WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

After a hiatus of seven years from the sunny city, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition has landed back on the shores of Durban.

The internationally renowned exhibition runs at Durban’s uShaka Marine World until September 25 and formed part of the Wild Talk Africa Film Festival and Conference, South Africa’s premier natural history film event. The event was aligned to the recent Durban International Film Festival and Durban FilmMart.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition features 100 of the world’s most amazing wildlife photographs taken by 77 top international photographers. This selection of images was made from a massive 48,000 entries submitted from 98 countries worldwide and includes work from South African photographers Brent Stirton, Jean Tresfon, Heinrich van den Berg, Kim Wolhuter, Frits Hoogendijk, Thomas Peschak and Hannes Lochner.

This year’s winner of the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species is South Africa’s own Kim Wolhuter - a wildlife filmmaker whose moving image entitled Dog Days captured the judges’ attention and won him this very prestigious award.

Another South African to be featured in the top ranks is acclaimed photo-journalist Brent Stirton, the runner-up for the Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year Award. Stirton tells the story of rhino poaching in South Africa through six images, showing from start to finish the process of poaching rhinos for horn sold on Asian markets.

This year’s Durban iteration of the exhibition is sponsored by National Geographic Channels International.

Thandi Davids of National Geographic Channel said the following about the partnership: “National Geographic Channels International is proud to be a part of this exciting initiative that supports the art of photography and highlights the beauty of wildlife. Throughout our history National Geographic, via its Explorers, has been involved in scientific research and on numerous occasions made contributions to the preservation of wildlife. Photography has remained at the forefront of our vision and is still one of the best ways we have captured nature.”

The exhibition is an annual event, co-owned by the Natural History Museum of London and BBC Worldwide, and is a carefully chosen distillation of number photographic entries from around the world.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will be open to the public at uShaka Marine World, 1 Bell Street, Durban, until September 2013.

For more information contact Wild Talk Africa on 021 422 0023 or email: chris@wildtalkafrica.com or visit www.wildtalkafrica.com

DIAMOND BOZAS RETROSPECTIVE & BOOK LAUNCH

(Wild Treasures with Bird's Nests, Twigs, Leaves and Flowers oil on board by Diamond Bozas)

Wild Treasures with Bird's Nests, Twigs, Leaves and Flowers is the title of Diamond Bozas’s exhibition soon to open at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg.

Diamond Bozas is a prolific artist who has garnered international acclaim for his talents in painting despite having lived most of his life in a small town in Zululand. The Tatham Art Gallery, one of South Africa's most prestigious art museums, is proud to host a retrospective exhibition and book launch celebrating the work of this unique artist, who recently turned 90.

After successfully graduating from Chelsea School of Art (London) in the 1950's, Bozas had several paintings accepted at the Royal Academy in London. Turning his back on offers from galleries and agents in the UK, he instead returned to support his family's bakery business in Zululand. After leaving the bakery, 20 years later, he took up painting again and has been prolific ever since.

Despite citing Chardin, Cezanne and Rubens amongst his major influences, his work is distinctly African. Sugar farms, thorn trees, cabbages and pumpkins fill his canvases, reflecting a fascination and respect for the indigenous flora and landscapes of Zululand.

"No other artist has portrayed Zululand’s indigenous vegetation, its historic sites and its cane farming operations as he has," says Brendan Bell, Director at the Tatham. "This exhibition celebrates a remarkable life, a remarkable man, and a remarkable body of art work!"

The exhibition will open on August 4 at the Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, and will remain on show until the end of the year. There will be a Walkabout of the exhibition on August 25 at 11h00.

The exhibition is open to the public free on weekdays from 08h00 to 17h00. The Tatham Art Gallery is situated opposite the Town Hall in Chief Albert Luthuli Street, Pietermaritzburg. More information on 033 392 2801 or visit http://www.tatham.org.za/

DUM SPIRO SPERO

Dum Spiro Spero (While I breathe, I hope) offers an evening of chamber music in Pietermaritzburg featuring Jacques Heyns and members of the Pietermaritzburg City Orchestra in aid of a double lung transplant for Nicky During, fabulous and fighting with cystic fibrosis.

The performance will take place on August 3 at 19h30 at St John’s DSG in Pietermaritzburg. Tickets R50 available from Dot O'Neill (083 297 0582) or Michele Larkin (072 879 9306). Lucky draw prizes on the night.

MOTHER TO MOTHER FOR DAIKONIA

(Thembi Mtshali Jones as she appears in the play. Pic by Eric Miller)

The performance on August 1 of Mother to Mother which appears on the Playhouse Company’s South African Women’s Arts Festival will take place as a fundraiser for the Diakonia Council of Churches.

Poignant and powerful Mother to Mother comes to Durban as part of the SAWAF. The intimate portrayal of a mother struggling to come to terms with the actions of her son is written by Dr Sindiwe Magona and is billed as a deeply moving story of forgiveness and reconciliation. The production has toured widely - including to the Edinburg Festival, the Netherlands and UK. It explores how one unforgiving moment in an ordinary day has repercussions beyond the imaginable.

Performed by Thembi Mtshali Jones, adapted and directed by Janice Honeyman. Mother to Mother runs in the Playhouse Loft: from tomorrow (July 31) to August 3.

