The opening of the 2014 Theatre in Motion at the Rhodes Theatre on Wednesday 22 October, wowed the audience with its remarkable, unorthodox take on performance, choreography, physical performance, visual theatre and theatre design.
The opening of the 2014 Theatre in Motion at the Rhodes Theatre on Wednesday 22 October, wowed the audience with its remarkable, unorthodox take on performance, choreography, physical performance, visual theatre and theatre design.
The 2014 choreography Honours and Masters students have flipped the lid on dance forms and audience experience in the performance exchange.
According to two of the Programme A choreographers, Ester van der Walt and Kamogelo Molobye, “dance is traditionally established” and often austere and “inaccessible” to the audience, who do not speak the ‘dance language’.
Programme A, exhibiting three final Honours pieces and two Masters portfolio pieces, challenges these traditions.
“We allowed students to explore their own curiosity and this year’s programme displays a “range of interests,” said Head of Department, Juanita Praeg.
Praeg commented on the students’ exploration and effective use of “scenography,” the art of creating performance environments, where the actual “space is performed.”
In Lexi Meier’s Sipping Lapping Slap, an exploration of attachment and isolation, the body and space, “the scenography has resulted in a visceral, embodied performance” said Praeg.
This viscerality extends to all five performances.
Lefetlho, choreographed by Molobye, “interrogates different forms which represent identity and culture especially with regards to the black performing body.”
Molobye said he is discovering a sense of form in traditional dance, which is usually “disregarded because it’s not codified.”
Lefetlho creates a dialogue through the placement of ritual within the theatre space which “implicates the audience” and “confronts the tension between contemporary, western dance forms and traditional, cultural ones,” said Molobye.
The vibrant energy combined with the aroma of the imphepho herb creates a spiritual, transcendent space.
Ananda Paver’s Ikaros is a dance-based response to the Greek myth of the boy who flew too close to the sun. Set to the sounds of a solo cello, Ikaros is a mythic and enchanting dream-like performance that explores flight and failure.
A captivating piece of choreography.
van der Walt's Masters choreography piece Déjà vu is a humorous, satirical work in progress that challenges the traditional performance exchange and concept of dance.
"I suppose I wanted to ask questions about the traditions of dance through referencing the canon," said van der Walt.
Last on the programme, Sandisile Dlangalala’s Douche, explores what masculinity means and what happens when masculinity is compromised. It confronts the “exhaustion of keeping up the male bravado,” said Dlangalala.
“Throughout my work I have added comedic rhythm to generate movement phrases.”
Douche is “quirky, visceral and exhausting,” he said.
Recent Honours drama graduate, Simona Mazza, said “it’s the best Theatre in Motion I’ve seen in my five years here.
“It’s diverse and intellectual – a very high standard of work,” said Mazza.
