Programme Three of the dance section of Arts Alive was devoted to contemporary South Africans. Young choreographers whose work is growing in popularity are collaborating with independent companies and teaching institutions to create intriguing new dance pieces.
Andile Sotiya’s Billboard paraded as its meaning the frivolity of fashion and the pressure of conformity, using a full company of eight from the Technikon Pretoria dance department. The piece was a good attempt at the kind of dance seen two weeks ago in Programme One – namely, Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Rosas in Drumming – but it didn’t live up to expectations. Sotiya tried too hard to impart meaning, rather than interesting movement, and so the dancers strutted about looking cryptically at each other while a voice over said, commandingly, “Decide!”
Choreographer Portia Lebohang Mashigo’s While They Were Singing was funkier and managed to transport the audience to a higher place than the piece before. Using individuals from Moving into Dance, it was more a celebration of rhythm and groove than an attempt to say anything of deep significance. The costumes were awful, though – appliquéd tracksuit trousers and white lines painted on faces – but the point of the dance at least made sense. In her programme notes, Mashigo said: “The choreographer finds her place in society where a woman can rejoice in her strength.”
Thanks to National Arts Council funding, the elusive Elu managed to perform his newest work, Sacrum. This exercise in in-your-face near-nudity is puzzling and intended to have optimum shock value. To music by the Smashing Pumpkins, wearing a scant costume by Steven Cohen, he did a lot of tumbling and posing about the stage, at times displaying his genitalia and backside. The audience, of course, was reduced to tears of laughter. A display that was supposed to grind like a metal chainsaw came across like a dabbing with pink cotton wool. Unfortunately, Elu just isn’t the heavy he’d like to be.
One further piece followed – Reginald Danster’s Untitled – to the strains of traditional Japanese music. This exercise in pure Busby Berkeley contemporary South African dance was meaningless, but made some pretty pictures.
A condensed version of PJ Sabbagha’s Noah’s Phobia rounded off the evening. To fabulous music by the Kronos Quartet and Jaques Brel, the piece – the only one vaguely narrative – related the travels of two pioneering photographers in Central Africa. Actor Gerard Bester provided some intentionally misplaced but provocative monologues while the dancers did their thing in blue raincoats and everyday dress. Noah’s Phobia was quite beautiful, reminding one of the early plays of Chris Pretorius – the recently revived Dark Continent, to be precise.
For Arts Alive, the inclusion in their programme of lesser known, new contemporary South African choreographers is a big plus. It’s a bit of a pity, though, that the choreographers chosen, representing some of the new leaders in the field, chose to present work of a dowdy nature, largely lacking spark.