Booking for the Diakonia Council of Churches fundraiser can be made on 031 310 3500 (Switchboard). Bookings for the rest of the run through Computicket.

DURBAN DANCE AWARDS 2013

The Indian Ocean and the Love Dance photographic exhibition were the stunning backdrops for the Durban Dance Awards 2013 last weekend.

Presented by KZN DanceLink, the annual awards were held this year at the Old Pump House at Dairy Beach, in association with eThekwini Municipality’s Arts and Culture department and the opening of acclaimed arts photographer Val Adamson’s retrospective dance photography exhibition.

Said KZN DanceLink chairman Lynn Maree: “KZN DanceLink wants to honour and acknowledge the ways in which our dancers and choreographers are feeding this city and each other – be it by exploring another dance style, finding a new way to move or to tell our stories, working with music or interacting physically and spiritually with the space and the people around them.”

The Dancer of the Year award went to Julia Wilson of Flatfoot Dance Company for her “extraordinary growth in range and depth, both as a technician and as a performer whose presence on stage is totally compelling”. Although first and foremost a dancer, Wilson is an all-rounder with interests in most aspects of the performing arts, including design and production. She joined Flatfoot as a full time professional dancer and dance educator last year, the same year she received the Breakthrough/Newcomer award.

Choreographer of the Year went to Sifiso Kweyama, for his work Ngichaze/Define with Flatfoot Dance Company that moved and inspired all who watched as to how dance can speak”. Kweyama is a highly respected and talented dance teacher, lecturer, choreographer and leader in the South African dance community. His interest in dance began in Durban dance while attending UKUSA Arts Project at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and in 2004 he established his own Okhela Dance Theatre.

The Breakthrough/Newcomer award went to Leagan Peffer for her performances in worlds apart. Peffer is an Mzanzi graduate from 2011 and is now a member of KZN Dance Theatre based at the Playhouse.

A new award, The Ubuntu Award for Dance in KZN, went to Jarryd Watson for his work with Dance Movement “for inspiring his dancers to have confidence, humour, skill, timing and verve”.

“Dancing saved my life,” says this award-winning hip-hop dancer. Growing up in Wentworth, a township south of Durban, Watson had a choice between a career in dance or becoming a gang member. He chose wisely and today is Chairman and Dance Director of the Wentworth Arts and Culture Organisation. He has also worked as a hip-hop choreographer and instructor for various dance companies across South Africa, including Flatfoot Dance Company, Dance Movement and Maverick Events. He has danced in Bollywood movies and in numerous corporate and entertainment events. In 2012 he was part of the ensemble who danced in Liz Lea’s a free mind at The Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.

The final award, the Abalolongi Award for services to dance in KwaZulu-Natal, went to Minette de Klerk, whose dance academy has trained many young dancers. De Klerk moved to Durban when she was 12 and started ballet because an orthopaedic surgeon suggested, in her words, “ballet would be a better option to strengthen her unfortunate legs and feet”. Ballet was taught at her primary school, and so, age 5, she began. Her first ballet teacher, Yvonne Ostermeyer, instilled in de Klerk her love of dance and of performance. 

“It is her love for children, her teaching skills, and that love of dance and of performance, that has made her the special person she is,” said Maree “Complete dedication and complete interest in making things great for everyone: her dancers, her teachers, her fellow lovers of dance: Minette selflessly gives and gives and gives.”

The ceremony was opened by acclaimed storyteller and poet Gcina Mhlope, who also presented the awards.

Adamson’s Love Dance exhibition is open at the Pump House daily from 10h00 to 16h00 until August 11.

IMPACT AWARDS JUDGING PANEL

The panel of judges adjudicating the 2013 Arts & Culture Trust ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals will be ACT Ambassador and creative professional Brenda Sakellarides and judges Gita Pather, Director of Wits Theatre; Steven Sack, arts administrator extraordinaire and director of the Origins Centre; Usha Seejarim, conceptual visual and public artist; Sifiso Kweyama, dancer/choreographer and company manager of Moving Into Dance and Concord Nkabinde, 2006 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz, bass guitarist. 

“It is a significant achievement to receive an affirmation of this nature within the first five years of professional life. It holds both a responsibility and an impetus to continue making a difference and making an impact. If our previous ImpACT winners are the yardstick, then our future is in very safe creative hands. As a sector we must make sure that we actively engage with these energetic shape shifters." says Brenda Sakellarides, Chairperson of the judging panel. 

Public nominations for the ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals, sponsored by the Distell Foundation, may be submitted in the following four categories: Visual Art, Theatre, Music & Singing and Design. These awards are presented annually to honour young artists who have reached a professional standing in their discipline, and are within the first five years of their professional careers.

Nominations are open until August 2, 2013. Winners of ImpACT Awards are selected by the independent panel of judges and will be announced at the Awards ceremony scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in November 2013.

To submit nominations, visit http://tinyurl.com/oh9o5po or http://www.act.org.za/programmes_awards.htm?yearArchive=&category=ACT%20Awards 

The 2013 ACT Awards ceremony is presented in association with the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), Media24 Books, the Vodacom Foundation and is supported by the Distell Foundation, CLASSICfeel Magazine and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).

For more information about the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) visit www.act.org.za