Arriving to Bates a few days late, I felt that I had to hit the ground running but soon realized that running will not always get you to your destination and might just end up exhausting you. I can’t rush things and need to allow reflection to take its place in my process. Sharing will help too and I am hopeful that the showing tomorrow will give me the information needed to push through.

I find solo work to be particularly challenging, because it can be a lonely practice. I often end up prematurely judging the exploration at hand, wanting to fix it before it has a chance to be. Nevertheless, a solo is most certainly what I want to focus on during this residency. It is important to me to dance in my own work and I’m not comfortable placing myself in a group piece. Solo work is my chance to truly embody my process  and the pleasure of experiencing this physicality first hand cannot be matched. I remind myself of the agony of past beginnings and am assured that the process will gain momentum. Here at Bates, I am given precious time and resources to develop this work that I have wanted to make for a while now. With teaching and touring during the school year I have not succeeded in making it a priority. Here and now it is.

Deborah (Goffe) and I have talked about this shared loneliness and have decided to work in the same studio on Sunday, each with our own process but in the same space. Part of what is missing is simply another presence, which can offer support and a witness to the process. Witnessing from many perspectives so naturally happens in a group creation and I realize now that this is a big part of what I am craving. So, tomorrow I share and add witnesses to my process.

Tuesday the 27^th:

The last few days have been very productive and I feel that I have pushed through. The informal showing on Sunday night was a big part of that. Not only was it helpful for the feedback but also for the “mistakes” and the chance to just get the dance out of my head and into the space. I am working with projection for the first time and, yes; there is a learning curve. Dawn (Stoppiello) helped me set things up and I love that I can so easily have access to her whenever a question pops into my head.

The work is gaining momentum, I know that because ideas are rushing in and out of my head at all times of the day, especially when I am trying to sleep. I am thinking of adding another video and have begun working with four lovely dancers in order to add witnesses to the solo. Thanks Deborah (Goffe), Diana (Deaver), Meredith (Robinson), and Philip (Montana). Today, I invited Vic (Victoria Marks) into my rehearsal and was really excited about our conversation. I can’t wait to do this again. This process confirms that it is crucial for me to share while I am making, make then share, make again, share again.

Witness to the process/Helen Simoneau is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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Now I can add Chapters from a Broken Novel to that list.

Chapters began its creative life about a year ago at our annual Summer Intensive at Purchase College. In many ways, it has served as a conduit to explore all the different facets that intrigue me choreographically. I love creating dances that explore extremes: large and physical, minute and detailed, emotionally complex. Chapters is an opportunity for me to create an entire world of these dances under one cover. And the creative journey for the past year has been exactly what I needed as an artist; a way of delving into what I know, and ultimately finding new methods of exposing that.

Each of the 22 chapters is based on a short quotation or thought and each chapter has a title that is evocative of that quote. They range in length from 22 seconds to 7 minutes. Individually, most can stand on their own as separate dances and they were specifically made that way. When placed together, they have the potential to imply a narrative and for me this has been the truly thrilling aspect of the creation process.

This dance can be ANYTHING I want it to be.

How rare to make a work that can be accessed in a variety of ways and never lose its integrity. As a full evening length work, the dance runs approximately 80 minutes. It can be played with or without intermission. A 50-minute version can also be created that has fluid continuity to it; as well, a 30-minute version of selected Chapters can share the stage with other repertory works. Finally, many of these dances can be seen as separate units.

The past two weeks at Bates has been a great opportunity to hone the evening. I am continuing to make edits and give detail to each of the Chapters. I love this part of the process, as I generally work in outline for a majority of a creative process and wait until I am ready to craft the dance completely. More often than not, information later in the process defines ideas and motifs that I created earlier.

The days are long here but very inspiring, as always. I am teaching from 9-12:30 every day. Then I hop on my trusty Fuji bike and head off for a quick lunch. Rehearsals with the Company begin at 1:30 and end at 6pm. We are rehearsing in the gym at New Life, a Community Church down the road from the main campus. The space is incredibly generous and the creative vibe has been wonderful. Each day, we are visited by young children who have come to New Life to play at the Toy Library in the basement. I love watching their faces (and their parent’s) when they step into the room to watch the dance and dancers. There is an innocence and truth in people who are not regularly exposed to our lifestyle, and it reminds me daily of the unique role we play as artists.

