New Dance has full programme

Over a fortnight in September, cutting edge contemporary dance will have a home in Joburg. On the programme is the “performative art” of the Spanish choreographer La Ribot.
GEORGE Bernard Shaw said that dancing was a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire, but in Joburg dance will become a feast in September with New Dance 2011.

Body of Knowledge 3 by Vusi Mkhanya and Didier BoutianaBody of Knowledge 3 by Vusi Mkhanya and Didier BoutianaNew Dance 2011 is a platform for contemporary dance, which will be presented at the Dance Factory in Newtown, GoetheonMain at Arts on Main, and the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange, from 6 to 18 September.

This year’s official programme was launched at the Dance Space in Newtown on 2 August by Georgina Thomson, the artistic director of the festival. She said that New Dance 2011 happened by accident this year after joining new partners at the last minute who were willing to fund the programme.

One of the main focuses of New Dance was to showcase up-and-coming choreographers and dancers.

Funded by the Goethe Institut, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council and Arts Alive 2011, New Dance offered an opportunity for Joburg dance lovers to discover local and international work, said Di Sparks, the festival’s public relations officer.

A triple bill opens the programme on 6 and 7 September at 7.30pm at the Dance Factory. It comprises: To Be Continued by Bailey Snyman, which looks at how people are too attached to the past and how they hold on to what they are familiar with and therefore miss opportunities; Ivan Teme’s Unknown Equation; and Une Rupture by Fana Tshabalala, which looks at how it is not what we see with our naked eye that defines the content and context of the structure but that usually what one sees tends to camouflage the reality.

Next up is the work of the Congolese choreographer, Faustin Linyekula, More More More … Future, on 9 and 10 September at the Dance Factory. This work is presented in partnership with the Goethe Institut.

Sparks said: “Linyekula uses music to reflect on a country where everything has to be rebuilt each and every morning; he uses the evocative energy of guitars and voices to reflect on the difficulties, dead ends, mistakes and the poor legacies of their fathers and not to sustain the dreams – as thin as the cheap paper handkerchiefs sold in the streets of Kinshasa.”

Laughing Hole by La RibotLaughing Hole by La RibotAnd then there is a new installation work by Sello Pesa called Tshwene ga e ipone Makopo, presented in partnership with the Goethe Institut at the Market Hall in the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange building on 10 and 11 September at 5pm. The work is based on the Sepedi idiom: “It’s hard for people to notice their own mistakes but they always notice the mistakes in others.”

Pesa said the venue was once booming and was now abandoned “but to me it still has a lot of energy”.

Collaborations
Peter van Heerden stages an intervention with Andre Laubscher as the ERF (81) cultural collective, where he re-investigates the imagery of his award winning work, Bok. It was originally commissioned by Janse van Rensburg as part of the YAP Project in KwaZulu-Natal, and was presented at Constitution Hill by the FNB Dance Umbrella 2007.

Bok looked at historical executions in apartheid South Africa and the Anglo Boer War. Laubscher, Van Heerden and Van Rensburg spent 10 days on the road visiting geographical locations of staged executions, from Post Chalmers, the site of the Pepco Three execution; to Graaff Reinet, the execution site of Boer General Gideon Scheepers by British forces, noted Sparks.

It is performed at the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 10 September at 4pm, presented at New Dance 2011 in partnership with the Goethe Institut.

Then, Spanish choreographer La Ribot presents a series of works that will include a face-to-face interview discussing Mariachi No. 17.
Sparks explained that Mariachi No. 17 was a video created by La Ribot in 2009 for the performance Llámame Mariachi. In her video, she illustrates the moving body, filmed by a camera that not only captures images but also conveys the experience of dance.

At the time, La Ribot said: “The camera’s point of view provides an insider’s perspective on this experience and places it in other realities. It is not an innocent, lifeless camera that might move by accident because it is attached to the body, it is a camera that watches, that breathes; it is a camera that is … The camera is not a tool, an instrument, a fixed object, an invention. On the other hand, the body is used as an instrument and the camera becomes eye, brain, gaze, intention.”

