Cutting-edge dance from Flanders comes to South Africa
JOBURG – Les ballets C de la B, GRIP and Siamese Cie, three of Flanders’ leading dance companies, showcase their work at the Market Theatre.
From March to June, contemporary dance from Flanders will hit South African stages. Les ballets C de la B, GRIP and Siamese Cie, three of Flanders’ leading dance companies, showcase their work at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, KKNK Oudtshoorn and the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.
Contemporary dance from Flanders has a large international resonance. The 1980s saw the explosion of a radical and creative dance scene in Flanders, which would earn Brussels the title of contemporary dance capital of Europe.
A new generation of choreographers redefined the concept of dance, developing a fresh approach toward dance and leaving a personal imprint which broke traditional barriers and conceptions, both at home and abroad. Dance in Flanders has developed many perspectives since then. Choreographers no longer come exclusively from Flanders or Brussels, and international influences and collaborations have added their own eclectic interpretations to the mix.
Prominent South African choreographers Dada Masilo, Gregory Maqoma, George Khumalo and Moya Michael are among those who have received training and worked in Brussels. What does remain is the independent and unique spirit of those earlier days, transformed and continuously evolving.
South African audiences can experience this for themselves when three of Flanders’ most acclaimed dance companies bring their shows to these shores, showcasing the rich and vibrant artistic talent of the dance community in Flanders, and engaging audiences in challenging and thought-provoking ways.
Rule of Three opens at the Market Theatre on Saturday, 16 March. In Rule of Three, Flemish choreographer Jan Martens blends storytelling with live music to create a night-club vibe combined with the feeling of getting lost in the pages of a book. The result is a stunning dance piece that is loud, bright and brilliant. A succession of dance tableaux unfolds with surprises lurking at every corner. Unrelated short scenes replicate the profusion of information to which we are constantly subjected.
American drummer and producer, NAH, provides the score throughout, mixing live and programmed drums with manipulated sounds. Music, lights and movement interact and overlap in a superb experimental mix. The layering of rhythm, light and music creates a variety of landscapes which may as easily exude nonchalance as set bodies alight. Rule of Three is rebellious and fiery, it unleashes an untamed meditation on the contrasts of our era: numbness and explosion, the decided upon and the intuitive, the heart and the mind.
