Peering through a rusted hole in a corrugated iron mkhukhu wall was one way Dance Umbrella audiences accessed performance while abandoning the conventional comfort zones of a theatre seat.
Seeing independent dancer-choreographer Tebogo Munyai’s Right Inside under a pine tree at the Wits Theatre side entrance wasn’t easy. This installation piece performed by Munyai and Black Ties opera singer Pretty Skhosana, portraying a frustrated shack dweller beating up his wife, ripped at the heart of the inhuman facet of South Africa’s “human settlements” while dismantling the distance between the viewer and the performer.
Sello Pesa upped the site-specific ante in Inhabitant which transformed Main Street (outside Goethe-on Main) into a stage. Audiences seated on the pavements were rooted in the sewerage-scented sunset scenario as taxis whizzed by and Joburgers walked home.
At times it was difficult to discern who were performers and willing participants and who weren’t. A homeless man (Pesa) appeared, then juggled with a large oil drum which he disappeared into for the night. Brian Mtembu, after rolling across the tar countless times, became indistinguishable from the three trolley pullers who appeared with their recycling bounty.
Both works, which transgress the boundaries of street theatre, posed questions about the validity of theatrical performance in public spaces and the role of audiences merely as voyeurs or active participants. Most importantly: who is the real audience? Is it the conspicuously seated patron or the man leaning on his bakkie bonnet passing loud commentary at what he is seeing?
The 23rd Dance Umbrella – the compressed, survival edition – was high on quality, provocation and revelations. The programming offered a national picture with a valuable pinch of Pan Africanism. The wake-up call was the general dire quality of the Fringe – too many new works not ready for the main stage.
And what are South African dance makers concerned about? Race, history and identity in the context of constantly shifting socio-political paradigms. Here are some reflections:
Shredding (not pushing) the artistic envelope
First Physical Theatre Company’s Retrospective – Altered Daily cheekily and intelligently revisited South African contemporary dance history, including Gary Gordon’s violent Shattered Windows (1994) performed on concrete outside the University of Johannesburg Art Centre. This academic exercise links US modern/post modern dance origins with our own evolution
Moving into Dance Mophatong shed their Afro fusion skin (and any inhibitions) for Mark Hawkins’s flamboyant Hotel and Fana Tshabalala’s African neo-classical memoir, Fractured.
Applause, applause...
Political power play, corruption, moral decay and a psychotic physicality exploded in PJ Sabbagha’s astutely crafted, powerfully danced I think its Hamlet using Shakespeare as a springboard into the South African psyche.
The poetic grace of Durban’s Flatfoot Dance Company in the Bloodlines/Circle double bill set the tone for 10 days of discovery and introspection.
Delicious! Nicola Elliot’s commissioned Proximity Loss and having is a pristinely eloquent spatial idyll about life and language.
Fana Tshabala’s Fractured is a richly textured kinetic portrait for himself and four dancers who light their own bodies, casting interactive shadows of self and existence.
In her evocative piece I stumble every time Jamila Rodriguez enables four young women, who span the racial and cultural palette, to explore the obstacles presented by their gender.
Virtuosity rules! Mari Louise Basson brilliantly reprised her role as the tortured white Afrikaner girl who dares to love across the colour line in Redha’s Giselle.
When Veronica Williams graduated from UCT’s Ballet School by law, because of her racial classification, couldn’t dance on certain stages. She became a teacher and cultural activist and only decades later, aged 67, got to dance her flamenco heart out, with Nicole Kleinhans, in Carolyn Holden’s moving To Whom Shall I Leave my Voice?
Nigeria’s Qudus Onikeku (who performed his acclaimed My Exile is in my Head with severe toothache) provided valuable insights into African dance making, as did the collaborators of the symbiotic Vumbi – Dust, created in residency at DanSpace.
The next wave...
Kieron Jina; Sithembiso Khalishwayo; Lulu Mlangeni; Fana Tshabalala, Tebogo Munyai; Jamila Rodriguez; Fanny Skura; Mbuso Kgarebe; Songezo Mcilizeli; Lucky Kele; Mcebisi Bheyi.
Revelations...
Belgium’s Fanny Skura and Soweto’s Mbuso Kgarebe’s Kind of Blue not only had the final word on the race issue (which, coincidentally, was raging all week in daily news bulletins and newspaper headlines), but their imaginative collaboration is rich in choreographic invention
She’s from the North, he is from the South – together Casablanca’s Hind Benali and Soweto’s Thabiso Pule have found an inventive synergy of energies, creativity and cultural tinctures which resonate in Mirage.
Since 2006 Mdu Mtshali has brought his ritualistic musings for Durban University of Technology drama students. Colour of Dreams triumphs with its theatricalised Shembe mysticism fused with transcended Japanese Butoh principles.
In I think its Hamlet Nicho Aphane is not only an impressive performer, he also composed the powerful score and the music for Songezo Mcilizeli’s Reflex.
South African Dance Companies to cherish...
Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative; Moving Into Dance Mopahtong; Flatfoot Dance Company; Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre; First Physical Theatre Company; Tshwane Dance Theatre; Matchbox Theatre Collective; Remix Dance Company; La Rosa Dance Theatre; Lucky Dance Theatre.