Dance: Craig Hedderwick
FOR just under a month, coinciding with Johannesburg’s Arts Alive festival, the Dance Factory in Newtown has showcased some of the most exciting contemporary choreography around in Dance ’95, which closed on a high note last weekend with a programme of festival highlights.
The Soweto Dance Theatre’s Elevated Underground, choreographed by Collen Hlatswayo, got proceedings off to a lively start. Clipped, almost frantic movement had the three young dancers working overtime. At the other end of the spectrum, Sizathu’s A Tribute to Kofifians and Their Seized Town, by Zakhele Nkosi, showed that dance does not have to be a series of pretty poses, but can tell a story with great humour.
Moving into Dance’s contribution was Vincent Mantsoe’s mesmerising Hanano: Blessing of the Earth. Premiered at the FNB Dance Umbrella in February, this work has matured to the extent that the cast is now totally at one with the intense choreography, style and music.
Jeannette Ginslov created Do or Die for the Johannesburg Dance Theatre. Her writhing choreography, based on “physical theatre” dynamics, communicates a final countdown for life in which only the strongest survive.
Debbie Rakusin and David Matamela’s Visions Dance Company, performing the tap routine from Simply Visions, got audience members to their feet in appreciation of the stylised precision of this highly energised group.
As a finale, a transformed Tony Bentel, Warren Human and Anton van Niekerk strutted in Step-sisters in Sync. Politely classified as a work of “performance art”, this camp drag act drew the final curtain on this enriching festival.
Apart from these works, other festival high points come to mind — in particular Candice Johnstone’s In This Heart, for the Pretoria Technikon. Johnstone used the haunting music of Sinead O’Connor to create an astoundingly complex work for the young students, requiring total concentration and mature insight .
Robyn Orlin also surmounted barriers, introducing the Soweto Dance Theatre to her individuality. In The Polka Dot Lives On (dedicated to street vendors and hawkers) a company that is comfortable with more traditional choreography was asked to expand in a new, more experimental direction. It is through such interactions of talent and experience that South African dance will be propelled into its exciting future.
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