We also get to play with Weekly, a year old Great Dane puppy that lives at the Center. He is the size of a small horse and has no idea he is that large. Lovely to watch him navigate.

My composer, David Van Teighem is still hard at work finishing up some notes I gave him this weekend. This has been an amazing collaboration and the dialogue of what is musically needed and when, has been a great learning lesson for me. The score he has written is incredibly diverse, each chapter sounding like a different world, and this has sent my imagination reeling.

As we head back into the studio tomorrow, there are at least three more sections that I want to strip away and clean out. Then we’ll show the work on Thursday evening.

More later.

From Doug Varone: creating Chapters from a Broken Novel is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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I return.  A Bates alum, I have not set foot on this campus for two years.  I revisit.  This festival I love, the people I love.  This is my third summer of three weeks at BDF.  I reinvent.  Same festival, but I have evolved.  There is fresh purpose driving me forward.

This year I return not just to dance, but to document.  In collaboration with Victor Lazaro, I am working on a series of videos about the Youth Arts Program (YAP) and the Emerging Choreographers.  I return as a dancer, (notice the subtraction of the word “college”) who knows what it is to struggle to find work that works around rehearsals (or vice versa).  There is new found glory I now relish in as I go throughout my classes.  Dancing all day in a huge space with people who push me to reach greater heights is a treat I no longer take for granted.  I am now a dance teacher, and thus class is not only about my own technique and expression, but also about paying attention to the flow of class and ways to correct students positively and effectively.

And I am not the only one returning to Bates.  Like birds migrating back home in the summer after a winter spent in the tropics, we are a community of artists returning to our haven.  We are here for a second, third… thirteenth time.  The returning educating artists: Doug Varone, Cathy Young, Michael Foley…  The musicians: Shamou, Peter Jones, Jesse Manno… (TO NAME A FEW.)  My fellow dancers whose faces I recognize from… that Modern IV class I took three years ago?!

This summer I am dancing in Omar Carrum and Claudia Lavista’s repertory piece.  They were here as International Visiting Artists when I was here in 2007, and Omar and I shared the same “were you here…?” moment I have shared with so many this past week.  For their rep, we are recreating a piece (Lleno y vacío) that was originally set on their company, Delfos Danza Contemporanea.  Yet another example of artists returning here to revisit and reinvent.

We are all here looping.  But unlike the random media generated loops we watched Troika Ranch get stuck in (during Dawn Stoppiello’s Dance & Media talk on Thursday), we are using the past to launch ourselves into new territory.  We are honing our skills and experimenting with novel ideas.  Now with one third of the festival behind us, let’s remember to continue to dive out of the safety of our habits, and dare to re-[fill in the blank].

To sign off, I share with you a quote that resonated with me from this week: “It’s not about going against tradition, it’s about using it as a source.” ~Panaibra Gabriel (in response to a question about tradition and dance at the Global Exchange Panel)

Alissa Horowitz

The Three R’s is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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Despite my gratitude for this amazing community I’ve been invited to infiltrate, I have chosen to face the emptiness of the studio alone here as well – a necessary evil. It’s been much needed medicine to return to the same room morning after morning, wait for the work to reveal itself in some small way … and then to listen for it in conversation or class or the fleeting thought caught in transit to and from the dining hall.

A promising Monday led to a seemingly unproductive Tuesday. Wednesday redeemed itself with improvisations caught on camera and divided into small clips. Thursday got me singing and dancing. There’s something’s due any day. I will know right away, soon as it shows.

The material I’m interested in making is still a little too close. I knew this would be the case. Only two weeks have passed since my Hartford-based dance company, Scapegoat Garden, performed the first incarnation of (re)Birth. Throughout the process of building that work, I have believed it could/should also have a life as a solo. Two weeks isn’t nearly enough time for me to gain adequate perspective … distance. But I’m choosing to process within a compressed timeframe, which has been an important theme all year. I don’t have attachments to this fast pace in the long term, but for now I am willing to put time to the test, meeting potential alone in the studio again this morning.

