Andrea Vinassa gets in step with the new improved 11th FNB Vita Dance Umbrella
Somehow the 11th of anything doesn’t seem all that auspicious, well, not from a marketing point of view anyway. But much about the 11th FNB Vita Dance Umbrella is new and improved. There’s a lot to indicate that the festival has matured into a fully fledged dance festival like Jacob’s Pillow, held annually in New York.
Not that the Umbrella didn’t always provide audiences with some excellent programming. It’s just that the old Umbrella was a bit too much like a lucky packet: you could choose the one with the big plastic diamond or you could get the dud. And organiser Georgina Thomson concurs: “We aimed to provide a platform for new work, so there was no guarantee of quality.”
Last year’s 10th anniversary was celebrated with much fanfare and a month-long programme, but behind the scenes choreographers grumbled about the unevenness of the programming. So the jamboree was followed by a serious forum at the Dance Factory where choreographers, dance-lovers, critics and other interested parties aired their grievances. The major complaint was that programming was structured “blind” and sometimes audiences would have to sit through a lot of mediocre work in the name of giving everyone a fair chance. Built into the Dance Umbrella’s raison d’tre is to give unseen works of inexperienced choreographers a chance, resulting in little or no quality control.
To everyone’s relief a compromise was reached and a selection committee was nominated. Choreographers were requested to send videos of their work. Thus the festival shifted from a largely experimental mishmash to a far more professional and audience-oriented festival. The new structure should keep the angst-ridden pas de deux with the kitchen chair to a minimum. Thomson says she was planning to go back to the customary two- and-a-half week schedule, but after receiving over 150 entries she realised that a month-long fest was here to stay.
Several improvements can be noted in this year’s line-up: the team has made sure that each evening will highlight one or more pieces by a renowned or well-established choreographer with several “supporting acts”. “This year we are also marketing more aggressively,” says Thomson.
Grumbling aside, no one would argue that the Dance Umbrella is not the reason for South Africa’s vibrant dance culture. In the 11 years since critics Adrienne Sichel and Marilyn Jenkins pooled their energies to initiate a dance festival with the help of FNB Vita’s Phillip Stein, several waves of new choreographers have been nurtured. Choreographers like Vincent Mantsoe, who cut his dancing teeth as a member of Moving into Dance, and ex-Pact Dance Company dancer Boyzie Cekwana, whose works first aroused interest on the Dance Umbrella, have leapt into the limelight.
Says Thomson: “Both of these choreographers’ work was first seen on the Fringe and I remember that when they started to perform you could feel the audience sit up and take notice.” Yes, they were talented, but might not have been afforded the relative safety of the experimental fringe were it not for the Dance Umbrella.
There’s Mantsoe’s Afro-fusion, Gary Gordon’s in-your-face physical dance and Jackie Semela of the Soweto Dance Theatre who has created his own African contemporary style. Think too of PJ Sabbagha’s dynamism and Robyn Orlin’s rare fusion of performance, fine art and satire.
The search for a uniquely South African style is perhaps a wild goose chase, given the wide variety of traditions, from ballet to Indlamu, from Martha Graham to performance art. The Next Wave includes young choreographers like David Matamela (Touch and Go on February 25 and 26), Sello Pesa (Untitled on March 19 and 20) and Moeketsi Koena of the Soweto Dance Theatre (Untitled on March 10 and 12).
Apart from being a “free professional platform for the performance of original contemporary choreography in new works”, the Dance Umbrella is also a favourite haunt of the foreign talent-spotters. Many of the embassies attend the Umbrella to scout for candidates for exchange programmes. The embassies you are most likely to bump into are the German and the Dutch, with the United States Information Service running a close third. Dancers have found it impossible to make a living inside the country, and companies such as Jazzart, Moving into Dance and the Soweto Dance Theatre are finding themselves increasingly invited to international festivals.
The presence of the Nordic countries will be felt this year, on and off the stage. Programme eight (on March 15 and 17) and nine (March 16 and 18) feature work created as part of the Nordic Shuttle 99 exchange programme sponsored by the Nordic Council of Ministers. You can see Moving into Dance’s Cristina Caprioli’s Coherent Policy and Norwegain Reijo Kela’s untitled piece, as well as Virpi Pakhinen’s Sinopia – in dialogue with the red mountain.
