contemporary dance, demonstrating just how and why this company is a household favourite on home soil, and continues in making a strong name for itself on the international stage.
This production runs from October 5 -14 at the Artscape Theatre. Tickets range from R100 to R150 via Computicket.
“Master Class”
Where: Adam Small Auditorium, Stellenbosch.
When: From October 7 -10.
If you missed out on Cape Town Opera and Pieter Toerien’s sold-out seasons of Terrence McNally’s “Master Class” earlier this year, you’ll be delighted to learn that the acclaimed production will debut at “Toyota SU Woordfees” in Stellenbosch this month.
Directed by CTO’s artistic director Magdalene Minnaar, with musical direction by José Dias, the two-act play that was written by the late Terrence McNally (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Love!Valour!Compassion!), once again stars Sandra Prinsloo as Maria Callas and features well-known arias by Verdi, Puccini and Bellini.
“Master Class” is a portrait of Callas in the context of the master classes she gave at the Juilliard School in New York in 1971, at a time when she herself had not sung in six years.
In the play she is seen working with three students – two sopranos and a tenor. Aside from her biting wit, she is often blunt and even harsh in her efforts to mentor and prepare the singers for the cut-throat world of operatic performance.
The play’s riveting theatricality is truly ignited by Callas’s emotional outbursts and the soaring arias performed under her guidance.
Tickets cost R200 and can be purchased via Webtickets.
“An Intimate Evening With Shiraz & Friends In Concert”
Where: The Drama Factory, Somerset West.
When: October 5, 6 and 7 at 7.30pm.
The Drama Factory presents “An Intimate Evening With Shiraz & Friends In Concert”. The five-piece band is comprised of two sisters, Anne Walsh and Helen Dooley with Bob Walsh, Jarred Pitout (Vocals) and Mike Prenter (Guitar).
Anne, Helen and Bob are from the UK where they were part of the successful chart-topping family group “The Dooleys”.
After retiring to SA in1982, they turned their talents to musicals for the local theatre.
For the Drama Factory concert, Shiraz have brought back their former guitarist Terry Weyer and enhanced the band with two more keyboard players, Estelle Louw and Allen Stidworthy, and drummer Chris Burgess, making the band an eight-piece outfit.
Ticket prices vary between R160 - R280. Bookings can be made at www.thedramafactory.co.za or contact 073 215 2290.