Less alone (from Deborah Goffe) is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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Sadly this is my last day in Joburg. I wish I could stay longer  to continue dialogue with members of the dance community. I have learned a lot during my short stay but there is so much more to know.  I regret having to miss the last two performances by Boyzie and Erik.

I attend the afternoon talk with Mamela Nyambza, Mcebesi Bhayi and Sbonakaliso Ndaba whose works will be performed this evening on a triple bill. It is an honor to get to know these artists through their own words and I am deeply moved by their intelligence and commitment. Mamela is an incredible striking woman with a passionate nature. A native of Capetown, she makes work about controversial issues and events. From the sounds of it pretty radical stuff.  She was trained in ballet, modern and jazz, spent a year at Ailey and performed in “The Lion King” before returning to Capetown to “do something interesting and different from her past.” She is currently working on a piece entitled “Shift” based on the real life killings of lesbian soccer players in South Africa. She has also been commissioned by the British Council to create a video installation for London’s City Hall to inaugurate an exhibition about racism in soccer.

Sbo is a strong, direct and totally down to earth individual who clearly knows what she is about. I like her immediately.  Also from Capetown, she has been making work a long while and has garnered many accolades. For Dance Umbrella she has create a piece on JazzArts, the premier company from Capetown. Sbo talks about her Zulu upbringing in a family of sangomas (traditional healers). She did not follow in her grandmother and mother’s footsteps and wonders if that decision will come back to haunt her someday. She works improvisational and draws on her background of traditional dance. She never plans a piece or starts with an idea but instead starts in the studio with  improvisational structures and watches what comes. She builds from there completely organically (my word). She sees this herwork in dance as a calling and something ‘deep.’

Mcebisi discusses his new work, “Umthi Ongathwaliyo” (Fruitless Tree) which deals with ritual, his reality as an African, and history.  Specifically, the piece deals with drought and death — people dying before their time and trying to return from the dead.  He describes collaborating with a Singaporean artist, with whom he had serious conflicts, and admitted that he was not willing to back down or change his vision for the work.

Later I attend a run of Mcebesi’s piece in the studio.   He dances in Gregory’s company and is working with the same group of five dancers. I love seeing work in the studio!  The piece is well crafted and shows good choreographic instincts. It is more sophisticated in this regard than some of the others works we have seen. I am sorry I cannot see it fully produced.

Again check out my colleague, Marjorie Neset’s blog (http://mneset.wordpress.com/) for another take on all these experiences. She got to stay two days longer so will comment on the final works being presented.

This afternoon I enjoy one last amazing meal at the Lucky Bean Restaurant on 7th St. in Melville with my traveling pals, Jodee and Marge. We take our special table on the upper balcony and order some of our favorite food and wine. We are inspired to preserve these moments of pleasure in photos lest we forget the awesome presentation and flavors.

I am sad to be leaving and am dreading the 17 hours flight home. I have one last drive through the city with our friendly driver, Gerry. As it turns out the flight isn’t as bad as I imagine. Its totally full but somehow I scrunch up and doze most of the night. The pilot announces after we take off that they are leaving all of our luggage in Joburg due to some weight imbalance. Two days later it still has not arrived…argh!

I return home feeling much more knowledgeable about the dance scene in South Africa but also understanding how incredible complex and layered the issues are around democracy, race, equality, integration, arts support, collaboration and building an authentic community. There are so many similarities to the U.S. Every country must trace its own path, and though they are often similar, real deep down learning only seems to come from experience. It sees tragic that we cannot learn by observing the pitfalls others succumb to. Our inability to learn from one another and make smarter progress may well prove fatal for our dear Mother Earth. Time is short … and a drastic change in direction better come soon or even art won’t  matter any longer.

When we as a race and planet face such dire issues it is hard to become too deeply distressed by the struggles of the dance world – the scarcity of resources for the arts and the lack of interest among the majority population.  Yet I do believe that the arts are the most compelling way to awaken people to feel and to act. The insightful work I have witnessed here digs into many crucial issues. If only more people would pay attention!  Certainly these artists are worthy of greater recognition and support. I am hopeful that Dance Umbrella will find a new sponsor and continue to thrive. Likewise, I hope that we will find support to introduce American audiences to more of these compelling voices of contemporary Africa. I have made a vow going forward to focus on the women artists of Africa and have already made invitations for 2011. Stay tuned!

