It's not easy to please a full-house of specialists, and there were many dance experts and fans there last night. Experienced performers and dance practitioners will recognise the choreographer's contemporary European influence and perhaps remark that the style and content has been seen before.
Others will marvel at the stamina, strength and skill of the dancers and be fascinated by the environment created by dramatic lighting, a full screen backdrop showing video footage of crowd scenes and dancers in rehearsal, a stark set design and simple props. Survival in the arts today is about growing new audiences, after all, and there are many sponsors and fans that would stand in awe of a show like this.
Sotiya says the avant-garde production reflects the cultural complexity of stadia as urban, creative spaces in order to re-evaluate the dominance of high art in a world that's increasingly characterised by the triumph of the popular. The performance area was fenced in, with some seats positioned on stage where the wings would normally be for audience members and dancers to get up close and personal. A ramp stretching into the main seating area changed the feel of the conventional viewing space and gave the dancers a device to catch their breath and watch the action, or perform more contained pieces of choreography.
Dancers stalked up and down in front of the fence like athletes, alternately pacing, warming up, stretching and throwing challenging stares into the crowd before rushing into another high energy sequence. The action feels at times aggressive, and the music jarring, and just when you don't think you can bear that one note to be held any longer, everything changes.
Hats off to dancers Theo Ndindwa, Tanya Arshamian, Zandile Constable, Bathembu Myira, Mbulelo Ngubombini and Cilna Marais for taking this on without the luxury of understudies! Their timing and interpretation of the music was impeccable.
Constable must be singled out for her prowess - the audience thought she was “fantastic” and her pas de deux performed mostly seated on a one-metre-square step-like prop was commendable. These squares were used to create a podium, which she also performed a solo on. They were then broken down to form a long step or individual pieces that could be pushed around the stage to play out the dance.
Ndindwa, Constable and Ngubombini are all products of Dance for All's outreach programme, run by Philip Boyd and the late prima ballerina assoluta Phyllis Spira from their studios in Athlone. Myira also joined the Dance for All training programme for a while.
Stadium will be at Artscape Theatre until July 5 at 8pm. Tickets range from R80 to R150 through Computicket.
