The amount of incredible talent bustling around Grahamstown is amazing, if the National Arts Festival doesn’t mind me borrowing their word.
A wonderful taste-and-try selection of some of this talent was on show on Saturday evening when the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset presented Alive! At the monument in aid of local charities.
The amount of incredible talent bustling around Grahamstown is amazing, if the National Arts Festival doesn’t mind me borrowing their word.
A wonderful taste-and-try selection of some of this talent was on show on Saturday evening when the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset presented Alive! At the monument in aid of local charities.
The programme featured a rich array of song, dance and instrumental numbers all performed by talented Grahamstonians. The quality of each item was of the highest order and because there was such variety ranging from pantsula dance to Italian opera, and from break dancing to mass choirs, there was never even the slightest possibility that anyone might be bored.
Local schools were ably represented by the Graeme College Steel Band, the Kingswood College Jazz Band, the Victoria Girls High School Choir and the VG Senior Marimba Band as well as the Victoria Primary School Choir.
The Shirilaulu vocal duo of Yemurai Matibe (soprano) and Lotta Matambo (mezzo-soprano) accompanied by Jacques du Plessis on piano sang Gioachino Rossini's La regata veneziana (The Venetian Regatta) with plenty of expressive action and signs to help everyone to understand the meaning of the song.
It would not have mattered though if we never understood a word because their clear melodic voices had everyone enthralled anyway.
Perhaps the item that received the greatest response from the somewhat boisterous audience was a wonderfully creative dance sequence from the first Physical Theatre. It began on stage with one dancer obviously trying to teach a reluctant companion how to do a gumboot dance. He demonstrated the moves with great enthusiasm and skill but his pupil was hardly interested. When the teacher wasn't watching him, the gumboot moves morphed surreptitiously into pantsula until the gumboot teacher caught him out. This happened a few times until by the end of the dance, the skinny pupil was teaching his gumboot teacher how to do the pantsula. It was amusing but quite remarkable how they ended up creating a pantsula-gumboot fusion.
In this article there is not enough space to describe the incredibly talented duo of Lucy and Madele, the energetic moves of the young Amaphiko Township Dancers, the tenor duet of Sibu Mkhize and Lithemba Busakwe, and of course the musical skills of Mariel Ilusorio on piano and Juan Munoz on violin. The show was altogether marvellous – the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset provided a highly appreciated service to the people of Grahamstown for putting this show together, and as the proceeds will go to worthy causes, it made everyone present feel inspired and optimistic about life.