Final Day in Joburg, March 11 is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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Today we meet with Sylvia Glasser who I first got to know in 1999. She gives us a tour of their beautiful new building, introduces the staff and fills us in on recent developments. In the lobby Sylvia tells me she wants to introduce me to a very special person. A petite older woman is washing the floors with her back to us. She turns and I see Vincent. This is his mother. I give her a big hug. The encounter brings tears to my eyes. She has worked all her life as a cleaning woman and her son has become an international dance sensation. We visit and take some photos. It is so lovely to meet a family member of an artist I have known for a long time.

We attend the afternoon talk with Eric Languet from Reunion Island and Boyzie Cekwana. Erik’s three dancers are performing a work, “Faux Ciels” (Fake Skies) about prostitution in which one audience member pays for a solo performance by a dancer in a private room. Only 10 people can see the show each night. The dancers repeat the performance for each individual audience member.  For their research the dancers visited strip clubs and interviewed prostitutes. Each dancer created their own individual solo. The piece has been performed in the street with the dancers ‘soliciting’ customers. It deals with dance as prostitution. Erik regards beig a classical ballet dancer as a form of selling oneself — not thinking, performing the steps and looking beautiful.  Erik was a classical dancer who became disenchanted with ballet. He went on to be a member of DV8 where his eyes were opened to an issue-based way of working. Erik notes seeing CandoCo which totally changed his perception of how dancers can communicate who they are.

Boyzie talks about his new work,  “Influx Controls: I wanna be wanna be” described in the program as an “asphyxiated cry for total and ultimate assumption of full humanity. ‘I wanna be’ is ‘I Wanna Be White’ since whiteness is goodness; whiteness is having in a world of have-notness.” Part performance part installation, Boyzie collaborated with his nephew who designed the costume and serves a set person in the work. “I wanna be…” deals with questions of identity in its various forms and fallacies.  The idea for the piece came from a trip to the Congo where Boyzie came face to face with the “living legacy of colonialism.” He notes that in South Africa “we have found ways to brush over our own issues with colonialism –and continue to buy a glossy portrayal of our contemporary existence.”  I am in awe of Boyzie’s intelligence and articulation. He is one deep thinker.

This evening we attend a shared program of works by Dada Masilo and Luyanda Sidiya. Dada’s piece, “Umfula Wa Ma Dada” is a mock ballet in white tutus set to Tchaikovsky.  It was created for a large group of students from Israel with a few locals thrown in. Dada is the soloist and dazzles with her verve. The finale includes some itty bitty dancers who are adorable and amazingly adept.

Luyanda’s piece, “Indlela” is inspired by the different paths people take to find themselves.  It features three extraordinary musicians, two percussionists, a guitar player and singer. The scene opens with the musicians framed in the arches of the back wall of the stage in low light. They gradually emerge onto a set of steps across the back of the stage space. The music is truly transporting and it is hard to focus on the dancing.  The piece begins very slowly. The lighting and costumes are beautiful, the dancers very proficient, but the dynamics of the choreography don’t vary enough to keep my interest.

Joburg, March 10 is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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I spend most of the morning writing and taking another long walk around our  neighborhood. Tonight we see a new work, “Batsumi,” by Thabo Rapoo, a young choreographer with Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM).

MIDM is the most established company in Joburg. It was founded in 1978 by Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser as a non-racial dance company and training organization, during the height of apartheid. Dance was used as a form of cultural resistance to apartheid. At the basis of all the work was the concept of integration – integration of people as well as the integration of African and Western cultures. MIDM’s signature Afro-fusion style was born at this time – a blending of African ritual, music and dance with Western contemporary dance forms. Vincent Mantsoe has taught Afro-fusion at BDF and this summer Michel Kouakou will teach his version during the Young Dancers Workshop.

