IF I said pole dance, be honest, the first thing that comes to mind is probably “stripper”.
Well, champion acrobat Samantha Kotze – who’ll be performing at Madam Zingara which opens on Thursday in Durban – has set out to challenge that notion with her performance in the show.
“People don’t realise that pole dancing has gone beyond the preconceptions of the past. People still look at pole dancing and immediately think of strippers and venues like Teasers, for example. But it is actually so far from it. Today they are actually looking at making it an Olympic sport,” she explains.
The enthusiastic artist said her “re-invention” of the act was a hit when Madam Zingara’s After Forever show toured other cities in the country and she is nervous but excited to see what Durban audiences will think of the art.
“Pole dancing today has a whole syllabus of its own. It has developed along the lines of gymnastics and athletics. It’s not just about wiggling your bum and dancing around a pole anymore,” she laughed.
After chatting to Kotze we found that she’s always had a knack for pushing boundaries. From as young as 4, in fact, when her ballet teacher advised her mother to get her into gymnastics after Kotze always opted to do handstands, cartwheels and rolly pollies, over pointes and plies.
By age 11, Kotze scooped the title of SA Acrobatic Champion. However, it wasn’t long thereafter that she would face a major hurdle in her early career – she was diagnosed with severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and was put in a back brace for 15 hours a day for the next three years.
“With scoliosis, you don’t really heal. It can become worse over time, but with keeping active and healthy you can live normally. I’m tremendously happy that my mother opted not to send me for a back operation because, with having a rod in your spine, you can’t be an acrobat. So my career today could have been very different.
“I see perseverance in different people under different circumstances, but for me, knowing that I had a skew spine and that certain things would be more difficult for me to do just pushed me so much harder. Perhaps if I didn’t have scoliosis, I would not have pushed as hard and achieved what I have today. If someone was to ask me if would I ever wish that I didn’t have scoliosis, I would say ‘no’. Having it has led me to where I am at this stage of my life,” she said.
The driven artist has gone further and also wears the hat of stage manager for the show. She said audiences can expect loads of comedy and tricks with a host of highlights on the cards. These include, amongst others, an aerial strap act, which has been described as a love story in the air and an Argentinian bolas act whom, Kotze said, “create magic on stage with drums and balls”.
• For bookings contact 0861 623 263. Tickets: R390 to R495 per person depending on seating area. The show’s runs starts on Thursday.