Andrew Gilder The impending first collaboration between Cape Town’s two full-time, professional, dance companies – Cape Town City Ballet and Jazzart Dance Theatre – opens at the Nico this weekend. These two opposing poles of the dance spectrum have, for the past six years, been part of the same Arts Council structure (Capab and now Artscape), but have not previously shared a billing, despite arguments in favour of pooling their respective resources and talent. The Beyond the Borders season includes four pieces, two totally new to Cape Town audiences.
Patrick Delcroix of Nederlands Dans Theater is setting his work, Sous le rythme, je …, on a cast that combines dancers from the two companies and Moeketsi Koena is creating Diphorora (meaning waterfall in South Sotho), on a similarly mixed ensemble. Each company will also give a repertoire work. Jazzart are to dance Junction, which won a FNB choreography award in 1997, while Sean Bovim’s neo- classical Scaffolding, set to Bartok’s First Piano Concerto, is City Ballet’s offering.
Delcroix’s work was originally created on the (now defunct) Dutch modern-jazz company Djazzex and he is in Cape Town to restage the piece at the invitation of Artscape’s artistic manager, Nicolette Moses. >From Pau in the French Pyrenees, Delcroix’s classical training began in Cannes with former Balanchine principal dancer Rosella Hightower.
At 37 he would seriously consider working for Nederlands Dans Theater 3 – where the minimum age of the dancers is 40 years – but the lure of running his own company may prove stronger when he finally ends his own performing career. On how the South Africans are coping with his choreographic style he says: ”Dancers from both companies are having to fight to achieve what I want.” While the Jazzarters may have a better sense of movement, the City Ballet dancers – not usually permitted to stray from the classical idiom – demonstrate a clearer sense of line. ”It’s a modern piece, but still with a lot of classical references,” he says. The work is certain to appeal to regular Cape Town audiences, who do not warm easily to anything unusual in their dance fare. The music is created by the dancers on stage, the men laying down the rhythm for the women, and vice versa. Observing rehearsals one gets a sense of great power and vertical dynamic to the steps – nothing effete and insubstantial. Whereas Delcroix is teaching an extant work, Koena is making something completely new. He has long felt a strong affinity for water and has wanted to explore its fluidity, beauty and percussiveness in dance.
Diphorora is an abstract representation of these elements. Koena works by bringing to the studio information from research he has done, or movement phrases he has devised. This material is then workshopped, under his direction, by the 12-person cast – a process that is proving a novelty for some. ”Every piece I make is a new experience for me,” says Koena. ”I want the performers to give something of themselves to the work and hope that they will approach the piece with open minds.” Koena regards himself as a hybrid of choreographer and director. He says: ”I believe dance is more about the feel than the look, so I try not to give too many specific corrections on how to do a step. Rather I like to let the dancers experience where their bodies naturally take them.” Koena is co-artistic director for Inzalo Dance Theatre Company based in Gauteng. Dancers of both ensembles are clearly having to discard preconceptions of whether they are purely classical or contemporary dancers, and engage with the diverse styles of both choreographers. Given the uncertainty of the South African dance scene, especially in light of the demise of the State Theatre Ballet Company, the respective managements would do well to copy this ”inclusive” example. The season promises to be a highlight of the Cape Town winter dance calendar. Beyond the Borders is on at the Nico Opera House, Cape Town, from July 21 to 30