Andrew Gilder
Four works, originating from Cape Town’s currently fertile dance environment, can be seen at the Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees (KKNK), which kicks off in Oudsthoorn on April 7.
Each represents a different facet of the art form and each?will be made compulsory viewing if a visit to the festival is to get a sense?of which direction dance performance is taking in South Africa.
The festival marks the return to the national dance scene of Tossie van?Tonder after an absence of 13 years. At the time of her departure?from the stage, in the late 1980s, Van Tonder had developed a reputation?for imagistic dance theatre that stretched the envelope of what South African audiences expected from dance performers. Her resolution to remain?true to her own creative instinct brought both accolades and vilification.?
Hailed by some as ahead of her time, many dance-watchers (often including the press) dismissed the work as nonsense. Now though she has returned in?as uncompromising form as ever with Opus, which carries with it the sub-text of the ”restoration and claiming of white integrity in Africa”.?
Van Tonder’s voice and movement is accompanied by Francois le Roux’s subtle?and textured cello and voice performance. The work, which recently enjoyed a short season at Christopher Kindo’s Full Circle Dance Centre, divides in?two sections with Van Tonder first narrating, and then moving, through ”a?personal and political quest for the individual’s truth in the arena of uncertainty”. Poignant images (for example, Van Tonder wedged into a corner?keening for release), emerge and fade, while the very confined performance?space brings the audience into close contact with the performers. Given the?context of this country’s frantic search for a sense of integration between?its people, and Van Tonder’s own clear identity as an Afrikaner,?Opus’s opening words, ”I am not an African”, place it at the forefront of South African socio-political discourse.
Two other works at KKNK stem from the director’s use of imagery as the?motivation for movement. One is the Carolina Rosa Dance Theatre’s preview, Ewebeelde/Imagines, the latest creation of artistic director Carolina?Rosa at the University of Cape Town school of dance. While staying within the?company’s chosen genre of Flamenco dance, the new work extends the?boundaries of the style from pure dance into the area of representational?theatre. Ewebeelde/Imagines is based on the first volume of poetry (Ewebeelde), from Afrikaans poet Joan Hambidge, who has given her?personal sanction to the work. Hambidge writes of the piece: ”Ewebeelde?is in Spanje geskryf hierom werk die gedigte saam met so ‘n vertolking [Ewebeelde was written in Spain that’s why the poems works with such an interpretation].”?
Tango del Fuego was presented as part of the Oude Libertas Amphitheatre’s 2001 summer season. Directed by Marthinus Basson and?featuring the acting talent of Antoinette Kellerman and Dawid Minnaar, the?work is based in tango dance and music and, in true Basson style, is?layered with theatrical imagery. The compositions of tango maestro Astor?Piazzolla, performed by a live tango orchestra, create the musical mood for?the piece that features the dance talent of Mark Hoeben and Ina Fortune.?
Critical reaction to the Stellenbosch season was mixed. A major criticism?levelled at Tango del Fuego was the paucity of dance. In the?90 minutes of performance Hoeben and Fortune are given but one chance?to strut their smouldering stuff, while the seemingly interminable?scene setting for the narrative line appears to take precedence. Though?based firmly in a dance genre, the work can better be regarded as theatre of images rather than merely a danced performance.?
In light of the convolutions of dance and theatre found in the three pieces?already mentioned, the conviction of Rotterdam-based choreographer Piet?Roggie to stick to pure dance as the vehicle for his creative output will?no doubt come as a relief to some.
Roggie is in South Africa at the?invitation of Cape Town dancer and choreographer Jackie Job, who first saw his company performing in Holland in 1999. Panorama is a work made for?five dancers in which Roggie takes a retrospective look at his own work?and contemplates its future progression.
Roggie is a modern-dance?choreographer who utilises the potential for movement inherent in bodies?trained in classical, contemporary and nu-dance styles. Simon Rowe, an award-winning South?African dancer now working in Holland, returns briefly to his?home country’s stages as part of the XCLAIM! season, which also features a solo work of Job’s entitled U.
Cape Town audiences can catch the tail end of XCLAIM!’s debut season at the Nico Arena on April 7?at 2.30pm and 4pm