Sylvia Glasser has been a leading force in contemporary dance in South Africa. She has discovered and trained many artists who have gone on to successful independent careers such are Vincent Mantsoe, Gregory Maqoma, Moektsi Koena, David Matamela and others.

MIDM has recently moved into a fabulous new building next door to Dance Factory and Dance Forum and across Fitzgerald Square from the Market Theatre. It is the arts district. Here the three leading dance organizations sit side by side with great potential for collaboration. MIDM’s building is modern, colorful and pretty swanky. It features three studios, a library, meeting room and offices for the staff.

Thabo Rapoo while not trained at MIDM is currently creating works on the company. He is a musician and choreographer. Tonight we see “Batsumi” that deals with hunters (men) and gatherers (women) and the states their travel through. It features live music performed on two violins, cello, keyboard and percussion. Thabo plays percussion. The musicians are set on a raised platform at the back of the stage. The piece, which includes nine dancers, begins with one male dancer coming down through the audience singing a traditional song.

The vocabulary is a mix of traditional and contemporary movement. The most inventive choreography comes midway with a duet featuring imaginative lifts. This is a fresh young group of dancers who are strong performers who will develop with more performance experience. The piece goes on too long and has several potential endings. It would benefit from some serious editing. The music is lyrical and gorgeous. It carries the piece and sometimes stands out more than the dancing.  The audience appears to include many friends and family who are very  enthusiastic.

Joburg, March 9 is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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This is our day off from the festival as no performances are scheduled.  We take the opportunity to get out of the city and head to the Magaliesberg hills, an area northwest of Joburg about one hour’s drive. Our driver Lawrence, whose company is providing transport for all the festival participants, is a knowledgeable guide. Magaliesberg is bordered on both the north and south by small mountain ranges with a gorgeous valley in between. The Crocodile River runs through the region. A dam at the east end creates a large lake. The landscape is extraordinarily beautiful which has made it a big tourist destination.  In earlier times the region was renowned for its game but trigger-happy trophy hunters have, for the most part, shot out the game. The Afrikaners in particular, have developed many high-end lodges and game reserves.  The region of rolling hills and amazing vistas is now home to many working farms.

Lawrence takes us on some back roads to visit the dam and then we are off to Maropeng – the Cradle of Humankind. Maropeng covers 47,000 hectares of mostly privately owned land. It comprises a strip of a dozen dolomitic limestone caves containing the fossilized remains of ancient forms of animals, plants and most importantly, hominids. Here the earliest human skulls have been excavated. Maropeng includes a museum built five years ago, sited on a beautiful high piece of land with views in all directions. This is a very special place.  The buildings are thoughtfully placed in the landscape. The exhibits are well thought out and executed to appeal to people of all ages. Our guide has worked there since before it opened and his name is listed on the plaque by the door.  The museum presents a decidedly enlightened point of view about the origins and evolution of our human species and the future we are facing.

While I would really have liked to take a hike in the hills instead of just admiring them from the car window it is nice to get out into the big open spaces.

Joburg, March 8 is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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Today Gregory Maqoma takes us on a personal tour of Soweto — his hometown. In fact it is the hometown of most of the black people we have met.  It is about a 20-minute drive east of Joburg on a good day with light traffic. Soweto has a population of about 4 million. It is the largest black township in southern Africa and is quite a bit larger than Joburg.  It is comprised of several zones. Since apartheid the streets have been paved and the homes, many built by the government, have been improved a great deal. Of course some areas are much nicer than others and there are still some squatter villages of corrugated metal shacks that are really dismal. But, there is also a brand new, very upscale mall complete with a giant soccer ball! The three new soccer stadiums built for the World Cup are all on the way to Soweto and are quite impressive.

We cover al lot of ground in three hours. First stop is to visit Gregory’s home to meet his mother and brother. He has helped them to create a lovely home with three separate buildings around a courtyard, all the modern conveniences, surrounded by a secure wall and gate. Everywhere from the wealthiest suburbs to the poorest neighborhoods people have walls often topped with razor wire or spikes to deter intruders.

