It is not that contemporary dancers don’t have a sense of humour. They do. However, usually they only allow it to flourish off-stage. Rarely do you watch a contemporary dance piece that tickles your funny-bone.
It doesn’t help either that we find ourselves in what the public intellectual, Achille Mbembe, has dubbed “a negative moment” – made tangible through the #rhodesmustfall campaign and the ongoing attacks on foreign nationals. Young artists looking at finding their feet in society will want to tackle these social and political conditions. This has been the case at Detours, a genre-bending festival at Wits University, where contemporary dance and physical theatre works are presented by a new generation of artists.
Makwerekwere, which was performed by students from the University of Pretoria and Tshwane University, facilitated by Standard Bank Young Choreographer 2014 Bailey Snyman and Ashley Churchyard, was quite obviously in response to Afrophobia. It started strongly, with two dancers separated by bars enacting a fight scene on a swiveling platform that enhanced the volatility of the encounter. The violence spiralled, and an overly large company of dancers evoked this violent mob culture. The nature and identity of the “enemy” kept shifting until no one was untouched.
Unfortunately, it devolved into a sort of action movie scene with a petite blonde being rescued at the conclusion, providing some sort of light relief. The audience were clearly moved, mostly because the action made the unspeakable attacks reported in the media real. The work had potential, but become too obvious, large in scale and too melodramatic.
Ester Van der Walt was such a breath of fresh air. This Rhodes Master’s student’s work Déjà vu, Déjà vu brought laughter in an amusing, referential piece. She mocked the act of dancing, and great female dancers such as Tossie Van Tonder, Pina Bausch and Mary Wigman. It was a self-conscious attempt at figuring out how she can begin to make work – dance – given she isn’t a dancer. She asked serious questions about dance – what is it, who can perform it, and is any theatre authentic? – as she kept us laughing at her clumsy attempts at enacting parts of famous works.
The productions at Detours have been uneven, particularly given they are mostly student works. You don’t know what you are going to get, but that is part of the appeal. It is also interesting to observe how young artists are tackling the big questions about our society and those that haunt dance, or performance.
The students could do with more guidance and the information on the programmes could be more accurate.
But given the brevity of each work, sitting through the heavy ones feels like less of a burden than if they were full length.
DETOURS PROGRAMME
Programme 3 (Tomorrow, Thursday at 7pm):
• Skeleton Woman: When the Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the result of the collaboration between drama therapist Sian Palmer and performance artist Claire Rousell;
• Rhodes University MA students, Maipelo Gabang and Kamogelo Molobye, collaborate for the duet, Encounters;
• Thulani Lord Mgidi presents Lotjhani Zinyanya;
• Programme 3 will also showcase works from Wits senior physical theatre students.
Programme 4 (Friday and Saturday at 7pm):
• Opens with founder and artistic director of Mersiha Mesihovic/Circuit Debris, Mersiha Mesihovic’s solo, I Am;
• Artistic director of Untouchable Productions, Linda Lee Mhlongo, presents The Opposite Sex;
• Bonwa Mbontsi, Tegan Peacock and Ashleigh Joubert have choreographed and perform Framed,
• Programme 4 will also showcase works from Wits senior physical theatre students.