August 16, 2004
By Chandrea Gerber
THE week-long New Dance Festival, on at the Wits Theatre and the Dance Factory from 15 to 22 August, promises an exciting programme with offerings from both local and African choreographers.
Launched last year, the festival will also include a conference for African and European art practitioners, Africonnexions. This follows a conference held in Madagascar last year that raised the need for a platform where local and international dance industry stakeholders could meet.
In addition, the Informal European Theatre Management satellite meeting will also be held between 18 and 22 August in partnership with the New Dance Festival and the Performing Arts Network of South Africa.
'Ori' choreographed by Nigerian Adedayo Muslim Liadi
The Africonnexions/Informal European Theatre Management conference will give delegates an opportunity to discover the artistic scene in southern Africa and will include presentations from selected South African arts practitioners about the current situation within the contemporary dance sector.
Delegates will be taken to selected art spaces in Joburg, as well as participate in informal meetings with local organisers and arts management.
A one-day training session in arts and cultural management, presented by Danny Hearty, the former training and development manager for the UK Independent Theatre Council, will be a highlight of the conference. The workshop, entitled 'Getting your act together', will focus on enabling participants to see how "good art thrives on good management".
The 'Africonnexions' conference is open to anyone interested or involved in the arts and dance sector. For a full programme, click here.
Anyone interested in Hearty's workshop should contact Dineo on 011 482 5615.
Tickets for the New Dance Festival, which runs to 22 August, cost R65 and are available through Computicket on 011 340 8000, or at http://www.computicket.com. Concessions include tickets for R50 per performance for all three programmes, and a discount for students, block bookings of 10 or more and pensioners.
For more information contact Georgina Thomson on 011 482 4140 or log on to www.artslink.co.za/arts.
The Programme
'Ori' and 'Um Solo Para Cinco'
On Monday 16 August at the Wits Theatre at 7.30pm
Nigerian Adedayo Muslim Liadi of Compagnie Ljodee, the winner of the African Indian Ocean Choreographers Competition held in Madagascar last year, presents 'Ori', in which traditional dance and music, sometimes reminiscent of trance dancing, are employed as a source of imagination. 'Ori', which means 'the head', is a spiritual divinity connected to the power of intuitive creation.
Augusto Cuvilas from Projecto Cuvilas in Mozambique, runner-up in the competition, presents a controversial ode to femininity, 'Um Solo Para Cinco', that features a cast of five women in kindergarten, palys on the theme . The piece, which draws on the theme "woman is the future of man", was a talking point at the Madagascar Festival for the nude scene that developed with the work.
'Virtually Blond'
On Tuesday 17 August and Wednesday 18 August at the Wits Theatre at 7.30pm
In collaboration with the Moving into Dance Mophatong Company (MIDM), Gregory Maqoma presents 'Virtually Blond', an emotionally charged work that deals with how the body unconsciously reveals one's hidden narratives.
"How much of ourselves are we prepared reveal to others and to the self?" and "What do we keep hidden or secret, and why?" are questions Maqoma and the dancers ask, creating an evocative landscape in which the performers confront their histories.
Acclaimed designers Jacques van der Watt and Savanna Sesor, of Black Coffee, created the costumes, and George Motaung was commissioned to compose a music score for the work. Nhlanhla Mahlangu of MIDM created the poetry and the text that will be performed with the piece.
'Mind'
On Thursday 19 August and Friday 20 August at the Wits Theatre at 7.30pm
South African choreographer Reginald Danster teams up with the dancers from Projecto Cuvilas of Mozambique to create a new collaborative work 'Mind', which sees a team of four members of the Junior Company of Mozambique join forces with three South African dancers, hosted by the Soweto Dance Theatre.
The Mixed Bill programme
On Saturday 21 August and Sunday 22 August at the Dance Factory at 7.30pm
The Jazzart Dance Company of Cape Town will present an array of works in a mixed bill programme to end off the festival.
The programme includes 'Umoya Umzansi', choreographed by Alfred Hinkel, winner of the FNB best choreography award in 1998, 'Water' by John Linden, 'Crux' by Amanda Fuch, and a new untitled work from Ina Wichterich.
The programme is presented by New Dance in association with the Dance Factory and the Johannesburg Development Agency.
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