In my field so rarely do we  meet the families of those we work with. Meeting Greg’s Mom is a treat. She is warm and lovely. She gives us some of her delicious corn muffins that take the place of lunch and keep us going through out tour. Greg’s younger brother has just been initiated as a sangoma, a traditional healer. He is building drums from 50 gallon metal barrels and cow skins.

Our next stop is Freedom Square built to honor the triumphant resistance movement led by the ANC and dedicated to Walter Sisulu, co-founder with Nelson Mandela of the ANC. It is an enormous plaza flanked by two incredibly long tall buildings. It was designed to give a sense of space and freedom from wherever one stands within it.  Along one side is a busy market street with many small shops as well as an open air food market with colorful piles of fruits and vegetables. This feels like a hub – it is dense with people buying food, getting haircuts, doing errands and socializing. It is Sunday so most folks are not working.

Everywhere we go along the roads people are walking or waiting in the hot sun for taxis.  One must drive or be driven to and fro as the distances are far. Most depend on crowded taxi vans to commute to work.

Our next stop is the place where Gregory and Vincent first got introduced to dance and began to practice their moves. Its’ a hostel where the migrant workers still live and where dance competitions used to be held on weekends — its’ a pretty depressing, rundown place. We stop for a drink at an open-air restaurant in the complex– a favorite among locals – that serves every part of the cow. Everything is on display—a half a cow carcass is hanging in one alcove. Through a crack in the walls we can see where they are butchering. In another shack they are preparing and cooking the entrails. There are big grills going where meat is being barbecued. Tables are set up for the diners and there is a small store where you can buy drinks.  To our ‘oh so health conscious’ American palettes this is pretty scary — meat, meat and more meat with almost nothing to accompany it but some potato salad.  The flies and filthy surfaces where everything is prepared are enough to put one off eating for a while.  But, its’ amazing what a stomach can endure—its all a matter of what you’re used to!

We also stop at a community center—each zone has one. Most have a variety of spaces for different activities like a library, sewing center, gathering space, art rooms, etc. We are lucky and find a modern dance class in progress. There are three drummers accompanying and about 20 students of all ages and levels of experience.  I am surprised by the contemporary nature of the material being taught. This center is large, one of the older ones and a bit shabby.  Some are brand new and very spiffy as are some of the schools.  There has been a lot of development in the infrastructure and yet Greg says the government is still building the same crummy matchbox houses for people.

We move on to the home of Nelson Mandela – a must see although there isn’t much to it. This is where he and Winnie first lived when they were married. It is now a museum and the neighborhood around it is jokingly called Beverly Hills. Its’ gotten pretty swanky with cafes and guesthouses.

Another very important landmark is the Hector Pieterson Museum built to commemorate the young teen who became the iconic figure of the youth struggle. He was made famous by a photograph seen around the world. In it he carries a wounded child through the streets of Soweto during the youth uprising. It is a beautiful museum and landmark that sits on a hill overlooking the township.  This was the site of the uprising and of Hector’s tragic death. There is a monument of stonework and water that includes the famous image. Also in the complex is another community center where Greg has often performed. In this place, as in Freedom Square, the weight of history is heavy. I feel the presence of struggle and grief — but also the incredible power of the multitudes that risked and lost their lives in the fight for freedom and equality. It is one thing to read about these events from afar. It is quite another to stand it the place where history was made.

We return to Joburg for the evening’s performance. The triple bill features, Lucky Kele, who was a residency artist at Bates in 2006 & 2007. From my visit with Lucky yesterday I learn that the piece grew out of an encounter Lucky had in which he came upon a young woman giving birth on the street. It was a terrifying, bloody experience. The piece is about a baby girl child and the agony and abuse she suffers in the world. The set includes a wall upstage left, painted with a chaotic abstract design in red. Upstage right is a bloodied board on which lays some sort of undecipherable creature.  A second performer who appears to be a kind of sage dressed in a robe, speaks a text most of which I cannot make out. Lucky is a tortured soul who dances out the agony. It is wrenching.