The second work by La Ribot is PARAdistinguidas, performed at the Dance Factory on 14 September at 7.30pm.

La Ribot will present a second work entitled PARAdistinguidasLa Ribot will present a second work entitled PARAdistinguidas“This work marks the start of the fourth series of distinguished pieces, and with it she reconsiders the initial protocol and combines several themes and interests which have been a constant in her artistic work: the questioning of formal, conceptual and economical aspects of performing arts, and the collaboration with extras as a heterogeneous and compact human group. The works will each be presented once on 13 and 14 September at 7.30pm,” said Sparks.

Next on the programme is a mixed bill, featuring Catch On by Nicolas Aphane. It poses the questions: why does the product of creativity have to have a reference to someone of something? Do we need to do work that processes a certain knowledge or fact?

Songezo Mcilizeli’s Express explores themes of competitiveness, insecurities, stress and the anxiety of keeping time with the fast tracked progressiveness of everything that surrounds us. “Express is a glimpse into today’s life,” explained Mcilizeli.

Also on the mixed bill are three short works by the Tribhangi Dance Theatre – Spirit, choreographed by Nhlanhla Zwane, pays tribute to the legends of yesteryear by using bubblegum music and old school dance fused it with modern dance; Grace, choreographed by Jayesperi Moopen; and Element, by Sbonakaliso Ndaba.

Element is a combination of different beliefs and customs that make all of us who we are as individuals and embracing life. This programme will be at the Dance Factory on 15 and 16 September at 7.30pm.

Space and time
Five works make up the next programme:

Inception by Sonia Radebe – all living things have a beginning or what is perceived as its origin. This will be a short excerpt that will be presented in full in October 2011;
Silent Departure by Sonnyboy Motau – since time immemorial black people have been involved in struggle, either the fight for their clan names and territories, and later for freedom from political and social oppression;
A Moving World by Lucky Kele – an idea that explores the movement of world transformation. Sparks said this symbiotic theatre work focused on investigating the relationship of space, time and the body movement;
ReWind by Charles van Rooyen – a group piece he created at Vuyani Dance Theatre that reflects on how movement can explore emotions, cultures and traditions;
Public Oscillation by Thabo Rapoo, performed by Sibikwa Dance Arts Dance Company – this work enquires whether human beings are single entities, or are multiple beings with different internal and emotional forms that swing into life at the appropriate moment.

Peter van Heerden BOKPeter van Heerden will re-investigate his award-winning work BokThis programme takes place on 17 September at 7.30pm and 18 September at 3pm at the Dance Factory.

Ending New Dance 2011, a one-off performance of Laughing Hole by La Ribot is scheduled for GoetheonMain at Arts on Main on 17 September at 2.30pm.

“The floor of an empty room is covered with countless cardboard panels lying in what seem to be indiscriminate piles, one on top of the other. Some 900 cardboard signs featuring bizarre handwritten words are affixed to the walls with adhesive tape, one after the other. Shaken by eccentric laughter often indistinguishable from crying, the two performers continually throw themselves to the floor to then get up again,” explained Sparks.

In between, they raised their arms holding one of the written signs. Laughing Hole demonstrated how the terms “performance” and “exhibition”, once marking the difference between dance and fine art, had now in fact merged into “performative art”, she added.

All La Ribot’s works presented at New Dance 2011 are in partnership with Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council.

New Dance 2011 programmes will be presented at the Dance Factory in Newtown, except Tshwene Ga e ipone Makopo by Sello Pesa and Bok by Peter van Heerden, which can be seen at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, 17 Diagonal Street, Johannesburg; and Laughing Hole by La Ribot, which will be presented at GoetheonMain at Arts on Main.

Bookings for New Dance 2011 can be made through Computicket. Tickets are R40, excluding the Computicket service charge.