On Sunday, 4 December, the 2nd Cape Town International Dance Festival travels to Stellenbosch for the closing performance of its four-day 2016 festival.
A programme of world-class and ground-breaking contemporary dance will feature the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance’s BODHI Project (Austria), the young and all-male hybrid company, 10 Hairy Legs (USA) as well as work by esteemed Hungarian-born Dutch choreographer, Krisztina de Châtel, and company. Also on the programme is South African choreographer, Kirvan Fortuin’s work, After 9, and Cape Town-based Underground Dance Theatre’s award-winning, In Opstanding, a State Theatre commissioned project.
The performance starts at 8:15pm and tickets are R180 through Computicket.
Full Programme:
1. 10 Hairy Legs
Celebrating the artistry of the male dancer, 10 Hairy Legs is an all-male repertory dance company performing existing and newly commissioned works. Since our founding in 2012, we have commissioned 12 works from choreographers Doug Varone, Doug Elkins, Tiffany Mills, Manuel Vignoulle, Julie Bour, Megan Williams and founder Randy James. In 2015 10 Hairy Legs launched 10 HL Projects, which includes women for specific productions outside of the all male company. The first of these was a new full-length work based upon C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, choreographed by James that had its World Premiere at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in January 2016.
Presents, Together We Stand
This work was commissioned by 10 Hairy Legs and received its World Premiere at The Theatre at Raritan Valley Community College on November 24, 2013. “Warriors know that the group is always stronger, more impressive, more powerful than isolated individuals. As a unique and indispensable extension of the others, no one can be left aside. If one falls, they all as a tribe, fall. In this state of emergency, to avoid losing a part of themselves, whatever happens, together they stand”. Manuel Vignoulle.
Choreography: Manuel Vignoulle
Cast: Robert Mark Burke, Alex Davis Clayton, Jared McAboy, Cameron McKinney, Alexander Olivieri
2. Underground Dance Theatre
Underground Dance Theatre is a collective of artists exploring new performance styles at the meeting point contemporary performance and dance theatre. The company use a collaborative approach to discover original movement and images that redefine the limits of performance. Underground Dance Theatre is directed by Kristina Johnstone, Thalia Laric and Steven van Wyk. Most recent awards include the Kyknet Fiesta Award for Best Dance Production for the work Skoonveld (2014) and the Kyknet Blou Stoel Award for Most Groundbreaking New Work for Askoop (2016).
Presents, In Opstanding
In Opstanding breaks with the conventional setting of a song cycle by expanding the performance space through dance. This interdisciplinary work for four female performers explores the fragility of change in the cycles of life. With sensitivity to the song cycle’s art of complex and subtle collaboration, In Opstanding draws iconic Afrikaans poetry into a song cycle for piano, voice and dance. In Opstanding was commissioned by the South African State Theatre in October 2016.
Directors / Choreographers: Thalia Laric and Kristina Johnstone
Cast: Robin Botha (Soprano), Coila-Leah Enderstein (Pianist), Cilna Katzke and Thalia Laric (Dancers)
INTERVAL
3. De Châtel sur Place
Hungarian-born choreographer Krisztina de Châtel has made around 70 choreographies and two dance films. She is driven by a rare urge for innovation, while remaining true to herself. She is open to new cultural developments and frequently seeks to collaborate with other artists. She has also initiated projects with new media and virtual space, skate boys, garbage men, dervishes and various other striking combinations. In the last few years there have been significant shifts in her style and in Krisztina de Châtel’s vision of dance. For while the dancers’ technique and the work’s composition remain important, she reflects on the philosophical implications of the performance: what it says about the Zeitgeist and the world we live in. Krisztina de Châtel’s productions increasingly reflect her views of society.
Presents, Waltz
Krisztina de Châtel presents the choreography Waltz (2010) which explores the theme of war. Waltz is energetic, powerful and meaningful and strongly appeals to the imagination. It portrays a group of people who are trying to keep up appearances. Even in times of crisis, war and sadness, they waltz on, like a machine, a human automaton. The individual rises up and tries to extract himself from the collective.
Cast: Alicia Verdú Macián, Anna Sara Fiero, Ellen Houck, Francisco Pinho, Kirvan Fortuin, Martina Orlandi
Rehearsal Director: Dries van der Post
4. Salzburg Experimental Academy of Music (SEAD) BODHI Project
BODHI Project is an Artist-in-Practice dance programme that offers the postgraduate student a professional company year daily training and technique; working with internationally recognized choreographers; participating in the creation of new work; and performing regularly, including on international tour. It is the space between an institution of higher dance education and a professional company. Students who show exceptional artistic qualifications and who have completed a professional dance training programme can be considered for the company year.
Presents, Ubuntu , choreographed by Sita Ostheimer
“Only those who have worked intensely with one choreographer will understand what it does to your body and mind. I worked with Hofesh Shechter for many years. It is not a style, it is a philosophy, which enables the dancers to understand their own bodies and to develop material in a playful manner. It is his approach to movement, work and life which I relate to. For me any movement coming from the human instinct is animalistic and joyous. I move from this organic base and try to bring this into my pieces. You say to me: Look at us. Tell me, do you see?
How much am I manipulated by the others and how much do I manipulate myself?
How much of me is left without you?
We try again and again, we begin again and again
In comparison to the expansiveness and age of our universe and beyond, our lives don’t even equate to the blink of an eye. Look at us.
This is me, this is you, this is us.
I am because we are.
Look at us, you see? Again and again, begin again.”
Choreography: Sita Ostheimer
Cast: Camilla Teixeira de Oliveira, Dimitri Kalaitzidis, Juliette Valerio, László Takács, Michele Ferrer and Simon Kriisen .
5. Members of Cape Town City Ballet
Kirvan Fortuin is a South African born choreographer and dancer currently residing in the Netherlands. He studied and graduated from University of Cape Town (Dance Teachers Diploma) and Codarts University for the Arts (BA: Performer). Kirvan has performed in works by Jan Martens, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Mamela Nyamza and Cora Bos Kroese, touring to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Poland. He currently works as freelance dancer, choreographer, and most recently, festival organizer for the Stichting Festival Voor Afrikaans where he coordinates the dance programme for the Afrikaanse Kultuurfees Amsterdam. Kirvan also dances for De Châtel Sur Place.
Presents, After Nine
Set in a minimal space with minimal lighting, After 9 is a performance of considerable virtuosity and maturity. The work takes audiences on a journey through the world of the performers, being entertaining and interactive. After 9 is technical, high pitched, bold and unpredictable in many ways. Consisting of complex movement patterning and intricate partnering work in the duets, keeping audiences amused and attentive.
Choreography: Kirvan Fortuin
Dancers: Mariette Opperman, Craig Pedro, Hannah Ward, Nicola Volker, Vuyo Mahashe, Kirvan Fortuin