Joburg, March 7 is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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This morning we are off to Rosebank Craft Market that is housed in a large mall, like many others around the world, except that it features this fabulous craft market with handmade items from across Africa, a flea market, outdoor cafes, impromptu performances and great people watching. We have come for the crafts — two floors of jam-packed little stands with eager sellers. I decide to survey the entire market before purchasing anything — always a good idea! I also want to survey the pricing as I have no idea what one should pay for things here.  There is much to see but many vendors carry identical wares. I search for what is unique. Textiles are my weakness and several stands carry raffia mats from the Congo that are beautifully woven in earth colors with erratic geometric patterns. In the flea market section I come upon a vendor who has everything spread out so I can look through the piles without assistance. There are way too many and it all becomes a blur but finally I settle on two small ones for which I pay 350 rand or about $50.

The beadwork is amazing. Every imaginable type of jewelry and toys are made with beads and wire. Apparently this technique originated in the Congo and Malawi. I buy two funny little critters and a gorgeous necklace. Thankfully the vendors are not very pushy. It is customary to bargain a bit but I’m not fond of the process.

After a while we select a deep corner of the Europa Café for our meal of the day. How civilized this all feels. Good food and time to enjoy it. Afterward we come upon some street performers – two young men who are doing a variation on vogueing with their double-jointed shoulders. Their movements make us wince. Next are some fire-eaters who do nutty things like lighting a pot on fire and wearing it as a hat. Ouch!  The best of all are a group of traditional singers and dancers dressed in animal skins.

From the market we head back to the next performance by a young hip hop company, Konexion. Nine dancers organized into three groups perform an hour-long series of loosely choreographed sections demonstrating a variety of styles.  The breakers are pretty hot and show off some inventive variations on familiar moves. There physical feats seem anatomically impossible. One little guy has the arms of King Kong and does amazing stuff on his hands. Overall it’s more of a review than a dance but fun to see.

Then we wander back over to the Dance Factory for a performance/installation, “The Time of Small Berries” created/performed by Sello Pesa and erf [81] cultural collective (Peter Van Heerden and Andre Laubscherz). We enter the theatre and are led not to the seats but instead back out into a rear courtyard where a mutton is roasting on a spit. Sello is in a corner performing a ritual bathing from a bucket of water. He does a thorough job including teeth brushing. Then a large, noisy garage door is hand cranked open to reveal a scene (on the stage) of a table set for dinner for 10 or so — white linen, crystal glasses…the works. Chairs are set up surrounding the table for viewers. Andre invites members of the audience to take a seat at the dinner table. He commences to engage the guests and members of the audience in a discussion of culture, rape, race, politics and privilege. Some ‘diners’ appear to be planted at the table to spur the dialogue. A series of wild actions ensue around the table. Sello ties Peter up with a garden hose. A bag of corn hung from the ceiling is smashed and pours onto the floor. We hear chickens clucking away in the corner. The rooster eventually ends up under my chair.  The garage door creaks opens again and Andre goes out with an electric carver to slice off some mutton to serve the guests. Three crates of beer are brought in and passed around. Several bottles are ritually sprayed around the space and over the pile of corn. Various people rant on about politics. Sello changes his clothes mounts a pile of crates and begins giving a presidential speech. He changes his clothes and characters and repeats this several times. Peter attempts a nearly impossible task of carrying two broken bags of corn around the room. A futile effort — the corn spills out everywhere. Sello pees in a pail and I cannot watch what he does with it. This type of performance art is not my cup of tee.

Eventually the scene dissolves and the crowds wander out around the roasting lamb to eat,  drink beer, socialize and discuss the piece.What seems evident is that “The Time of Small Berries” is speaking to what happened to the traditions of the indigenous people under colonialism.

In the talk the previous day Peter van Heerden (a member of erf) talked about “the body as live art inscribed by life’s experiences.” Their interest in this work is to explore what it means to be African in this moment in South Africa and how to assimilate and move forward.

This is the big question on everyone’s mind — how to move forward. In one way or another nearly everyone is grappling with this issue. Seventeen years into a young democracy with the weight of such a tragic and difficult history South Africans of all backgrounds are seeking a way forward to peace, equality and prosperity for all. Many inequities remain in play. Our visit to Soweto (coming up) helps us Americans to fill out the picture.

Joburg, March 6 is a post from: Bates Dance Festival Artist Blog

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