There are years when creativity stagnates and underfunded – or unfunded – dancers and companies crawl into their shells. Thank-fully 2011 wasn’t one of those.
In fact, energy and innovation abounded, fuelled by three-year Lottery support for selected ensembles and the last year of the National Arts Council Company funding cycle.
Rigorous collaboration and an imaginative engagement with landscape were also character-istics of 2011 dance making.
In addition South African dance’s international profile continues to grow. Robyn Orlin’s new piece …have you hugged, kissed and respected your brown Venus today? and Steven Cohen and Nomsa Dhlamini’s The Cradle of Humankind partici-pated in the Pompidou Centre’s 2011 Festival of Autumn in Paris. On Friday and Saturday Orlin’s Venus was in Amsterdam and is in Monaco today.
Gregory Maqoma, who toured in the duet Southern Bound Comfort, co-choreographed with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, presented his solo Exit/Exist in Brussels. Also adding lustre to the North was Dada Masilo with her French- commissioned solo The Bitter End of Rosemary, also seen in Germany with Sonia Radebe’s Inception.
Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre’s Sello Pesa’s Inhabitant (created with Vaughn Sadie) debuted at Dance Umbrella, in March, then involved Turkish participants in Istanbul, winning the Critical Endeavour Award at the 2011 iDans Festival.
Dance continues to dominate with its ingenious theatricality at its own festivals – Dance Umbrella, New Dance and Sibikwa’s Breaking New Ground II in Joburg, Jomba! in Durban and the Baxter Dance Festival in Cape Town – as well as at The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, the National Arts Festival and Joburg’s Arts Alive. Whether this picture will look that rosy in 2012/2013 depends on the funding scenario and international commissioning.
The best way to reflect on my national impressions of this art form, which is inextricably linked to training, is to sample various categories.
Leading the Way
The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (Gipca), along with UCT (directed by Jay Pather), takes the intellectual facet of theatre dance seriously in its colloquiums meshed with performances. Emerging Modernities in February was followed by Film & Dance – Innovative Art on the Rise, in August, and this past weekend The Beautiful Project (featuring the Cape Town debut of Nelisiwe Xaba’s They Look At Me And That’s All They Think fresh from London’s Dance Umbrella).
The UCT School of Dance’s Confluences 6 Conference (the swansong of founding convenor Sharon Friedman) themed Physicality and Performance was highly informative, while The French Institute’s Crossings #2 International Artistic Workshop again fused the practical with the conceptual. Dance Forum’s New Dance returned, proving how essential this platform is for choreographers as well as audiences particularly as it was linked to The Goethe-Institut’s Uber (w) unden Art in Troubled Times Conference.
Solo Sensations
Masilo’s The Bitter End of Rosemary; Mamela Nyamza’s Isinqala; Lulu Mlangeni’s ?; Songezo Mcilizeli’s Reflex; Radebe’s Inception; Lliane Loots’ Skin, danced by Teekay Quvane; Fana Tshabalala’s Une Rupture; Freddie Zwane’s Unnatural Presence 2; Kieron Jina’s Full Fat, Low Fat, Fat Free, for Bongile Lecogo-Zulu; Andile Vellem’s Reflection.
Dynamic Duets
Tebogo Munyai’s installation work Right Inside with opera singer Pretty Skhosana; Mirage by Thabiso Pule and Hind Benali (Morocco); Mlu Zondi’s Devolva (created in residence in Los Angeles); Nicholas Aphane’s Catch On; Michelle Reid’s Road to Nowhere for Ananda Fuchs and Russell Cummings; Fanny Skura and Mbuso Kgarebe’s Kind of Blue.
Productions of the Year
William Kentridge, Philip Miller and Masilo’s Dancing with Dada; Remix Dance Company: Neo Muyanga’s Memory of How It Feels and Boundless with Unlimited (UK); Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative: I think it’s Hamlet, Soritra; Tshwane Dance Theatre (TDT): A Midsummer Night’s Dream and 15 mins of Fame (UJ); Vuyani Dance Theatre: Maqoma’s Four Seasons and Triple Dose season; Namjive: Alfred Hinkel and John Linden’s Padonbekend; Nyamza’s Amafongkong with Adugna Dance Company (Ethiopia); Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre’s Tshwene Ga Ipone Makopo (in the old Joburg Stock Exchange); Flicker by Gerard Bester, Andrew Buckland, Athena Mazarakis, Craig Morris; First Physical Theatre Company: Alan Parker’s Retrospective – Altered Daily; Tshabalala’s In and Out site-specific intervention for Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM); Sifiso Kweyama’s reconstruction of Alfred Hinkel’s Bolero (1976) for MIDM students; Tshwane University of Techno-logy Dance Department’s 30 Something…
Companies with Clout
Agulhas Theatre Works; Cape Dance Company; Flatfoot Dance Company; Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative; La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre; Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM); Ntsoana; Remix; TDT; Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT).
Landmark Collaborations
Masilo/Kentridge/Miller; Flatfoot Dance Co (Durban) with Ijodee Dance Co (Lagos) – Lliane Loots and Adedayo Liadi’s Aye Asan (vanity); Mark Hawkins and MIDM – Hotel; Sbonakaliso Ndaba – Cape Town Opera’s Mandela Trilogy, TDT’s CrashDance (with Redha) and Tribanghi Dance Theatre (Element); Remix with David Toole and Lucy Hind; National Ballet School of Cuba with Mzansi Productions; VDT with Qudus Onikeku – We Dance We Pray.