SA choreographer Veronica Paeper has updated one of her iconic works, writes Theresa Smith
IT WILL be more spectacular as well,” says David Krügel as he persuades the male ballet dancers to toss one of their friends sideways rather than straight. Eventually all decide to let the dancer control the start of the jump and everyone else will catch him. And, it works.
Meanwhile, one Spartacus is texting on his cellphone, sitting with his back against the wall, while another is curled up by the door, warming down. A third is sitting on a chair, watching the rest of the slaves being put through their paces.
These dancers were rehearsing for Veronica Paeper’s A Spartacus of Africa, which comes returns to Cape Town’s Artscape from Saturday to July 12.
Paeper, Robyn Taylor and Mike Bosazza started the South African National Dance Trust in 2009, mostly with the idea of producing dance on a grand scale and this production seemed a natural fit.
Paeper originally choreographed Spartacus (set in Rome) in 1984 for then Capab artistic director David Poole who wanted something splashy to celebrate the company’s 21st anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Ballet School. At that time Yury Grigorovitch’s choreography was the most well-known version of Spartacus.
Paeper, then resident choreographer for Capab, became one of the few female choreographers globally who tackled full-length ballets and her choreography is still used by the now Cape Town City Ballet. Now she has reimagined her own work to introduce dance on a large scale to a wider audience.
Dicky Longhurst, who designed the original costumes, has also returned to reimagine the look of the new A Spartacus of Africa with 300 new costumes having been constructed.
Paeper has always been very proud of her former production, but had to admit to looking at a DVD recording of the 1984 production “and it’s so funny. It’s kind of naive. I was an inexperienced choreographer,” she smiled.
While she handled the bulk of the choreography for this new production, Krügel helped her to Africanise the movements: “Most of it would be different because the original was in the classical ballet vocabulary and for this version we are trying to eliminate the strict ballet vocabulary to make it a freer, more African version. The technique is still ballet, but we’ve introduced African-style movements,” said Krügel.
Paeper has also created a new role for Krügel to dance – that of an ancestor, spirit type character: “A figure that is not seen by the people in the piece, but who manipulates everyone.
“In the end, things don’t go my way and I fail to manipulate human nature,” said Krügel, who performed in some of Paeper’s work when he danced in the country in the ’80s, but not the original Spartacus production.
Paeper said she created the role because it helps to make the story more believably African: “Quite often in the ballet, in the original Spartacus, he doesn’t kill the villain of the piece, who is his chief enemy, and that doesn’t make sense. But in this version, the spirit intervenes and then that does make sense.”
The cast is huge – hence two dancers alternating in the lead role plus a third swing just in case – with the 95 dancers on stage including 50 students in each centre, Joburg and Cape Town.
Robyn Taylor of the SA National Dance Trust pointed out that using the students in the different cities and drawing on KMH Architects in Cape Town to design the sets (with women from Masiphumelele plaiting the vines from recycled plastic) was to include more people from outside the niched ballet world in the project.
Logistically, the trust has learnt a lot, especially about the intricacies of paperwork when applying to the Lotto (who came through) for funding.
“The trust also wants to encourage the audience, that is most important, to show that there is a rich culture of dance worth looking at and taking part in,” said Paeper.
While her objective as a choreographer has always been to create, Paeper says she has always done this with the audience in mind: “It must entertain me and I am a very fussy member of the audience. Every audience member must know what is happening. Entertainment, that is the industry we are in.”
The production draws on local and international dancers for the principles – Brooklyn Mack of the Washington Ballet and Joburg’s Andile Ndlovu who has also been dancing with the Washington Ballet alternate as Spartacus, while Lara Turk returns from The Royal Ballet in England to dance as Phrygia, along with Elzanne Crause, Michaela Griffin and Simon Botha.
Willem Houck, previously of the Hong Kong Ballet, and Casey Swales will alternate in the role of Roman Consul Crassus (and Swales will dance as an alternative Spartacus) and Kristin Wilson will dance Aegina, concubine to Crassus, as will Elzanne Crause.
l A Spartacus of Africa is on at Artscape Theatre from Saturday to July 12. Tickets from Computicket range between R150 and R375.