Another dancer here courtesy of the Nordic Shuttle is Mark von Runxt, a member of the Flemish group Hyena, who will be presenting Antropomorph. Not to be upstaged in the animal stakes is Les Chiens, by French choreographers Joelle Bouvier and Regis Obadia, sponsored by the French Institute of South Africa. The only performance of this piece is on February 27 and is accompanied by Vincent Mantsoe’s trilogy, Gula, Mpheyane and Phokwane.
Durban’s Fantastic Flying Fish Company has already benefited from a trip to Norway and their piece, I Looked Behind and He Was Drowning, is a direct result of watching a company who “dance in ponds and forests”, according to artistic director Mark Hawkins. “We watched them dancing in water, but they weren’t really using the medium very well. So I turned to Alfred Hinkel from Jazzart, who was also there, and said: `I’m gonna do it before you do.'” The piece, (March 10 and 12) is a narrative performed in a pool of water. “It’s beautiful and the lighting is incredible and the water adds another dimension. It’s all about drowning, not always literally, but has the violinist from Landscape Prayers, Anton Cawthorn-Blazeby, also standing in the water, playing the violin.”
In addition to the young choreographers’ grants initiated some years ago, this year sees the introduction of commissions. Nine established choreographers have received upfront funding – Business and Arts South Africa have lent a helping hand here – to create works to form the “main attraction” of each evening. Watch out for: Christian Xolani of the border Youth Dance Company in the Eastern Cape, Mandla Mcunu of the State Theatre Dance Company, Jackie Semela, Gladys Agulhas, Mark Hawkins, Tony Campbell of ZAPAC in Sasolburg, Dawn Langdown of the Namakwalandse Dansgeselskap and Susan Abraham, artistic director of the North West Dance Company.
Nobody has ever heard of the North West Dance Company, so it bears a special mention. It is one of three funded companies in the country and contains the remnants of the Bop Dance Company. Two years ago Susan Abraham, an ex-gymnast and ex-member of Jazzart and the Pact Dance Company, arrived to head up this eclectic group of dancers, some of whom only have a ballroom and Latin American dance background. Her offering is called Human Behaviour, inspired by a Bjork song of the same name. The choreographer, whose signature is athleticism tinged with subtle emotion, says she is concerned with beauty in movement and this piece deals with the complexity of human relationships.
Young choreographers are not being neglected. “We created the New Moves category for inexperienced choreographers which can be seen on March 6 and 7,” says Thomson. And Stepping Stones, for community dance groups, attracted over 60 groups last week to perform works ranging from ballet to pantsula to breakdancing to contemporary Zulu.
>From now on at least one established choreographer will receive a grant to mount a full-length piece. This year’s recipient is Robyn Orlin whose work, Daddy, I’ve Seen This Piece Six Times and I Still Don’t Know Why They’re Fighting, you can see on March 13 and 14. “She is having a lot of fun, so the piece is definitely humorous,” hints Thomson.
The performance on Sunday will be followed by a Face-2-Face discussion where choreographers are invited to debate issues relating to contemporary choreography.
Another special inclusion is Jeanette Ginslov’s Written in Blood (March 17 only) which won the State Theatre National Choreographic Competition in 1998. Performed only once by the State Theatre Dance Company, the piece is based on a farm killing incident Ginslov found in last year’s headlines.
“This piece tries to articulate what all of us feel about the violence with which we are bombarded every day, but I am also trying to push the envelope of dance language in South Africa. Dancers find it difficult to deal with the spoken word, so I have challenged them on that level,” says Ginslov.
Part of the piece is choreographed to a poem which reads like the thoughts of a person being stabbed to death. Ginslov is a veteran of the Dance Umbrella and a very vocal participant in the debate around creating a contemporary local dance style.
Another choreographer who won’t let us go home without first forcing us to confront the reality outside the theatre is Elu whose emotionally wrenching Triestesse is ripped straight from the headlines (February 26 only). Unfortunately enfant terrible Stephen Cohen had to pull out of the fest, but his presence will be felt in the design of Elu’s costume.