2011-02-04: Let’s dance, Joburg

The Dance Umbrella has a few surprises in store this year, including a love story featuring disabled dancers. It also has a strong contingent of international dancers and choreographers.
NEW contemporary dances and choreography will lead the way at the upcoming Dance Umbrella, the annual dance festival that this year turns 23.

BloodlinesBloodlines by Liliane Loots is part of the main programmeDisabled dancers will be included in the tightened 10-day event, which will not shy away from peeling back the layers of our humanity, particularly in searing dances like Rampage and simple love stories like Off Key.
Speaking at a media briefing on 2 February, David April, the chairman of the Dance Forum Board, said the event celebrated dance as part of South African culture and was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated platforms for dancers and choreographers.

Dance Umbrella 2011 will run from 24 February to 6 March at various venues, such as the Wits Theatre, the Dance Factory, the Goethe on Main and the UJ Arts Centre.

A series of Master Classes will also be offered, entitled Dance Writers’ Workshop. Funded by the Goethe-Institut, the German cultural organisation, they will be facilitated by Zingi Mkefa. They will run from 16 to 18 February and will be featured in the weekly Dance Umbrella newspaper produced by The Citizen newspaper.

Main programme
The main programme opens on 24 and 25 February at the Dance Factory, with Circle by Sifiso Kweyama and Bloodlines by Lliane Loots. This double bill programme features the Flatfoot Dance Company in both works, and was premiered in KwaZulu-Natal in 2010.

The history of storytelling is reignited in Circle, while in Bloodlines the choreographer navigates a journey down memory lane in South Africa. It features the original spoken word by Iain Robinson and Patricia van Deutekom from Introdans, Holland. This work was created in partnership with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

PJ Sabbagha will present I Think It’s Hamlet for three performances from 25 to 27 February at the Wits Downstairs Theatre. In it, he takes a humorous look at Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet.

Shift: Mamela NyamzaMamela Nyamza will present Shit at WitsOn 26 and 27 February, Nigerian-born choreographer Qudus Onikeku will present a piece entitled My Exile is in my Head. Onikeku has been living in France for the past several years and the work reflects his experience. It is a collaborative effort between the French Institute of South Africa and the French Consul.
Fringe programme
The fringe programme begins on the weekend ending on 27 February. It will feature new work from 19 selected young choreographers as well as the Stepping Stones Programme. Both will be staged at the Wits Theatre.

On 28 February and 1 March, another double bill will be presented, this time at the Wits Downstairs Theatre. Lulu Mlangeni, the recent winner of the local So You Think You Can Dance competition, will present her new work called ? and Songezo Mcilizeli will present Reflex.

Over the same two days at the Wits Theatre, a new work by choreographer, Mark Hawkins, will be performed. Entitled Hotel, it features compositions by Philip Miller and costumes by Robyn de Klerk. It is a multilayered, dance theatre work using Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem of the same name as a starting point.

Hawkins explains: “People, thoughts and ideas check in and check out, some linger and occupy, whilst some depart as quickly as they arrive. It is an uncontrollable which is sometimes real and then again, sometimes only in our subconscious. Our mind becomes our hotel, a place which can be shrouded in secrecy and anonymity. Welcome to the Hotel of the Mind.”

Dance Factory
The Dance Factory will host the next leg of the festival. There will be a mixed bill on 1 and 2 March, featuring work by Mcebisi Bhayi from Joburg, Mdu Mtshali from Durban and Carolyn Holden from La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre in Cape Town.

It will be followed by Remix Dance Company from Cape Town, which will present a new work by Malcolm Black called Off-Key. This is an integrated dance piece, which features four dancers and three live musicians; two are able-bodied dancers, one dancer is in a wheelchair, and one dancer is deaf.

Off-Key is a simple love story in which a desperate man is helped by unforeseen “cupids of world”, notes the company.

Malcolm BlackAudiences can expect the unexpected at Dance Umbrella 2011On 2 and 3 March, Cherice Mangiagalli will present Russians and Chips, as well as share the stage with Jamila Rodriguez from Cape Town, creator of I Stumble Every Time. The third piece on the programme is called Right Inside, and is by Tebogo Munyai.
Sello Pesa has a new installation piece planned, entitled Inhabitant, which will be shown at Goethe on Main on 3 and 4 March. It looks at spaces, specifically inner city spaces in Joburg and how they are more than what they seem.

Pesa says: “A doorway becomes a home merely through the occupation of space even though it does not have the traditional structure of four walls and a roof.” This work is presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut South Africa.

Mamela Nyamza, who won the Standard Bank Young Artists Award for Dance in 2011, will present Shift on 3 and 4 March at the Wits Downstairs Theatre.

Presented by the Dance Umbrella along with the British Council, Shift explores issues of sexuality, masculinity, stereotypes and negative perceptions endured by sportswomen, more especially women who have managed to stand up to the patriarchal status quo in society.

The Tshwane Dance Theatre will present Redha’s Giselle on 4 and 5 March at the UJ Arts Centre. Set in apartheid South Africa, the highly acclaimed dance is very loosely based on the classic ballet where boy meets girl. In Redha’s Giselle the boy in question is on the opposite side of the colour divide. Their youthful innocent love results in conflict, violence and even death.

Last two days
The last two days of Dance Umbrella 2011 will include a double bill programme, starting with the Rampage by Kieron Jina. It is about disasters, mutilations, torture, rape and abductions. It looks at people who have been slashed with machetes, body parts sold, girls forced into sexual slavery, babies crying while their legs are being chopped off and women being gang raped.

The second piece in the double bill is Kind Blue by Fanny Skura and Mbuso Mgarebe, about the many different realities that people live, “one existence, few synonyms for defining the same word … a different colour to paint the same picture”.

Towhomid shall leave meCarolyn Holden from La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre in Cape Town will present her work at the Dance FactoryOn 5 and 6 March at the Wits Theatre, there will be a work entitled Vumbi, a collaboration by dancers and choreographers including Lucky Kele from South Africa, Jared Onyago from Kenya, Meseret Yirga from Ethiopia, Esrael Akpan from Nigeria and Julie Larisoa from Madagascar.
They will share the stage with Nicola Elliot from Cape Town, who will premier Proximity, Loss and Having, while Fana Tshabalala will present Fractured.

The final piece on the Dance Umbrella 2011 programme is Mirage by Thabiso Pule in collaboration with Hind Benale from Casablanca. It will be on at the Wits Downstairs Theatre on 5 and 6 March.

Sponsors responsible for the Dance Umbrella 2011 include the City of Johannesburg, the National Arts Council, Goethe-Institut South Africa, Rand Merchant Bank, Business and Arts South Africa, French Institute of South Africa, French Council, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Culture Dutch Flemish Diary in South Africa, British Council, Art Moves Africa, CitiVibe, Classic Feel and Artslink.co.za.

Tickets cost between R60 and R100 per person and are available through Computicket or online through Artslink. For block bookings call 083 570 3083.

For more information, call 011 492 0709 or email danceumbrella@artslink.co.za.